Fish intake in America is going down. The reason is that many people feel uncomfortable with how to prepare it. That’s why over 60% of the seafood consumed in the U.S. is eaten out.
Over the last decade, we have lowered our purchases of fish for dinner by almost 18%. Americans eat 14 pounds of fish per person yearly. In comparison, citizens of Spain and of Japan consume 96 and 120 pounds yearly respectively.
Compare this to yearly amounts per person of over 80 pounds of chicken, almost 60 pounds of beef and over 40 pounds of pork in the good old USA.
Fish is the most healthy alternative to meat aside from vegetables. Moving away from this selection of food increases the chance for chronic diseases.
In addition to the fear of a screwing up a fish dinner, protein from the sea is usually expensive especially in states far from the ocean. Even in Hawaii, many locals only purchase frozen fish on sale because of the high prices. On the islands, catching seafood close to the shore is getting more difficult. More and more of the Pacific is becoming fished out. The same goes for the Atlantic Ocean. Fisherman have to go far out to sea. Most of the catch is very large fish, which are usually contaminated with various toxic metals and other chemicals.
The bigger the fish, the smaller fish they have devoured for food over their lifespan. So 1,000’s of small fish with low amounts of contaminants accumulate in large fish over decades. Therefore the huge boys like tuna, shark, tilefish, etc. are loaded with the cumulative contaminants that are embedded within the fat. You can’t avoid consuming these toxic substances no matter how you fillet.
Tuna is safe to eat about once weekly with a maximum of 6 oz. The other fish listed above including king mackerel and swordfish should be avoided altogether because of contaminants like mercury. Google and see what damage mercury does to the body.
First thing, please remember, that on-line resides hundreds of great seafood recipes. Check out:
- Foodnetwork.com
Look for the ones with the 5 stars. It will tell how easy the recipe is to make in addition to the total time to produce the beautiful end product.
- Eatingwell.com
Focuses on healthy seafood combinations that have ease of preparation as a priority.
Next, download the app for Android or iPhone called:
- Seafood Watch via Monterey Bay Aquarium where you can search for all the safe and abundant seafood listed as a best choice or good alternative. Updated regularly with new information, free of charge.
Lose your fear of seafood by downloading thousands of recipes for some delicious dinners for you and the family. Also take a look at preparations for shrimp, mussels, clams, scallops, crab, lobster and the list goes and on. Quality protein, beneficial fats, vitamins and minerals are just some of the many reasons to make seafood a regular part of your weekly diet.
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Photo credit: Frans (3Djavu.nl) / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0)
Photo credit: HikingArtist.com / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Photo credit: snowpea&bokchoi / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
Renovating Your Mind 
Interesting! I assume you are in the U.S. and I am not sure if there is an equivalent body there that has a site with a similar function, but this one (from the UK) is fab… a great way of checking/comparing sustainable seafood options.
http://www.fishonline.org/fishfinder?min=1&max=2&fish=&eat=1
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Thank you. Learned a lot from putting the article together. Thanks for the UK site. I appreciate that very much.
Rob
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