For the last several years, I’ve focused on buying and eating wild-caught fish and seafood for the nutritional benefits. I’ve coached my clients and students to do the same.

Recently I’ve been more interested in farmed fish for two reasons:

1. I can’t always find wild-caught fish in restaurants.
2. We have a growing population with awareness of nutritional benefits of eating fish. I’ve asked myself if it’s really sustainable for me to choose wild-caught because fishing can deplete the wild populations and damage habitats. I want to make choices that are best for the planet and wildlife.

Here’s Part 1 of 3 of an interview with Sun Brage, Communications Director of Aquaculture Stewardship Council. 

Some highlights of what we learned from Sun:

50% of seafood eaten worldwide is farm-raised! 

Aquaculture is the fastest growing production sector for animal protein and has a lower carbon footprint than pork or beef.

ASC’s goal is to transform aquaculture for both environmental impact and social responsibility. They do this by setting standards for responsible farming which include:

• Working conditions that meet the International Labour Organization standards.
• Environmental standards to ensure the farm does not cause detriment to water quality or wildlife.
• Feed standards to ensure the food that is used to feed the marine life is sustainably-sourced.
• Traceability means you can trace back every aspect of the fish’s life and processing.

Three main types of aquaculture:

1. Mariculture is aquaculture that takes place in artificial enclosures in coastal regions.

Bivalves, such as mussels and oysters, can feed themselves on plankton that naturally exist in the ocean. Some fish, including salmon, rely on feed provided by the farm which includes fishmeal, fish oil and some terrestrial (land-based) ingredients.

2. Integrated aquaculture introduces byproducts (waste) from one species to use as fertilizer or feed for a second species. Integrated aquaculture typically is housed in pools.

3. Recirculation aquaculture (RES) takes place in pools and recycles water used for hosting the marine life by filtering it and cycling it back into the tanks.

Please let me know in the comments about what you will do to choose sustainable seafood.

You might also be interested in these blog posts:

• Choose Sustainable Wild-Caught Seafood
• If you’re in the Southeast, check out this related interview with Andrea Margiotta of the SC Aquarium “Good Catch” program.
• #1 Priority for Organic Food
• Buying the Best Chicken and Eggs
• ABCs of GMOs -What you need to know now

Book a complimentary consultation. I’d love to help you!

Welcome Guest Blogger Amy Slater from Moms 4 Health! Thank you for sharing your research with the Choose Joyful Health community. Here’s Amy’s post…

I am a mom who strives on every level to choose real food. Food is primary for me when it comes to encouraging healthy development of my kids. Traditional kids’ processed food is calorie rich and nutrient poor. It is expensive, promotes poor eating habits, and alters gut health.

Although the bulk of my kids’ diet is real, whole fresh food, I do have a few go-to supplements and packaged foods that I happily offer to myself and my kids. I would love to share them with you here:

Pasta

Our family avoids gluten and we choose to minimize our grain consumption. It works best for our health plan. 

Tolerant Foods Pasta

All Tolerant pastas are made with organic and non GMO ingredients. Most have 10+grams of fiber and over 12 grams of protein per serving! This is very important to kids growth and development, not to mention satiety!

Trader Joe’s: red lentil and black bean pastas are also great choices.

Explore Cuisine:  

Organic green lentil lasagna is a great pasta alternative to boost the nutrition in your pasta dish.

 Gelatin

I add hydrolyzed gelatin to my coffee and all of our ground beef dishes, smoothies and banana ice cream. The hydrolyzed gelatin dissolves quickly and you cannot taste it in the finished product. I use the non-hydrolyzed gelatin to make jello from kombucha or gummies. Gelatin contains glycine which is a fundamental building block to all of our tissues from brain and blood to bone and fascia.

Great Lakes Collagen Hydrolysate
 

 Great Lakes Gelatin 

 Primal Kitchen Grass-Fed Collagen Peptides 

 Meat Bars and Sticks

Epic Bars:  

I choose the lower protein bars for the kids so they don’t get a big hit of protein all at once. They LOVE the Bison Cranberry bars. I pair these bars with steamed broccoli, olives and raw carrots for the girls’ car seat snack bowl while running errands.

Mission Meats Grass-Fed Graze Sticks:

These are also great car seat snacks and they are great for an afternoon snack along with some fruit for the boys.

Chips, Crackers and Rice Cakes

Sea Snax:

Roasted nori sheets in olive oil are a fabulous snack and a great way to get some sea vegetables in your kids’ diet. They come in big packs or small individual packs perfect for lunch boxes. This is also an excellent snack to give your kids in the afternoon when they get home from school so they will not spoil their dinner. I choose these seaweed snacks because they are roasted in coconut oil only.

Siete Grain Free Tortilla Chips:

I reserve these for taco night. The kids get about 5-8 chips each which stretches the bag. I choose these chips because they are grain free and fried in avocado oil only.

Lundberg Thin Stackers Organic Brown Rice Cakes:

I use these as treats. I top them with butter, raw cheese, avocado, tomato, turkey or ham. They are just enough of a crunch to satisfy the kids.

Thrive Market Plantain Chips with Sea Salt:

 When I don’t have time to make my own plantain chips, I use Thrive Market’s plantain chips. They are a great alternative to traditional chips.

Bars

Most of the time I make my own because of the cost savings. But, these are some good alternatives. If I do use a stor- bought bar, it is typically when we our running errands or in a lunchbox. The cost is too high for using these as a stand alone snack. I always stretch them with fruit and/or veggies. 

Kind Bars:

I look for the 5 grams of sugar or less bars. Costco sells a bulk mix box of two different kinds of 5 grams of sugar or less bars. I use them as “Birthday Bars,” which means I give them to the boys’ teachers to hand out as an alternate to the classroom birthday treats.

RX Bars:

These little gems have helped me nix my husband’s snack cravings after dinner. They are sold in bulk in Costco. They only have four ingredients and offer 12 grams of protein per bar.

Health Warrior Chia Bars:

I always pick these up when Whole Foods or Thrive has them on sale. They are really filling for the kids and easy to stretch when paired with fruit.

The bottom line…

Ingredients matter and so does food quality!

At the same time, if budget is a concern, take advantage of wholesale sites like Thrive Market and shop around for great prices. Stretch your high quality food products with fresh food and you can easily eat well while not breaking the bank!!

Use any of the links in this blog post and receive an additional 20% off your first three orders from Thrive Market. 

Thrive Market sells your favorite organic and non-gmo brands for up to 50% off retail.

Feel free to reach out to me via moms4healthusa@gmail.com

And follow the blog at Moms4health.com for more great tips, recipes, and strategies for making a healthy lifestyle for the family.

Even though I’ve been studying nutrition, sustainable food choices, and food policy for a long time, I still had a lot of questions about fish and seafood. It seemed like “the last frontier,” as I can’t see underwater to learn about fish in the same way that I can observe cows, chickens, pigs, and plants.

Even though I understood that wild-caught fish have ideal nutrition as they are eating their natural diet, I have been concerned that our growing consumption of fish and seafood is damaging wildlife populations and their ecosystems.

To educate myself and share the learning with you, I have been studying three areas:

1. Wild-caught fish and seafood;
2. Aquaculture or fish farming;
3. Local fisheries in Upstate SC

I’m excited to share with you an interview with Jackie Marks of the Marine Stewardship Council. 

Jackie shared with me:

• How overfishing and unsustainable fishing practices can damage not only the fish populations, but also the ocean/lake/river environments and our communities
• The Marine Stewardship Council is a neutral third-party organization that sets international standards for sustainable fishing. These ensure the fish population is not being depleted too much, the environment is not damaged by fishing, and that there is a good management plan in place for long-term success.
• Look for the MSC logo – “the little blue fish” – to ensure that products are healthy for the eco-system, and ask for MSC-certified fish in restaurants.
• There is HOPE. We can make an impact with our daily and weekly choices.
• Surprise!  All of McDonald’s Filet-o-Fish sandwiches are sourced from MSC-certified Alaska pollock.

Our purchases impact the environment in a huge way! Please ask for MSC-certified and/or local and sustainably-caught fish and seafood.

Here’s the logo so you can look for MSC-certified fish and seafood.

Share this post with friends and family to help spread the word.

Please let me know in the comments about what you will do to choose sustainable seafood.

You might also be interested in these blog posts:

• Three types of sustainable seafood farms
• If you’re in the Southeast, check out this related interview with Andrea Margiotta of the SC Aquarium “Good Catch” program.
• #1 Priority for Organic Food
• Buying the Best Chicken and Eggs
• ABCs of GMOs -What you need to know now

Ready to make conscious, informed food choices for the long-term? Check out the self-paced program Five Star Eating.

We hear a lot about probiotics and fermented foods now. Find out why these are being touted as “superfoods” and how the health of your “gut” is related to not only digestion but also…

• Sleep quality and quantity
• Mood
• Cognition
• Overall energy and health

Registered Dietician Katherine Spinks of Fruition Nutrition answered all my questions and more.

Benefit from her research by watching the video to find out:

• The basics of probiotics and prebiotics
• How stress and processed foods impact your gut health
• What you should be doing daily to stay healthy

This video is just a small portion of what Katherine shared with me. You might also be wondering about:

• #1 best strategy for gut health even when you can’t get fermented foods
• what to look for in the grocery store
• how to know if a bottled probiotic pill or powder really does what it says on the label 
• sodium in fermented foods
• how to get the right amount of probiotics for your body
• when we need to take a supplement
• impact of drinking alcohol on gut health
• ideal temperatures for storing probiotics and cooking fermented foods
• best time of day to take a probiotic supplement
• how to keep your digestion healthy while you travel.

Book a complimentary consultation. I’d love to help you!