Fish is eaten all over the world, but no culture eats as much seafood as Japan. When One thinks of seafood often the image of sushi comes to mind and that is a good place to start. The reason that they can eat so much uncooked fish in Japan is that they live right by the ocean and most of the seafood that they consume comes from very close by so it is very fresh. This fresh fish is very healthy.
One probably knows that fish are known to be healthy for humans, but One may not know why. In the wild, fish are very high in Omega 3 Fatty Acids.
What are those? One may ask.
Omega 3 Fatty Acids are one of the essential fatty acids. These fatty acids have many health benefits such as reducing inflammation, the symptoms of depression, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, ADHD, cardiovascular illness, and Alzheimer’s. (source: webmd)
Fish are very important in human diet because the human body does not produce these essential fatty acids, so we need to consumer them and fish are the primary meat that gives humans access to them.
This is why you may have heard that fish are good for you.
I’ve also heard that fish can be bad for you, One might say. Why are is that?
That is true. Some fish are bad for you because they are farmed. Farming fish is good for the industry and economy, but not for human health. Fish farmers have found that it takes about 5.5 pounds of foraged fish that is used to fead fish for 2.2 pounds of fish for human consumption. This is a pricy and environmentally unsustainable fact. So to remedy this, fish farmers started feeding their stock vegetable oils to take the place of foraged fish. The human diet should be rich in omega 3’s but “when fish are fed vegetable oils which don't contain omega threes, their flesh contains very little” (Danger to Your Plate? Farm-Raised and Wild Salmon).
Instead, they have lots of Omega 6’s, which are also found in oils, meats, and processed foods. Many nutritionists believe that you need a healthy balance of Omega 3’s and Omega 6’s, but when fish are farmed they do not have enough Omega 3’s to balance out the Omega 6’s AND they add their own Omega 6’s to the mix as well. Too many Omega 6's in the diet can lead to heart problems.
How do we avoid the issue of lowered Omega 3’s and increased Omega 6's? One may ask.
Eat wild caught fish. However there are also environmental problems that come with that. You can read about them in the Tuna section or on the Seafood Watch website.
How do we avoid the issue of lowered Omega 3’s and increased Omega 6's? One may ask.
Eat wild caught fish. However there are also environmental problems that come with that. You can read about them in the Tuna section or on the Seafood Watch website.