Sometimes when my father and I went out to dinner, he would order seafood (crabs, shrimp, scallops, fish) with gusto as though it was a very big treat. I often wondered how a person could make such a choice when there was ham, chicken, and steak to be had. Now, I often find myself doing what he did.
I don't live near the sea so seafood is a rarity. It tends to be light and easy to eat while the redder meats are heavier. Generally, seafood is high in protein. I probably get a little less protein daily than is recommended. I know that a good helping of protein tends to satisfy my hunger better and longer. I think I am suggestible and if I think seafood is clean enough, free of unhealthy chemicals enough and has acceptably low levels of mercury and things that are not good for me, I can probably continue to consume seafood I like. I mean my mind will protect me, won't it? My friend, a retired professor of chemistry, tells me that labs can detect smaller and smaller bits of any substance anywhere. I use the idea that sufficiently small amounts of this chemical or that probably don't matter. At least, not enough to really shorten the years I can still expect to have.
I have read that humans are taking more and more of what is in the sea and that many fish are scarce or totally gone now. Salmon and other actual fish as well as shrimp and scallops are being farmed. The farming can be done well or it can be done sloppily, cleanly or dirty. I like the looks of the farmed atlantic salmon I buy and the shrimp from Thailand has been good. I don't know enough chemistry, marine biology and human digestion science to really judge how healthy the seafood I eat is. But about the same holds true for ham, steak and chicken I eat.
I am making dinner tonight and it has been a while since I cooked shrimp. Google says that steamed shrimp is 25% protein but I don't know enough about (anything!!!) to know what that figure means for my health, my strength and my hunger. I just found this statement on the web:
Jan 26, 2006 10:37 AM
I grew up in New Zealand in the 1940s and 50s. Until the late 50s MOST people did not own a refrigerator or the item Americans quaintly referred to as an 'ice box'
My parents had a cupboard on the shady side of the kitchen with a mesh-covered window frame on the outside wall. In addition, all shops closed on Friday night and nothing could be bought until Monday with the exception of a couple of perishables such as milk and possibly eggs. The meat for Sunday's roast had to survive unrefrigerated in these circumstances and, in fact, its cooked leftovers were still consumed in various ways during the week. Meat was mostly Beef, Lamb or Veal - Pork tended to be eaten only in the cooler months and because of the absence of factory farming, chicken was an occasional treat.
Butter was always soft; if jam grew mold you just scraped it off. Meat fat was poured off and saved in cans, in the aforementioned cupboard to be used for frying.
The summer temperatures were often in the 80s but I don't recollect anyone in my family (or anyone elses) coming down with food poisoning.
When we finally could afford a refrigerator it was celebrated as a means of having really cold drinks and ice cream etc on hand first, and long term food storage second.
As most people in the world have had to get along without refrigeration until about 50 years ago, one can only assume that the toxicity cited so often is due to the way the food is now produced and processed.
