Fish is a food consumed by many species, including humans. The word "fish" refers to both the animal and to the food prepared from it. Fish has been an important source of protein for humans throughout recorded history.
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English does not distinguish between live fish and the food prepared from it as it does for, e.g. 'pig' vs. 'pork':[1] 'fish' can refer to either. Some other languages do: Spanish peces vs. pescado, and German fisch vs. speisefisch. English also has the term 'seafood', which covers fish and other marine animals used as food.
The modern English word for fish comes from the Old English fisc (plural: fiscas) which was pronounced as it is today.
Research over the past few decades has shown that the nutrients and minerals in fish, and particularly the omega 3 fatty acids found in pelagic fishes, are heart-friendly and can make improvements in brain development and reproduction. This has highlighted the role for fish in the functionality of the human body.[2]
Fish is the most common food to obstruct the airway and cause choking. Choking on fish was responsible for about reported 4,500 accidents in the UK in 1998.[3] In addition, fish can also cause poisoning, especially when the fish is caught in polluted areas. There are issues with fish contaminated with heavy metals such as mercury and lead, or by toxic chemicals such as those containing chlorine or bromine, dioxins or PCBs.[4] Fish that is to be eaten should be caught in unpolluted water. Some organisations such as SeafoodWatch, RIKILT, Environmental Defense Fund, IMARES provide information on species that do not accumulate much toxins/metals.[5][6][7][8]
Fish products have been shown to contain varying amounts of heavy metals, particularly mercury and fat-soluble pollutants from water pollution. According to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the risk from mercury by eating fish and shellfish is not a health concern for most people.[9] However, certain seafood contains sufficient mercury to harm an unborn baby or young child's developing nervous system. The FDA makes three recommendations for child-bearing women and young children:
These recommendations are also advised when feeding fish and shellfish to young children, but in smaller portions.[9]
A lot of fish eat algae and other organisms that contain biotoxins (defensive substances against predators). Biotoxins accumulated in fish/shellfish include brevetoxins, okadaic acid, saxitoxins, ciguatoxin and domoic acid. Except for ciguatoxine, high levels of these toxins are only found in shellfish. Both domoic acid and ciguatoxine can be deadly to humans; the others will only cause diarrhea, dizzyness and a (temporary) feeling of claustrophobia.[10][11]
Some species of fish, notably the puffer fugu used for sushi, and some kinds of shellfish, can result in serious poisoning if not prepared properly. These fish always contain these poisons as a defense against predators; it is not present due to environmental circumstances. Particularly, fugu has a lethal dose of tetrodotoxin in its internal organs and must be prepared by a licensed fugu chef who has passed the national examination in Japan.
Parasites in fish are a natural occurrence and common. Though not a health concern in thoroughly cooked fish, parasites are a concern when consumers eat raw or lightly preserved fish such as sashimi, sushi, ceviche, and gravlax. The popularity of such raw fish dishes makes it important for consumers to be aware of this risk. Raw fish should be frozen to an internal temperature of −20°C (−4°F) for at least 7 days to kill parasites. It is important to be aware that home freezers may not be cold enough to kill parasites.[16][17]
Traditionally, fish that live all or part of their lives in fresh water were considered unsuitable for sashimi due to the possibility of parasites (see Sashimi article). Parasitic infections from freshwater fish are a serious problem in some parts of the world, particularly Southeast Asia. Fish that spend part of their life cycle in brackish or freshwater, like salmon are a particular problem. A study in Seattle, Washington showed that 100% of wild salmon had roundworm larvae capable of infecting people. In the same study farm raised salmon did not have any roundworm larvae.[18]
Parasite infection by raw fish is rare in the developed world (fewer than 40[19] cases per year in the U.S.), and involves mainly three kinds of parasites: Clonorchis sinensis (a trematode/fluke), Anisakis (a nematode/roundworm) and Diphyllobothrium (a cestode/tapeworm).[19] Infection risk of anisakis is particularly higher in fishes which may live in a river such as salmon (sake) in Salmonidae or mackerel (saba). Such parasite infections can generally be avoided by boiling, burning, preserving in salt or vinegar, or freezing overnight. In Japanese it is common to eat raw salmon and ikura, but these foods are frozen overnight prior to eating to prevent infections from parasites, particularly anisakis.
| Source | calories | protein | carbs | fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| fish | 110–140 | 20–25 g | 0 g | 1–5 g |
| chicken breast | 160 | 28 g | 0 g | 7 g |
| lamb | 250 | 30 g | 0 g | 14 g |
| steak (beef top round) | 210 | 36 g | 0 g | 7 g |
| steak (beef T-bone) | 450 | 25 g | 0 g | 35 g |
Meat is animal flesh that is used as food.[20] Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat, but it may also describe other edible organs and tissues.[20] The term "meat" is used by the meat packing industry in a more restrictive sense—the flesh of mammalian species (pigs, cattle, etc.) raised and prepared for human consumption, to the exclusion of fish and poultry.
Vegetarians don't eat fish, and consider that fish is meat, since it is the flesh of an animal.
However, pescetarians eat fish and other seafood, but not mammals and birds. The Merriam-Webster dictionary dates the origin of the term "pescetarian" to 1993 and defines it to mean: "one whose diet includes fish but no meat."[21] Pescatarians may consume fish based solely upon the idea that the fish are not factory farmed as land animals are (i.e., their problem is with the capitalist-industrial production of meat, not with the consumption of animal foods themselves).[22] However, this is an incorrect assumption, as fish are often raised in aritifical environments, with the same types of cramped, unnatural, and often unsanitary conditions that land animals are raised in.[23] Some eat fish with the justification that fish have less sophisticated nervous systems than land-dwelling animals. Others may choose to consume only wild fish based upon the lack of confinement, while choosing to not consume fish that have been farmed.
Religious rites and rituals regarding food also tend to classify the birds of the air and the fish of the sea separately from land-bound mammals. Sea-bound mammals are often treated as fish under religious laws - as in Jewish dietary law, which forbids the eating of whale, dolphin, porpoise, and orca because they are not "fish with fins and scales"; nor, as mammals, do they chew their cud and have cloven hooves, as required by Leviticus 11:9-12. Jewish (kosher) practice treat fish differently from other animal foods. The distinction between fish and "meat" is codified by the Jewish dietary law of kashrut, regarding the mixing of milk and meat, which does not forbid the mixing of milk and fish. Modern Jewish legal practice (halakha) on kashrut classifies the flesh of both mammals and birds as "meat"; fish are considered to be parve, neither meat nor a dairy food. (The preceding portion refers only to the halakha of Ashkenazi Jews Sephardic Jews do not mix fish with dairy)
Seasonal religious prohibitions against eating meat do not usually include fish. For example, non-fish meat was forbidden during Lent and on all Fridays of the year in pre-Vatican II Roman Catholicism, but fish was permitted (as were eggs). (See Fasting in Catholicism.) In Eastern Orthodoxy, fish is permitted on some fast days when other meat is forbidden, but stricter fast days also prohibit fish with spines, while permitting invertebrate seafood such as shrimp and oysters, considering them "fish without blood."
Some Buddhists and Hindus (Brahmins of West Bengal, Orissa and Saraswat Brahmins of the Konkan) abjure meat that is not fish. Muslim (halaal) practice also treats fish differently from other animal foods, as it can be eaten.
Seafoods can be prepared in a variety of ways. It can be uncooked (raw) (cf. sashimi). It can be cured by marinating (cf. escabeche), pickling (cf. pickled herring), or smoking (cf. smoked salmon). Or it can be cooked by baking, frying (cf. fish and chips), grilling, poaching (cf. court-bouillon), or steaming. Many of the preservation techniques used in different cultures have since become unnecessary but are still performed for their resulting taste and texture when consumed.
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