Saving Seafood

Nutrition

It’s Summertime – And New England’s Seafood Shacks Are Now Open

July 16, 2018 — We may be biased, but there is no better destination for summer road trips than the New England coast. The scenery is gorgeous and the seafood is at its prime, so locals and tourists alike pack in cars in search of the quintessential summer shack experience! Take note that reservations and fancy pants aren’t required for this journey, just a little bit of patience (for the inevitable traffic) and a passion for getting your hands on some of the best seafood around.

Below is by no means a comprehensive list, just a little something to get your mouth watering, and your seafood road trips started! So pack up the car – those lobster rolls are waiting for you.

Chauncey Creek Lobster Pier, located in Kittery, will enliven your senses. From the moment you step out of your car and smell the salty air, to when you finally set in to devouring your seafood platter, you feel as if you caught your food yourself and are eating it on a boat floating down the eponymous creek.

The picnic tables -on a deck located directly on Chauncey Creek- offer a variety of seating, from completely covered to full sunshine. And it’s a BYOB establishment, so you’ll often see people tables with coolers full of food and drinks they’ve brought to enjoy in addition to their heaping plates of steamers and lobster.

Read the full story at WGBH

Fish Oil May Protect the Youngest Hearts

June 8, 2018 — Omega-3 fatty acids — good fats found in fish — can boost the heart health of adults, but a new study suggests that babies might also stand to benefit from them.

In the study from Australia, infants were given a daily fish oil supplement or a placebo from birth to 6 months. When they were 5 years old, researchers found that the children who had been given fish oil had smaller waists than the youngsters who were given a placebo. A larger waist circumference is a known risk factor for heart disease, according to the American Heart Association.

The researchers also found that boys given fish oil supplements in infancy had less circulating insulin in their bodies and less resistance to insulin when they were 5, though the study could only show an association between the two. Insulin is a hormone that carries sugars from the foods you eat into your cells to be used as fuel. Insulin resistance and higher levels of insulin play a role in the development of type 2 diabetes.

“It seems that using fish oil could help decrease waist circumference, which by itself, is a major cardiometabolic risk factor. But we can’t say for sure yet whether this will last,” said pediatric endocrinologist Dr. Siham Accacha. She was not involved in the study, but reviewed its findings.

“I’m also not sure why the insulin findings were only in boys. At age 5, there are no pubertal hormones, but obviously there was something there,” said Accacha, director of the pediatric diabetes program at NYU Winthrop Hospital in Mineola, N.Y.

Read the full story at U.S. News

Not All Fish Puts You at Risk of Mercury Poisoning

June 7, 2018 — If you’ve ever eaten sushi, you may be familiar with rumors and rumblings about how eating too much can give you mercury poisoning. Pregnant women are typically advised to steer clear of any spicy tuna roll cravings because.

It has to be dangerous to eat too much of a certain kind of fish, right? Well, sort of. Mercury poisoning, and fear of it, is laced with misconceptions, in part because the metal comes in different forms and thus, has different modes of poisoning someone.

Mercury is a natural metal found in the earth, Judith Zelikoff, a professor in NYU’s School of Medicine’s department of environmental medicine, told The Daily Beast. It’s potentially dangerous to ingest because it inhibits inhibits selenoenzymes, which protect the immune system, causing toxicity. Methylmercury is the most common type of organic mercury that is found in the earth and what is commonly in fish that most commonly leads to mercury poisoning. There’s also inorganic mercury, or elemental mercury, that is found in old-school thermometers.

“The problem comes from environmental exposures,” Zelikoff said, pointing to mercury-containing coal combustion as the problem. “So when [coal] is burned and combusted, it gets into the air. Once it’s in the air it falls to the ground, not only to the soil but also to the surface of water and rivers and lakes.

Read the full story at The Daily Beast

Muddled communications on mercury causing consumer confusion

June 6, 2018 — It’s a rare occasion when representatives of industry, academia, and government all agree.

The fact that the U.S. seafood industry, an army of health experts, and the U.S. government all want to see the country’s population consume more seafood is a sign of how universal the agreement is surrounding the health benefits of seafood consumption.

But in seeking to achieve that objective, consensus often breaks down over the best way to communicate the benefits to consumers. One of the biggest points of division is the issue of mercury contamination in fish, since scientific studies on the potential harm of mercury in seafood are often conflicting and a source of frustration to consumers.

Jay Shimshack, an asssociate professor of public policy and economics at the University of Virginia and an expert in environmental and health policy, told SeafoodSource the problem lies with the way policymakers frame the message when issuing health advisories.

“Fish consumption advice is often complex and confusing. Message-framing matters a lot, and real-world constraints like affordability are as important as the true risks and benefits,” Shimshack said.

Consumers are told eating a variety of fish can be good for them, Shimshack said.

“But [they are told], ‘Do not consume some species [and be] careful not to consume too much of other species,’” Shimshack said. “Current U.S. commercial fish advisories list more than 60 species, and species names are not always consistent from one time and place to the next.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Fish oil supplements help ease cancer treatment pain, study suggests

June 6, 2018 — Fish oil supplements may help alleviate the painful side effects of some cancer treatments, research suggests.

Two separate studies, presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Chicago, show Omega-3 fatty acids can reduce discomfort caused by certain therapies.

The benefits were seen in some breast and bowel cancer patients, with the supplement thought to reduce inflammation.

Dr Andrew Epstein, speaking as an expert for ASCO, said: “It’s adding to the evidence base that nutritionally supplemental therapies like Omega-3 may have a place in supporting patients as they go through their cancer care.”

Around half of women taking aromatase inhibitors, a common drug for postmenopausal women with hormone receptor positive breast cancer, experience joint pain.

The hormone treatment is usually taken for between five to 10 years after surgery.

However an estimated 25% of patients stop within two years because they cannot endure the side effects, lead author Dr Sherry Shen, of the New York Presbyterian Hospital, said.

“This is a real problem, the joint pain,” she told the Press Association.

“And it’s really preventing women from taking these medications that are designed to prevent them getting a recurrence of their breast cancer.”

An analysis of a 2015 study of 249 patients found Omega-3 helped relieve symptoms among obese women taking the drug, who are more likely to experience joint pain.

Those with a BMI above 30 – around 140 patients – recorded an average “worst pain” score of seven out of 10 before taking the supplement or a placebo.

Read the full story at ITV

Phil Paleologos: Learn to Cook Underutilized Seafood

June 1, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center and New Bedford Port Authority are teaming up to present a series of free seafood cooking demonstrations and classes. Funded by a grant from the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, these programs are designed to promote the New Bedford Seafood brand; educate the public about local, abundant and underutilized species; and inspire local residents to explore a wider variety of seafood choices while building a market for these species.

The first demonstration will take place at Kyler’s Seafood Market at 2 Washburn Street,on Saturday, June 9 at 2 p.m. Chef Maria Lawton, author of Azorean Cooking: From My Family Table to Yours, will demonstrate a recipe for Fresh Hake poached in onion, garlic, and tomato sauce (Bacalhau fresco escalfado com molho de tomatecebola, alho). The demonstration will be followed by a tasting opportunity. Signed copies of Ms. Lawton’s book will be available for sale.

Additional demonstrations featuring local cook Rhonda Fazio will take place at 11 a.m. on Friday, July 13 at DeMello’s Market (redfish) and Thursday, August 9 at the New Bedford Farmer’s Market (scup).

Cooking classes will be taught by Chef and Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School Culinary Arts Instructor Henry Bousquet. Classes will take place on Wednesday evenings from 5:30-8:30 p.m. at GNB Voc-Tech. Each class will focus on two underutilized species. Participants will prepare two dishes and enjoy their creations at the end of each class.

Read the full story at WBSM

 

Why should you care about fisheries? They can help feed the world.

May 16, 2018 — Food security is a hot button topic for today’s world leaders, and rightly so as the population swells to 10 billion people by the middle of the century. Feeding that many people is a huge challenge – creating an urgent call to action for resources to be managed more sustainably and equitably – and wild seafood plays a big role.

Typically, these discussions focus on land-based agriculture, including the production of grains, seeds, crops and livestock that, while subject to droughts, diseases and shortages, are the main source of world food consumption as measured by total calories. However, food sources from our oceans, lakes and rivers also play a large part in feeding the world, and deserve their place in the discussion.   

That’s why we’re excited to share a new report from Duke University and EDF* examining how wild capture fisheries fit into this complex discussion and summarizing what we know about the potential role of fish and other aquatic resources, like shellfish and crustaceans, to help feed an increasingly hungry world. After all, three billion people rely on seafood as a primary source of protein, and this number will only continue to grow.

Read the full story at EDF

 

Murkowski: Fight against Frankenfish isn’t over

May 4, 2018 — AquaBounty may have won federal approval on April 26 for a genetically engineered salmon facility in Indiana, but they won’t be able to produce GE salmon there, says Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.

The Alaska Republican’s comments on May 1 came in the wake of Federal Drug Administration approval of an application for an AquaBounty salmon facility in Indiana last week. The company began developing genetically engineered salmon in 1996 and received an FDA approval in 2005 to sell it for human consumption.

Murkowski said the fight against “Frankenfish” is not over and she would continue to push for clear labeling of the product if it is to enter into the U.S. marketplace and for proper oversight.

Genetically engineered salmon currently are evaluated under the FDA’s New Animal Drug Application, a program intended to oversee antibiotics and medicines used on animals and livestock.

Read the full story at the Cordova Times

 

Feds Looking Into Health Of Scallops In The Atlantic

April 30, 2018 — Federal regulators are reviewing the health of sea scallops in the Atlantic Ocean to get a better handle on the status of the valuable shellfish.

Sea scallops are among the most valuable wild-harvested seafood products in the U.S. They were worth more than $485 million at the docks in 2016, a year in which fishermen harvested more than 40 million pounds of them.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration describes the assessment as a “scientifically rigorous review.” It will help inform future fishing regulations in the sea scallop fishery. The agency says assessment results will be available in July.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Maine Public

 

Mediterranean diets boost ‘good’ bacteria in the gut: Eating lots of vegetables, fish and olive oil increases levels by nearly 10%, study finds

April 27, 2018 — Eating a Mediterranean diet boosts ‘good’ bacteria in the gut, new research suggests.

Eating lots of vegetables, fish and olive oil improves good bacteria in the stomach by up to seven per cent compared with a western diet, a study found.

Lead author Dr Hariom Yadav, from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina, said: ‘We have about two billion good and bad bacteria living in our gut.

‘If the bacteria are of a certain type and not properly balanced, our health can suffer.

‘Our study showed that the good bacteria, primarily Lactobacillus, most of which are probiotic, were significantly increased in the Mediterranean-diet group.’

Poor gut bacteria has previously been linked to conditions such as depression and pneumonia.

The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition, used animals to mimic two human diets, as this allowed researchers to carefully monitor and control the nutrients ingested.

Read the full story at the Daily Mail