When buying tuna, make sure that the tuna was freshly caught and not raised on a farm. Tuna that is raised on a farm has a much higher chance of having chemicals and toxins trapped within the meat  And if you are buying canned tuna rather than fresh or frozen, you should look into tuna that is low sodium and canned in water instead of oil. However, so long as you eat healthy tuna, you are sure to gain many great tuna health benefits.

There are many varieties of tuna and they thrive all over the world. They are the Northern Bluefins (Atlantic Ocean), Yellowfin (Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans), Longtail (Indo-Pacifics), Blackfin (West Atlantic Ocean), Albacore (Atlantic), Bonito,  bigeye, and Skipjack (worldwide).

Tuna Health Benefits

1. Lower Blood Pressure

Tuna has omega-3 and potassium, both of which are amazing at bringing down inflammation. Bringing down the inflammation then lowers your blood pressure because of it easier for your heart to pump the blood through your body. Having a lower blood pressure means lower chances of heart attacks and strokes.

 

2. Weight Loss

Tuna is great for when you want to lose weight. It is low in fat, has lots of nutrients, and has a lot of protein so it keeps you full longer. On top of that, it can also be good for balancing out your calories because of the nutrients and protein.  

 

3. Immune System Health

Building your immune system is important to keep you as healthy as you can be. Well, tuna is one of the best things you can eat. Tuna has vitamin C, manganese, selenium, and zinc. When these work together they can fight off bacteria, illnesses, viruses, and even free radicals that can lead to cancers.

4. Bone Strength

Vitamin B is so important for building up your bones. Vitamin B can be used for just adding bone bass, to speed the healing of a fracture, and help in warding off osteoporosis.

 

5. Energy

Tuna keeps your immune system strong while always improving your metabolism. By keeping your body strong against illnesses and keeping it so you can digest food properly can all give you more energy.

6. Depression

It has been found that eating tuna three or four times a week can lessen the depression the depression you suffer. The test was done with three different groups. a group taking an antidepressant pill, a group that was given tuna, and the last group were given a placebo. Oddly enough, the group given tuna had the best results.

 

7. Eye Health

The omega-3 fatty acids are what gives the tuna the ability to help your eyesight. The omega-3 keeps dry eye syndrome at bay, stops macular degeneration, and lessens the chances of going blind as you age. Instead of grilling and frying the tuna because that can get rid of some of the fatty acids, you should look into different recipes that involve baking the fish.

8. Lower Triglycerides

Triglycerides are related to cholesterol. The good cholesterol (HLD) has the chance and means to go up when the bad cholesterol (LDL) is lower. Tuna lowers the number of triglycerides which helps your body’s circulation.

 

9. Skin Health

Tuna has a protein known as elastin which can repair tissue damage and gives you smoother skin. The other thing in tuna that helps your skin are the trace minerals in it. The trace minerals protect your body’s blood cells.

 

10. Kidney Disease

Remember the potassium that was mentioned earlier? The comes into play again here. The potassium keeps the fluids in your kidney balanced while keeping the functions of the kidney on point. By keeping the kidney balanced it also helps to keep the other organs on track and lessens the chances of kidney cancer.

11. Muscle Mass

Tuna is mostly different kinds of proteins. It is the proteins in the body that let your own muscles grow stronger. So eating tuna helps your muscles to grow, increases your metabolism, and helps the muscles of recover from injury, soreness, and cramps faster. To get 30 grams of protein, you only need 100 grams of tuna.

12. Inflammation

Tuna keeps inflammation all over the body down because of the varying minerals in it. Keeping inflammation down is helpful in a multitude of ways because it makes things easier for your immune system, limits of the symptoms of arthritis, and gout.

 

13. Selenium and Mercury

Something interesting about tuna is that it has both mercury and selenium. The kind of selenium is special though because it another form of it called selenoneine. Eating too much fish of any kind can raise your mercury levels dangerously high. When eating tuna, however, that is not really an issue. The selenoneine in the tuna binds the excess mercury which helps the body to expel it easier.

 

14. Melatonin

Melatonin is the hormone that regulates your sleep cycle; keeps you awake during the day and helps you to sleep at night. Vitamin B6 is what turns the tryptophan into melatonin. Vitamin B6 keeps your body to have enough melatonin and melatonin also has regulated your headaches and stress.

Not only does tuna have vitamin B6, but it even has the tryptophan that becomes the melatonin. So if you are having trouble sleeping, try eating some tuna and see if it helps you at all.

15. Niacin

Niacin is a kind of vitamin B that helps your body’s skin, digestive system, and nerves. It also eases some mental issues, lowers LDL, and raises HDL. Just a three-ounce serving of canned tuna can help you to get closer to the suggested amount of niacin a day. It is suggested that men get a6 milligrams while women only need 14. The three-ounce can get you 11.3 milligrams.

 

16. Thyroid

Your thyroid helps your body to maintain a healthy energy level, metabolism and produces different hormones. It  is important to keep your thyroid healthy because if it is not taken care of, you can suffer from hypothyroidism and issues in bowel movements, body weight, sexual activities, and changes in your body temperature.

The selenium, again, is what keeps your thyroid strong and healthy. If there is already some level of damage done to the thyroid, then the selenium in the tuna can help to heal it faster.

17. Brain Health

The omega-3 mentioned before is also amazing at helping your brain with a number of different issues. It can help you with anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, ADHD, depression, dementia, and bipolar disorder.   

While it was mentioned that there is a nice balance of mercury and selenium, it is still entirely possible to get mercury poisoning from eating too much tuna. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) suggests that people do not eat more than six ounces of tuna in a week.   

 

Sources

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