As a Southern Californian, I was eating tuna nigiri before I was eating Gerber's. Sushi isn't just cuisine(though a good salmon nigiri remains my absolute favorite food), it's culture, and I try and remember my roots as often, and as deliciously, as possible. So, like many folks, I was a bit concerned by the New York Times investigation showing 20 good sushi restaurants in New York were serving tuna laced with enough mercury to kill you and everyone within a 30-foot radius (or something). In response, Time interviewed Dariush Mozaffarian, a professor at Harvard's school of public health who's done extensive research on the impact of fish in human diets. And he says the mercury is only half the story, and not even the important half. The impacts of mercury on healthy, non-pregnant adults are pretty speculative. Some studies show cardiovascular harm, but most don't. There's some evidence of neurological damage, but only at truly excessive dosages, and even then, it's reversible by simply consuming less mercury for a spell. More to the point, the health benefits of consuming tuna -- and other fishes rich in Omega-3s -- appear to far outweigh the health risks of consuming mercury. "The bottom line," says Mozaffarian, "is that there's inconclusive evidence that mercury has any long-term effects in adults at the levels that are commonly consumed, and that even if there are effects, studies suggest that they are only to lessen the benefit of the fish." So given some tune topped with mercury roe, you should eat up -- it's actually good for you.
