Did you know that the two most popular types of canned tuna—white and light—actually vary greatly in their average mercury content?

    • Canned white tuna consists of albacore, a species that accumulates higher amounts of mercury.

    • Canned light tuna usually consists of skipjack, which has about one-third the mercury levels of albacore.

Although canned light tuna is the safer of the two options, in general it's always best to exercise caution in how much tuna you (and especially your children) consume.

Excerpted from Environmental Defense's Oceans Alive project

NEXT: The best seafood choices