Fish is a more digestible food than meat, although less consumed, rich in omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Let's find out more about the features, the nutritional values and how to recognize how fresh it is.
Fish, one of the fishery products
In our country the fishery products are consumed in a decidedly inferior way compared to the foods of the meat group (in a ratio lower than 1:10 ) although they possess all the nutritional qualities of the foods of this group. In fact, they are a source of high biological value proteins, vitamins and mineral salts.
The meat of fish products has a muscular structure almost similar to that of warm-blooded animals but, unlike those, the color is generally whitish (with the exception of some species such as salmon, tuna, eel whose meat is more or less rosy ).
Most fish are lean while those considered fat have no more fat than those found in so-called lean meat. However the presence of fats is not easily recognizable in fish, so it is necessary to know if what we are about to eat is very thin (less than 1% of fat as in cod, sea bream, breed, etc.), thin (from 1-3 % as in sole, sea bass, dogfish, trout, turbot, etc.), semi-fat (3-10% as in tuna, anchovy, salmon, swordfish, etc.) or fat (more than 10% as in eel and mackerel) .
The fish remain in the stomach for less time than meat (2 hours versus 3-5 hours), so they are mistakenly considered less nutritious than meat. In general, they are more digestible due to their low connective tissue content which determines an extreme chewiness of the product and an easier attack by gastric juices.
Among the various fish, it is believed that the most digestible is the cod, so much so that it is customary to give it to children and the sick. This is partly true because experiments carried out in the laboratory, with a pepsin-hydrochloric solution that simulates the digestive attack, have led to distinguishing the fish in a very digestible fish product (race, cod, sole, sea bass, trout, snapper, sea bream, sarago, cernia), digestible (mullet, tuna, mullet, dogfish, swordfish, sardines, anchovies) and less digestible (eel, herring, mackerel).
Nutritional value of fish
The chemical composition of fish meat does not differ much from that of mammals and birds as far as proteins are concerned, while a notable difference is given by fats due to the high content of unsaturated fatty acids.
The composition on average is:
- water (about 70%);
- proteins (about 20% with amino acids of high biological value );
- fats (about 4.5% in which both unsaturated fatty acids and phospholipids are in greater quantities than other types of meat);
- mineral salts (about 1.5% which varies depending on the habitat in which the fish is found but among which we find mainly the phosphorus and calcium contained in the skeleton and therefore more assimilable in small fish that can be eaten whole).
As in all meats, the carbohydrate content is irrelevant. The main difference with the other meats lies therefore in the richness of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids that our body is not able to produce starting from other foods and which therefore must necessarily be assimilated from the outside with food.
The richness of omega-3 in these meats contrasts with the richness of so-called " saturated " fats in beef, pork, etc.
The results of studies showing a protective effect of consumption of fish or omega-3 polyunsaturated fats compared to various diseases such as those of the cardiovascular system or some forms of cancer are now known. Basically it will be worth the saying "being healthy like a fish".
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The organoleptic characteristics of the fish, how to recognize the fresh?
More than for any other food, the importance of organoleptic characteristics for edible purposes that reveal the state of freshness or otherwise of the product to be purchased is of great importance for fish. Among these characters we find:
- the smell similar to that of marine algae which is soft and salty if the fish is fresh and is of sea while it is similar to mud if the fish is of fresh water;
- the general bright aspect with iridescent reflections and bright colors;
- the consistency of the meat which must be firm and elastic and which does not preserve the imprint of digital pressure;
- the taut and moist skin, without lacerations and adherent to the underlying planes;
- the terse and brilliant eye that occupies the entire eye cavity and protrudes slightly;
- the gills of red or pink color, moist and bright;
- the abdomen of normal shape, neither swollen, soft or floppy.
These freshness characteristics, however, have only an indicative value since it is not infrequently confirmed, in absolutely fresh fish, of alterations of various kinds that in no way refer to putrefactive processes. For example, in the mullet the eye is whitish immediately after death due to the presence of an adipose eyelid that closes as a veil or the dog that gives off a natural strong and slightly ammoniacal smell or the Sardinian which, even if fresh, it loses its scales and presents itself with torn skin.
The cost of fish
It should be borne in mind that the different cost of the various qualities of fish has no relation to the nutritional value.
The low price of some species is given by the lower cost of production due to the abundant abundance of fish at certain times of the year, such as for example sardines, anchovies, tuna and other species of pelagic fish which collect at the time of reproduction in spring. in large groups and therefore easily and abundantly caught.
