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In the modern scary world of constant doomscrolling, it's hard to keep up with all the things you need to be doing to be a good citizen and protecting our bodies and environment. Pescetarians, people who eat a lot of seafood in favor of other proteins have been shown to live longer. You can use a little more knowledge and make sure you are doing this right. For one thing, make your purchases count by buying frozen and storing to prevent seafood from spoiling.
Seafood is a crucial part of a balanced diet, offering numerous health benefits like high-quality protein, omega-3 fatty acids, and essential vitamins and minerals. However, you might face a dilemma when it comes to purchasing seafood: Should you buy fresh or frozen?
While fresh seafood might seem like the obvious choice, frozen seafood offers several compelling advantages that make it an excellent alternative. Join us as we explore the upsides of buying frozen seafood to help you make an informed decision for your next grocery trip.
How to know if Seafood is Sustainably Caught
You can use this beautiful website, seafoodwatch.org, from the Monterey Bay Aquarium, to search for each ingredient you like to buy. For example, the frozen shrimp I took a picture of and posted above. Let's say I want to know if its a good shrimp to buy. I just search the website for the seafood, shrimp, for this example. Then click best choice and it will create a list of the best choices.
Better Preservation of Nutrients
Seafood providers typically freeze their products shortly after catching them, locking in their vital nutrients—such as omega-3 fatty acids, proteins, and vitamins. Fresh seafood, on the other hand, can lose its nutritional quality during transportation and storage. You ensure you are consuming a product that maintains its nutritional integrity from ocean to table by choosing frozen seafood over fresh.
Longer Shelf Life
You must consume fresh seafood within a few days of purchase to avoid spoilage, which can lead to food waste if you don’t use it promptly. However, you can store frozen seafood for several months without compromising its quality. This extended shelf life allows for greater flexibility in meal planning and reduces the frequency of grocery trips, saving you time and effort.
Cost-Effectiveness
Frozen seafood tends to be more affordable than fresh seafood due to the reduced need for expedited transportation and refrigeration during shipping. Plus, the longer shelf life we discussed means less spoilage, leading to fewer financial losses for both retailers and consumers. This cost advantage makes it easier to incorporate seafood into your diet regularly without breaking the bank.
Convenience and Availability
Do you live a busy lifestyle? Frozen fish and other seafood are readily available year-round, irrespective of fishing seasons and geographical limitations. This consistent availability ensures that you can enjoy a variety of seafood options regardless of where you live or the time of year. Moreover, frozen seafood providers often clean and portion their products before shipping them, reducing the consumer’s preparation time and adding ease to cooking healthy meals quickly.
What are the upsides of buying frozen seafood? An opening of culinary advantages for one, allowing you to experiment with diverse seafood dishes any time of the year. The convenience and quality of frozen seafood also enable you to expand your cooking repertoire effortlessly, from exotic recipes that require rare ingredients to weeknight staples. So, let frozen seafood be your go-to option for versatility, taste, and nutrition the next time you’re planning a meal.
Our Favorite Healthy Frozen Seafood Choices and Why
Wild-caught salmon
I love wild-caught salmon that is certified sustainable because you are not risking supporting farming. The reason farming is iffy is because the farmed ones are not facing natural pressures so not as hardy as the ones that survive to adulthood in the wild.
Salmon is one of the healthy seafoods many consider to be a superfood due to its healthy oils. Whole Foods is a sure bet for sustainable so here is an affiliate link to some from there. Here are some healthy salmon recipes you might like as well.
Choosing a Safe bet for Frozen Shrimp
Choosing a sustainable shrimp has gotten a lot trickier in the last few years. Add to that, the fact that it's kinda high in cholesterol and it's probably one seafood you won't want to eat as often. You can have it occasionally though with knowledge of how to choose and cook it though, and sleep a little easier.
The recent bankruptcy of Red Lobster after its endless shrimp issue brought to light some other issues. A recent podcast episode on from Gastropod on the story of Shrimp, America's most popular seafood, does a good job telling the story. I'll summarize what I took away from it really quick though. Red Lobster was bought by a Thai company, after Thailand converted a lot of marshland into shrimp farms causing shrimp to become a lot more affordable. This has destroyed a lot of habitat and caused problems with native species with disease, loss of habitat and other issues. Then, of course the endless shrimp trump card didn't work on the books as well as they thought.
You can avoid the whole worry of buying Thai shrimp by buying certified sustainably caught gulf shrimp. We live in Texas and one of the things our state has done well is regulate shrimp better than the average provider. Whole Foods is again, a great choice for frozen shrimp.
Some fantastic Thai and Thai Inspired Shrimp Recipes
Summary
We take it for granted, but the ability to freeze food has probably added years to all our lives. You don't have to stock up like a doomsday prepper to do it right. Maybe just buying a week or two's worth of seafood at once is all you can do but it's a great option to keep you on top of your cooking game. And don't forget the freezers brother the refrigerator. To hear more about how refrigeration changed our lives more than we realize, check out this podcast episode on refrigeration by gastropod.
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