Or anything else concerning, for that matter. (BPA, maybe?)

I eat a tin of these basically every day. Have been doing so for well over a year now.

No, I’m not doing the whole “sardine diet” or whatever it’s called where you eat nothing but sardines. I’m proud to say I started eating sardines daily before that fad came up. And I eat a lot more than just sardines.

Anyway, I know “fish” in general tends to have high levels of mercury, but I’ve heard that basically the amount of harmful heavy metal sort of toxins in fish generally varies directly with the lifespan of the particular type of fish in question. (The longer it’s been swimming around in mercury-laden (or whatever-laden) water and eating mercury-laden (or whatever-laden) stuff, the more mercury will build up in its system by the time its caught, cooked, put on a table, and consumed by a human.) And I’ve heard that sardines in particular are quite low in such harmful toxins. (Maybe anchovies would be even lower? Not sure.)

My googling for an answer to the question of whether the level of harmful stuff in sardines is so low that eating them daily wouldn’t be an issue hasn’t really yielded helpful results. So, why not ask here?

(I have heard that EVOO is “better for you” (whatever that means, specifically) than non-virgin olive oil. And the particular brand of sardines in “olive oil” I get don’t say “virgin” anywhere on the packaging, so that might be a reason to switch brands. Not sure whether it’s really worth it or not. And the other brands are always way more expensive.)

  • Capricorn_Geriatric@lemmy.world
    106·
    4 days ago

    I’d advise against it.

    Even though sardines may have a lower amount of mercury than most other fish, they still contain it, and mercury is very hard for the body to get rid of. It accumulates and doesn’t cause problems… Until it suddenly does. And it’s not fun.

    A friend of mine ate fish 4-5x weekly (not just sardines tho) for about 6 months, and he ended up in the ER and on a very restricted detox diet and meds for almost a year.

    So, even though sardines are low on mercury as it gets, I’d limit myself to at most every other day.

      • Slatlun@lemmy.ml
        4·
        4 days ago

        279mg or 12%rdv of salt. It is about half of what is considered a “high sodium food.” Also about twice “low sodium” but not crazy. Are you thinking of salt packed instead of in oil?