One night I was looking over my macro[nutrient] ratios and I had about 300 calories left to eat… but I’d already ate more than enough grams of fat and almost hit my carbs limit so the only thing left for me to consume was protein.
So what has protein and no carbs/fat? Well… you know, the obvious things come to mind… like lean meat, chicken breast, various fish… and then it hit me… TUNA!
So I bust out a couple cans of tuna. But I can’t make a typical tuna sandwich, cause the bread will take me over on the carbs and the mayo will take me over on the fat. And I hate tuna just by itself, that would suck. So hmm… I look online for some tuna recipes that leangainers use… and bam…
- Instead of mayo, use half a cup of nonfat greek yogurt (no fat, minimal carbs, all the protein)
- Bust out the dijon mustard.
- Mix the greek yogurt and dijon mustard together and then mix it with the tuna and man, this is one awesome creamy little bowl of tuna.
So what’s going in my mouth right now? Just 2g fat, 7g carbs and 54 GRAMS OF PROTEIN! (~270 calories). Great success. I ended up sharing this with my friends and they gave the following suggestion: You can sandwich the tuna using romaine lettuce or seaweed/nori to make protein-style wraps.
And then one of my friends warned me that I shouldn’t eat tuna all the time cause of the mercury content.
Turns out, eating tuna once a week or less generally won’t cause mercury poisoning, but eating it more often than that can absolutely do so. This Tuna Calculator tells you how often you can safely eat tuna. For me it says I can eat a little less than 1 can of albacore tuna or 2.5 cans of light tuna per week.
So what are some mercury-free alternatives? Here ya go…
Looking at this chart, you’d see that the humble anchovy is the best choice both in terms of omega 3 content and low mercury. Of course, sardines, salmon and trout are also fine alternatives as well. Basically, the higher up something is on the food chain, the more mercury it accumulates and the more algae the fish eats the greater its omega 3 fatty acid content. *The more you know*
And here’s how to open up a can of sardines without spilling it:
