A Fish Primer- Dr.Andrew Weil

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A Fish Primer- Dr.Andrew Weil

 

 

In 1970 I changed from an omnivore to a lacto vegetarian. I gave up

eating all foods of animal origin except some dairy products, mostly

organic yogurt and cheese.

 

That diet agreed with me, kept me healthy and strong, and

gave me pleasure and variety. But after fifteen years of it, I

decided I needed a change.

 

As an experiment I cut back on dairy products and started to eat

fish. Not only did I enjoy the change, it gave me greater freedom

when traveling (to Japan, for example, where being a lacto

vegetarian is a challenge) and dining out.

 

Furthermore, my nutritional research convinced me of the health

benefits of fish.

- AW

 

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Living Longer Eating Fish -

 

Populations that eat fish regularly live longer and have less

chronic disease than populations that do not.

 

Whether this is because fish displaces meat or because it has positive

attributes of its own is not clear.

 

Certainly, fish provides high-quality protein without the saturated

fat present in meat and poultry. And some kinds of fish --

specifically, fatty fish from cold northern waters, also provide

omega-3 fatty acids, the special, unsaturated fats our bodies need for optimum

health.

 

Salmon, mackerel, herring, sardines, and bluefish are rich in

them, as is, to a lesser extent, albacore tuna. Omega-3 sources

other than fish are few:

walnuts, flax seeds, and the oils extracted from them, non-gmo soy, Olive oil

and fortified organic eggs.

 

Beneficial Omega-3 Fatty Acids-

 

Most Americans are deficient in omega-3s and as a result are more

likely to develop cardiovascular disease, cancer, inflammatory disorders, and

mental and emotional problems.

 

Recent research suggests that supplementing the diet with omega-3

fatty acids not only can reduce these risks but can also help treat depression,

bipolar disorder,

autism, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

 

Fish is, indeed, a brain food.

 

 

 

Cooking Fish Right -

The healthful qualities of fish can be neutralized by unhealthful

ways of cooking it.

 

Fish that is battered and fried, slathered with butter,

or blanketed in creamy sauces becomes just another vehicle for

putting saturated fat and excess calories into the body.

 

I prefer fish that is raw (sashimi and served with sushi), marinated

(ceviche), steamed, grilled, broiled, or smoked (as in salmon and

trout).

 

I much prefer fresh fish to frozen, and I often eat it in

restaurants, where the quality is usually better than I can get to

cook at home. (That may not be the case for many readers.)

 

Concerns About Toxins-

 

Despite my enthusiasm for fish, I have two serious concerns about

recommending that people eat more of it. The first is its content of

environmental toxins, the result of pollution of lakes, rivers and

oceans. The second is the possibility of losing fish as a natural

resource by overfishing those same bodies of water.

 

Take salmon as an example. Almost all of the salmon served today is

farmed ( " Atlantic salmon " ).

 

Farmed salmon has less flavor, less protein, and more fat than

wild salmon, and its content of omega-3 fatty acids may not be as

high.

 

It may also contain residues of antibiotics and other drugs used to

control diseases that occur when fish are crowded together in the

pens of fish farms.

 

Those diseases may escape and decimate wild populations

of salmon.

 

Most people assume that fish farming is a way of protecting

an endangered resource. Few know that it takes several pounds of

feed

fish to produce one pound of salmon.

 

The net result of salmon farming is

greatly accelerated depletion of the numbers of fish in the oceans.

 

If you can get wild Alaskan salmon, use it for the salmon recipes in

this

book.

 

It tastes better and is more nutritious, and eating it does not

have the environmental impact of eating farmed salmon.

 

As for other fish, be aware that larger, more carnivorous fish are

more

likely to contain dangerous levels of toxins.

 

I avoid swordfish, marlin, shark, and bluefish for that reason. The

safest and best fish for omega-3 fatty acids is probably the

sardine.

 

I love fresh sardines, grilled with nothing but salt and lemon

juice, and I'm happy to see them increasingly available. (I used to

be able to get them only in better Greek and Italian restaurants.)

I also buy water-packed canned sardines and mash them up with

mustard and onion as a spread. Give that a try;

it's an easy way to get some safe fatty fish into your diet.

 

Fish to Avoid-

 

I avoid grouper, black sea bass, rockfish, and most snapper because

those species are endangered from overfishing. Cod, pollock,

flounder,

halibut, sole, and plaice are still relatively abundant in the

Pacific

but seriously depleted in the Atlantic. Finally, skate, rockfish,

Chilean sea bass, and orange roughy are threatened, because they do

not spawn until they are old, thirty years in the case of orange

roughy, and unless they are managed well, they will be overfished to

depletion.

 

Species that are still abundant and well-managed include striped

bass,

Alaskan salmon, herring, sardines, anchovies, mackerel, mahimahi,

Alaskan halibut, and Pacific albacore. Try to keep these

distinctions in

mind if you want to continue enjoying fish. -A.W.

 

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