Tuna, oh how I love thee

Tuna's a big part of my diet, it's got a great amount of protein, vitamin D & omega-3 fatty acids.  I saw something neat on a food show I like called Good Eats on Food Network.  Last night's topic was tuna as you might have guessed by now. 

So as you may know when you get tuna at the store you'll find it in cans or vacuum sealed packets.  But as to taste you may be interested to know that you'll get better quality from the packets than the cans. 

But why you ask?  When they get the tuna fillets they cook them once then put it in the cans or packets and then cook it again to kill any bacteria left.  The advantage of the packets is that they have more surface area so that they don't have to cook it the second time as long.  As a result less taste is lost to this process and you'll get a better tuna experience if you're already adverse to the stuff.  Be warned the stuff is a little more expensive but the taste is certainly better.  I haven't seen anything about this so take it for what it's worth--I imagine that more vitamins and minerals are saved in the packets as opposed to the cans.

Another notable item on mercury concerns this applies to kids, the elderly, pregnant and nursing moms.  If you're still worried look for "light" and "chunk" tuna this is most likely skipjack tuna which doesn't grow as big or live as long (2-3 years), thus will have less exposure to mercury.  Compare this to the bluefin that can live as old as 40 years.