Which canned tuna is best? In oil, brine or water?
You go to the supermarket to buy canned tuna, but you are faced with the task of deciding whether you should buy it in sunflower oil, springwater or brine. Typically tuna in springwater is more expensive than alternatives, but is there any nutritional difference?
All nutritional values are taken from Princes Tuna Chunks and are per 100g, drained.
Protein
The protein content actually differs more than you might think amongst the 3 varieties and sunflower comes out on top with 27.1g of protein, springwater is next with 25.0g and brine comes in last with 23.5g.
Fat
Tuna in sunflower oil contains 9.0g of fat, but only 1.5g of that is saturated and the other 7.5g is unsaturated and isn’t necessarily bad for you. Tuna is brine and springwater are almost the same with 0.6g and 0.5g respectively so are the better choice if you are aiming to keep your fat content down. However, at only 1.5g of saturated fat – don’t rule out sunflower oil, because the unsaturated is actually helpful to your diet.
Omega-3
These fatty acids are extremely useful, however these themselves are a type of oil. For those of you that cannot remember science class – oils mix together, but will separate from water (or brine). So whenever you drain tuna in sunflower oil, you actually drain away about half of the omega-3 content. Tuna in sunflower oil has 0.2g of omega-3, springwater and brine has 0.4g.
Calories
As you might expect, the difference between the calories in springwater and brine are minimal. Springwater has 105kcal and brine has 100kcal. Sunflower oil has almost double both with 190kcal.
Salt
Brine is saltwater therefore you’d expect brine to have more salt in, however when you drain the brine away properly – only a minimal amount of extra salt will be in your tuna. So little that the nutritional content for sodium in all 3 is 0.3g which equates to 0.8g of salt.
Which is best?
There isn’t really a definitive answer because it depends on which fits best into your diet – sunflower oil does contain extra calories, fat and reduces the amount of omega-3 intake you have with your tuna however if you can afford the extra calories and get plenty of omega-3 elsewhere, having tuna in sunflower oil isn’t that much of a problem. However, if you want to trim some extra calories, boost your omega-3 intake – go for springwater or brine. Springwater pips brine when you compare the 2, but it’s not a huge difference and the extra cost of springwater over brine might not be justifiable.
Not forgetting Olive Oil
We didn’t include canned tuna in olive oil in the above comparison because it isn’t widely available like sunflower oil, springwater or brine. However, olive oil has a similar nutritional content to that of sunflower oil but has about 50 fewer calories (per 100g) and about 10% extra fat and saturated fat.
You go to the supermarket to buy canned tuna, but you are faced with the task of deciding whether you should buy it in sunflower oil, springwater or brine. Typically tuna in springwater is more expensive than alternatives, but is there any nutritional difference?
All nutritional values are taken from Princes Tuna Chunks and are per 100g, drained.
Protein
The protein content actually differs more than you might think amongst the 3 varieties and sunflower comes out on top with 27.1g of protein, springwater is next with 25.0g and brine comes in last with 23.5g.
Fat
Tuna in sunflower oil contains 9.0g of fat, but only 1.5g of that is saturated and the other 7.5g is unsaturated and isn’t necessarily bad for you. Tuna is brine and springwater are almost the same with 0.6g and 0.5g respectively so are the better choice if you are aiming to keep your fat content down. However, at only 1.5g of saturated fat – don’t rule out sunflower oil, because the unsaturated is actually helpful to your diet.
Omega-3
These fatty acids are extremely useful, however these themselves are a type of oil. For those of you that cannot remember science class – oils mix together, but will separate from water (or brine). So whenever you drain tuna in sunflower oil, you actually drain away about half of the omega-3 content. Tuna in sunflower oil has 0.2g of omega-3, springwater and brine has 0.4g.
Calories
As you might expect, the difference between the calories in springwater and brine are minimal. Springwater has 105kcal and brine has 100kcal. Sunflower oil has almost double both with 190kcal.
Salt
Brine is saltwater therefore you’d expect brine to have more salt in, however when you drain the brine away properly – only a minimal amount of extra salt will be in your tuna. So little that the nutritional content for sodium in all 3 is 0.3g which equates to 0.8g of salt.
Which is best?
There isn’t really a definitive answer because it depends on which fits best into your diet – sunflower oil does contain extra calories, fat and reduces the amount of omega-3 intake you have with your tuna however if you can afford the extra calories and get plenty of omega-3 elsewhere, having tuna in sunflower oil isn’t that much of a problem. However, if you want to trim some extra calories, boost your omega-3 intake – go for springwater or brine. Springwater pips brine when you compare the 2, but it’s not a huge difference and the extra cost of springwater over brine might not be justifiable.
Not forgetting Olive Oil
We didn’t include canned tuna in olive oil in the above comparison because it isn’t widely available like sunflower oil, springwater or brine. However, olive oil has a similar nutritional content to that of sunflower oil but has about 50 fewer calories (per 100g) and about 10% extra fat and saturated fat.
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