Jack Shafer says not to worry about all that mercury in your tuna, or at least about the recent spate of Times articles on the subject.

My plan was to garnish my frequent raw-fish meals with a side order of denial, but now I've got some data to wash it all down.

Comments

[Jon]

Ed, my colleague Daren Bakst went through the research on mercury toxicity as it relates to state regulation of power-plant emissions; his report is listed here.

I have to say, however, that I don't much care for tuna.

[Ian McDowell]

It should be noted that mercury toxicity (unlike, say, parasites) is not going to change with cooking, so I'm bemused by how the scare-mongering articles seem to make it sound like the danger is particularly prevalent in sushi.

I also note that the Japanese actually eat much less tuna than we do in their sushi and sashimi, preferring sea bass, red snapper, flatfish, eel, and various native fishes with paler flesh, most of which do not sit as high in the food chain as tuna do. The preference for bright red raw tuna seems to be an American thing (the Japanese DO love the paler toro, or rich fatty tuna belly meat, but that's an expensive luxury item even there).

I'm with them as far as that goes, as I rarely order regular tuna in sushi bars, although I will treat myself to toro (or the "super white tuna" at Sushi Republic) if I'm flush. In general though, I'm more likely to order red snapper, raw sweet shrimp, cod roe, fresh or saltwater eel, and if they have it on special (I've never seen it on a regular menu around here), some delectable Spanish mackeral (which tastes very, very different from the oilier anglo mackeral).