After listening to a podcast a few days ago on the subject of seafood, I’ve been thinking about how different types of seafood compare, as well as the health benefits of farmed seafood in general.  This is the first of several posts I’ll end up doing on this subject.

Tilapia vs Salmon

By now, everyone knows about the potential health benefits of eating seafood, with salmon near the top of the list.  U.S. consumers eat an average of 1.8 pounds each year, making salmon number 3 on the list of total fish consumed in the U.S.  But the fish you’re probably eating, and may not even know it, is tilapia.  Ranked at number 5 for overall consumption in the U.S., Americans eat an average of 1.2 pounds of tilapia each year.

Salmon are, of course, native to the U.S.  Long treasured by consumers for its mild flavor, Atlantic salmon have been heavily overfished, and this pressure, combined with pollution, and the construction of dams have led to this predatory fish being placed on the endangered species list.  A coldwater fish, salmon are renowned for their health benefits.  While wild Pacific salmon run still exist, and conservation efforts are rebuilding the populations, Atlantic salmon are considered commercially extinct.

By contrast, tilapia are a member of the cichilid family, and are native to Africa and the Middle East.  Tilapia are a fast growing warm water fish that subsists mainly on a diet of plants, and can live in either freshwater or brackish water.  Being non-native to the U.S., tilapia are considered by many to be an invasive fish species in areas where they can overwinter.  Fortunately, for native U.S. species, tilapia struggle to survive in waters cooler than 60-degrees.  Being a fast-growing, non-predatory species, tilapia are less likely to accumulate mercury than longer-lived predatory fish, like salmon.  The combination of their mild flavor and fast growing cycle have led to an explosion in their popularity as an inexpensive replacement to many saltwater fish.

A comparison of the nutritional benefits of tilapia vs salmon are given in the following table.  Values are for a 3-ounce serving of farmed fish, broiled.

Nutritional Information: Tilapia vs Salmon

It’s worth noting that tilapia have come under scrutiny by many health experts, for two primary reasons.  The first is for the higher concentration of omega-6 fatty acids.  Researchers at Wake Forest have suggested the distribution of arachadonic acid (omega-6) in tilapia may have a negative influence on heart health.  The other centers on the use of methyltestosterone, which farming utilize to convert tilapia to a “pseudo-male” gender, which assures they grow to a larger, uniform size before they are harvested.  Both of these claims are somewhat questionable though.

Sources

NPR

USDA Salmon

USDA Tilapia

Photo Credit 1 & 2

This post originally came from Greg Hayes who writes about fitness, health, and clean living from the perspective of a middle aged man.

Tilapia vs Salmon — Which Is Healthier?

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A few weeks ago, I received an invite to my first tweetup.  The makers of ICBIN Butter Spray are hosting a tweetup to share information about healthy grilling recipes and entertainment tips.  In preparation for the even

t, they sent me a grilling package to test their product out, which included coupons for “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter,” two of grilling implements, and recipes.  The other night, the family tested out one of the recipes.  Here’s how it went.

ICBIN Butter Spray – BBQ Cookout

As we planned our evening cookout, we resolved to get our vegetables for the cookout from the local farmer’s market.  We picked the “Rosemary-Orange Grilled Chicken & Veggies” recipe that was included in the kit as a starting point, but had to make some modifications, based on our decision to use only farmer’s market ingredients.  Our ingredients from the recipe are included below:

Ingredients:

1. 1 lb cubed boneless chicken breast, cubed
2. 1 yellow squash, cubed
3. 1 zucchini, cubed
4. 1 each yellow, green, and red pepper, cut into 1-inch squares
5. ICBIN Butter Spray
6. 1 tsp chopped rosemary
7. 1 tsp graded orange peel
8. 2 Tbsp orange juice

All the vegetables were tossed together and sprayed with ICBIN Butter Spray, and broken pieces of rosemary were then mixed.  Vegetables and chicken were then put on wooden skewers that had been soaked in water for 30-minutes).  These were tossed on a preheated gas grill set on medium heat for 40-minutes.  The skewers were sprayed occasionally with ICBIN Butter spray to keep everything from drying out.

We also picked up some fresh corn from farmer’s market.  My oldest son spent about 30-minutes shucking the corn.  This was his first experience with that task, and he wasn’t too impressed with the hair on the corn, but otherwise thought it was pretty cool.  The ICBIN Butter spray recipe called for spraying with butter spray, and putting the shucked corn directly on the grill, which was new to us.  The corn  recipe also called for about 40-minutes on the grill, or until the kernels started to separate and grill marks appeared.

You can tell from this picture that we ran out of wooden skewers, so had to use a pair of metal skewers.  Chalk this up to a planning error on our part…

Here’s the finished product.  Turned out absolutely delicious, and even my younger son, who doesn’t generally like meat thought the chicken was good.

As far as the ICBIN Butter Spray product goes, we use this regularly in our house convenience when small amounts of butter are needed.  The package says 5-sprays has zero calories, but since the ingredients also say it contains an oil, there must be calories.  Sure enough, this reference confirms it.  Sure enough, 1 teaspoon has about 20-calories.  This is consistent with the number of calories in a teaspoon of oil.  So, if calorie control is your reason for using ICBIN Butter, spraying is the way to go, since the low calorie content is primarily a function of serving size.  Spraying helps keep the serving size low.

If you want to particpate in the tweetup, I gather anyone is welcome.  It runs from 7pm-9pm CST on July 26th.  The hashtag is #ICBINotButterBBQ, and particpants using the hashtag get entered for one of two $125 gift baskets.

This post originally came from Greg Hayes who writes about fitness, health, and clean living from the perspective of a middle aged man.

ICBIN Butter Spray – BBQ Cookout

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Probably the best known of antioxidants, resveratrol is almost revered for its potential at reducing the risks of a whole host of diseases. Hence the massive interest in the potential healing power of grape juice and resveratrol.  But do the claims hold up under scrutiny?

Grape Juice And Resveratrol

Most people have probably heard of resveratrol these days.  Famous as the antioxidant in red wine, resveratrol has been lauded for it’s potential as an anti-cancer agent, controlling blood sugar, and most lately, for its possible anti-aging effects.   The excitement about resveratrol has everyone looking at ways to increase their consumption, which explains the surge of interest in red wines and grape juice, as resveratrol-rich foods.

Structurally, resveratrol is a polyphenol that belongs in a class of compounds known as phytoalexins, which are different than the flavanoids found in foods like cocoa and coffee. Having said that, much like flavanoids, resveratrol is produced by plants in response to external threats. In the case of resveratrol, that threat
is thought to be fungii, which explains why grapes grown in cooler regions typically have higher amounts of resveratrol than those grown in warmer climates.  In grapes, resveratrol is produced in self-defense, as an anti-fungal and natural insecticide, which means it is actually a mild toxin.  Interestingly enough, in grapes, resveratrol is most highly concentrated in the skin of the fruit.  This helps explain why red wine is an excellent source of resveratrol, and grape juice is typically not a good source of this antioxidant.  Speaking of food sources of antioxidants, the following table highlights the resveratrol content of some foods.

How Much Resveratrol In Foods?

As a preventative or treatment, the science is still unclear.  Like most antioxidants, resveratrol has shown promise against a whole host of cancers – in a test tube.   Unfortunately, studies have shown that resveratrol is rapidly and efficiently eliminated from the body within 4 hours of being consumed.  Even when subjects were given a 5-gram dose, peak blood levels of resveratrol were still 2.5 times lower than test tube results required to achieve anti-cancer activity.  To put that number in perspective, most resveratrol supplements contain 10-50 milligrams of resveratrol.  There is some potential for using resveratrol as a topical agent for treating cancer, where it could be applied directly to the tumor cells.  Early testing has shown some promise.

Resveratrol and red wines have also been linked to cardiovascular benefits.  As a proven vasodilator, resveratrol has been shown to relax the blood vessels, and may play a role in raising HDL.

With the outcome still in question, its hard to weigh the potential benefits of consuming resveratrol against the potential risks associated with increased alcohol consumption.  With that concern stated, another approach is to consume moderate amounts of red grape juice, and resveratrol will follow.  The calories are still a concern, but if you understand that, even with supplements, you’ll never get to the quantities used in test tube evaluations, grape juice may be the best compromise.

Sources

Senate Aging Report

Linus Pauling Institute

Quackwatch

Mayoclinic

This post originally came from Greg Hayes who writes about fitness, health, and clean living from the perspective of a middle aged man.

Grape Juice And Resveratrol — Do The Claims Measure Up?

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