Is Fish Healthier Than Meat

There are a lot of semi-vegetarians out there, or pescetarians, who eat fish but not other sorts of meat. Hence, it's a common question to ask, “Is fish healthier than meat?” My short answer would be probably yes, but in any case not by much.

There are two main considerations when talking about whether eating fish or meat is desirable. Firstly is the health consideration, and secondly is the ethical consideration. I'll get into the ethical consideration in another article.

Is Fish Healthier Than Meat

A lot of attention has been given to the Cretan and Okinawan regional diets where large amounts of fish is eaten. Because most people can't even conceive of a diet that wasn't loaded with excess amounts of protein, it's assumed that these diets are healthy BECAUSE of the fish.

I'm not sure that's the case. Note that both of these diets consume relatively less animal foods (a classification I'll define as including fish) than the Standard American Diet, and they consume much more fruit and vegetables.

Okinawa and Crete are only two regions, and it's pretty hard to make statistical conclusions about what's healthy based on just that. I think a proper statistical approach to analysing diet would be found in the China study, where many variables were examined in many different regional populations. The China study concluded that animal foods and fat were the highest risk factors in diet.

However, the China study didn't come to any conclusions about whether fish was relatively more healthy as compared to other meats. Perhaps there's something to fish. I'd be willing to consider that.

Omega-3 In Fish

Fish contains a large proportion of Omega-3 fats, which are supposed to be healthier than normal fats. In general in a normal diet we eat too much Omega-6 and too little Omega-3: they're supposed to have a particular balance with one another.

The interesting thing is that in a low-fat diet, which is what I personally espouse, you naturally get a good balance of Omega-3/Omega-6. The fats found in low fat fruit and vegetables, the healthiest foods, are great. Things only get out of hand when you consume too much meat, eggs, milk, cheese, oil, olives, nuts, and so on. That is, most high fat foods.

If you haven't managed to follow a strict low fat diet yet, you can supplement Omega-3 fats by eating walnuts, flax seed (or flax seed oil), or supplementary omega-3 extracted from seaweed. (I tried this stuff once – I think it's the real deal. Actually, it tastes pretty nice if you bite the capsule – something I can't say for fish oil).

Toxins In Fish

I think it's important to mention the toxins in fish in any discussion of if fish is healthier than meat. Fish accumulate toxins from the sea, especially mercury. Although the American government is loth to actually recommend a vegan diet for people, it does go so far as to tell pregnant women not to eat fish. That is, the mercury in fish is so toxic that it can cause birth defects.

Meat contains plenty of horrible toxins too, though. It contains antibiotics, growth hormones used to make the animals grow faster, and plenty of pesticides and similar things. The thing with any sort of animal food is that toxins accumulate in the bodies of animals over their lifetimes, so any meat or fish is going to give you a concentrated hit of poison.

That's why I recommend a vegan diet as a healthier option than either meat or fish.

How Healthy Is Fish?

In general, my intuition says that fish may be somewhat healthier than meat. Perhaps because they suffer less in their lifetime (so long as they are wild fish), perhaps for some other reason. I think, though, that pescetarian (fish eating) vegetarian diets are at best a bridge from meat eating to strict vegetarianism.

If you eat fish but no meat, I think you're likely to eat less animal foods in general. So that's very positive, and definitely opens the door for further advances.

If you can, though, go beyond the pescetarian diet. Read “Why Go Vegan?” for more info on my preferred diet philosophy.

Thanks for reading. Andrew Gubb's Blog - Indigo Children and Adults, Lightworkers, and Saving The World