What happens to our health if we decide to eat too much canned tuna? It is something that you absolutely must know, as something dangerous could occur.
Eating too much canned tuna it is wrong, if you do not know the reasons we advise you to inform yourself about it, since we are talking about our health. In this article we are going to explain just what could happen due to this excessive consumption.
Beware of excesses
How good is canned tuna! Good but above all affordable. First it is really cheap. When you go shopping at the supermarket you can buy many packages at a very low price: so be it! Second advantage: it is not a food that makes you fat. When we are on a diet, therefore, a tin of tuna is always convenient.
Another advantage is that you don’t have to cook it, just open the box and eat it. Whenever we are in a hurry we can fix our own lunch with canned tuna. Whenever we have no idea what to cook, just open a box and add it to another pasta dish or to asalad. There are many advantages that make its consumption very common.
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Why shouldn’t you eat too much canned tuna?
But are we sure that eating canned tuna has only benefits? The answer is no. We must consider a not insignificant factor, namely the presence of mercury. For the uninitiated it is a toxic heavy metal that if ingested in large quantities could have serious consequences.
Unfortunately, mercury is present in the environment and comes also in contact with water. When this happens it turns into a toxic substance called methylmercury and it is impossible for fish to be exempt from it. Obviously, the larger the size of these animals, the more traces of methylmercury increase and tuna belongs to the category of large fish. Consequently, the more tuna we eat, the higher the possibility of meeting a mercury poisoning.
Symptoms of mercury poisoning
This harmful consequence has very specific symptoms that should not be underestimated at all. First let’s talk about tingling in the hands and feet, followed by a sudden muscle weakness. Again, we will have gods coordination problems, our peripheral vision will be blurred and we will have some difficulty speaking. In short: it is absolutely not a small thing.
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Consumption of canned tuna: how to act?
Obviously, to avoid this risk you have to limit the consumption of canned tuna. Some people eat it every other day, and that’s really wrong. Canned tuna must be consumed at most once a week, also considering that other types of fish are consumed and methylmercury is not found only in tuna. In fact, due to this toxic metal, it is recommended to eat fish maximum three times a week and to prefer what contains a low quantity of methylmercury.
These tips are obviously aimed at everyone, but you must pay particular attention to children and at pregnant women. Particularly if the latter are used to consume a lot of canned tuna, this metal can cause permanent damage to the fetus.