Confessions of a Daily Tuna Eater: My Road to Mercury Poisoning

By Andrea Freedman

I don’t know exactly when or how this crept up on me, but over the past few years since I have been working from home, my lunch diet has changed drastically.

One of my main goals during the time I worked in an office was not to waste money on lunch, or spend half my break standing in line for what quite often turned into an overpriced, fattening letdown, and chose to bring my lunch from home and spend the two to three thousand dollars I saved every year on vacations.

With that objective in mind, I would bring any leftover I could find in my fridge, and would often intentionally cook larger quantities of food at dinner just so I would have something to automatically put in a Tupperware container and transport to work the next day. Now, the thought of eating meat or even a slice of pizza for lunch makes me lose my appetite.

These days I can hardly bring myself to eat some of the heavier “dinner” foods for lunch that I used to, and instead have adopted a fairly standard menu consisting of a sandwich, cut up vegetables, fruit and a yogurt. Although the sandwich changes periodically, my favorite lunch by far is a toasted tuna sandwich with some fresh, crispy lettuce on top to make it complete.

I have listened to the alarmists talk about possible mercury poisoning as a result of eating too much tuna, but so far I have not heeded their advice. I figure there are a lot less healthy things I could eat, not to mention that tuna is a good source of protein. It seems like every other week we are told that something else we do or eat is bad for us, so I take the warnings about tuna with a grain of salt (as well as a little mayonnaise).

As much as I try to have a balanced diet, when I go off the board and have something else for lunch, I am never quite as satisfied as I am when I eat a tuna sandwich.

When I happened to go out with the same friend twice in one week for lunch and was about to order a salad with tuna for the second time, my friend stopped me in horror and reminded me that I had already had tuna that week. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that for me, eating tuna only twice in one week is nothing!

You would think I would be sick of tuna by now, but surprisingly enough, my enthusiasm for my go-to lunch has not waned. Some say variety is the spice of life and I acknowledge the “everything in moderation” theory and that it is probably best not to overdue anything, especially when it comes to food, but unless I start to grow fins or gills, it really doesn’t concern me all that much.

I guess it sounds pretty predictable and maybe not all that exciting or exotic, but look on the bright side: if any of you ever invite me over for lunch, you won’t have to think twice about what kind of sandwich to make for me.☼

 

Copyright © by Andrea Freedman 2017