Tuna

金枪鱼

Tuna · the high-protein, low-fat ocean predator

Stop 1/7

金枪鱼 · 高蛋白低脂的大洋掠食者

Tuna isn't one fish but a family of fast-swimming ocean predators: skipjack, yellowfin, albacore (white tuna), bigeye, and bluefin. They sit high on the food chain, and the larger and longer-lived the species, the more mercury it accumulates — a thread that runs through this whole story.

You'll meet tuna in three forms: canned light tuna is mostly skipjack — small-bodied, low mercury; canned white tuna is albacore, with notably more; fresh and sashimi cuts are usually yellowfin, bigeye, or bluefin, climbing in price and mercury toward bluefin.

Its label is clean: very high protein, very low fat, almost no carbohydrate. To understand tuna, hold two ideas: it's an efficient lean protein, and it's the textbook case of 'big fish concentrate mercury'.

Read story

Educational content, not medical advice — consult a clinician.

Back

Tuna

金枪鱼

Tuna · the high-protein, low-fat ocean predator

Stop 1/7

金枪鱼 · 高蛋白低脂的大洋掠食者

Tuna isn't one fish but a family of fast-swimming ocean predators: skipjack, yellowfin, albacore (white tuna), bigeye, and bluefin. They sit high on the food chain, and the larger and longer-lived the species, the more mercury it accumulates — a thread that runs through this whole story.

You'll meet tuna in three forms: canned light tuna is mostly skipjack — small-bodied, low mercury; canned white tuna is albacore, with notably more; fresh and sashimi cuts are usually yellowfin, bigeye, or bluefin, climbing in price and mercury toward bluefin.

Its label is clean: very high protein, very low fat, almost no carbohydrate. To understand tuna, hold two ideas: it's an efficient lean protein, and it's the textbook case of 'big fish concentrate mercury'.

Read story

Educational content, not medical advice — consult a clinician.