Sunday 28 August 2011

Little Fishies

So I've been trying to eat more fish recently, I aim to have it a LEAST 3 times a week for dinner.

As a child my parents only really ate cod or salmon, and I only ever had canned tuna in sandwiches....but as I've gotten older and wiser, I branched out (thank gosh) and I love all types of seafood...red snapper, sea bass and mackerel are favourites as well as shellfish....I used to live in Thailand and I would eat seafood everyday- I looove snakehead fish, grilled squid and lobster....I miss the availability of fresh seafood here in the UK....

Anyway, right now there is alot of dicussion on the benefits of certain fish and the way they are sourced. This has also made me think alot about where I buy seafood and if it is sustainably sourced.

I got some farmed slamon from Tesco the other day and had it for dinner, here's a picture:

And then the next day I got some freshwater scottish Trout....here's another picture:

Now, although I have always preferred the taste of salmon over trout, these 2 meals changed my mind- farmed salmon has a far higher percentage of fat, I could taste it. The trout tasted far nicer and fresher.

I decided then and there that tesco was not the best place to buy fish and that I would try to stay away from farmed salmon. Tesco also sells alot of fish that has been caught by the traulling method of fishing (nets as big as a football field scraping the bottom of the ocean, damaging the ocean floor and catching other sealife, sometimes endangered sea creatures). So then I got some Marks and spencer alaskan wild salmon and this is SO SO much better, it tasted less oily and far lighter. The fishing methods used to catch the wild salmon are also far safer.

Wild salmon is an oily fish, rich in omega-3 essential fatty acids, as well as an excellent source of vitamin D, phosphorus and selenium. Trout is high in protein and also rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which can help to maintain a healthy heart and is also important in the development of our brain and visual systems - so both wild salmon and trout will be on my weekly menu- but farmed salmon won't be. Not all farmed fish are bad though, farmed trout is one of the healthiest and most sustainable fish around.

Mackerel is an underrated fish compared to trout and salmon, it too is an oily fish and a rich source of omega-3 essential fatty acids. It also helps to maintain a healthy heart and can play an important role in visual and brain development....much like salmon and trout.

Marks and spencer have outlined on their website where they get their fish from and the catching method- this helps my decision making alot, see http://plana.marksandspencer.com/we-are-doing/sustainable-raw-materials/forever-fish

Another good website is the Monterey Bay Aquarium website: http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/sfw_health.aspx

This website gives really intereting info on sourcing methods, and nutritional info on each type of fish.....it's worth a look!

Their best fish list is:

Albacore Tuna (troll- or pole-caught, from the U.S. or British Columbia)
Freshwater Coho Salmon (farmed in tank systems, from the U.S.)
Oysters (farmed)
Pacific Sardines (wild-caught)
Rainbow Trout (farmed)
Salmon (wild-caught, from Alaska)

They also have a list of fish to avoid, see:
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/sfw_alternatives.aspx

No comments:

Post a Comment