If you like the taste of fish more than the smell of it, then this is the column for you. Seafood tastes great — as your taste buds will attest — and it’s great for you, as research proves. But how can we get our seafood fix without killing the planet? I’ll tell you how, after looking at why one component of seafood has been in the news lately. I’m thinking, of course, of omega-3s.
Omega-3 fatty acids have become mighty popular for good reason. If you choose to scan articles on an Ebsco database search for omega-3s, you will find scientific claims for their capacity to improve heart health, decrease inflammation, reduce the rate of cognitive decline in aging, lower risk of premature death in adults and even improve dental health.
Research in the December 2010 issue of the British Journal of Nutrition has also confirmed that contemporary hunter-gatherers in East Africa, thought to have diets resembling those of our genetic forebears, have diets much higher in omega-3s than our own. If we evolved with such a diet, it is not surprising that our health would suffer without it.
The George Mateljan Foundation, a non-profit created to share scientifically proven information about the benefits of healthy eating, states on its website that 99 percent of Americans are deficient in omega-3s. How do you get more omega-3s, you may ask? One answer is to go the supplement route and consume fish oil in pill form.
However, this may not be a good solution. In a December 2006 article in the rivetingly named journal Lipids, we find that those who consume larger amounts of omega-3s in the form of supplements than those who consume a smaller amount of omega-3s in the form of whole fish actually absorb less. As Nutraceuticals World (there’s another name to perk you up) noted in October 2012, there are also other concerns. These include the accuracy of supplement labeling, levels of PCBs and in one case, a brand that was selling spoiled fish oil. In short, you can take fish oil… but you won’t absorb it as well as fish, the quality of the product is uncertain and you’re missing out on the delicious taste of seafood.
The primary alternative to fish oil, of course, is eating fish. But not all fish are created equal in terms of sustainability or mercury levels. On a list of seafood adapted from National Geographic’s Seafood Decision Guide in the July 2013 issue of the Nutrition Action Newsletter, only nine out of 70 listed kinds of seafood belong to the good-to-best rankings for overall sustainability and food-chain level (fish higher in the food chain, like tuna, tend to be less sustainable) and have low mercury content.
Clams, king crab, crawfish, spiny lobster, farmed mussels, oysters, sardines, farmed scallops and tilapia are good choices; salmon, shrimp, tuna, and trout, though lovely, do not make the cut. If you want a world that we can keep fishing, and if you want fish in top health, eat sustainable seafood twice a week. And don’t leave it sitting on the counter. That really would smell fishy.
Zach Wilson is a senior studying philosophy. How do you feel about seafood? You can tell him at cw299210@ohiou.edu.
