Fatty Fish

[Sully]

Are there any fatty fish out their that you can eat without worrying about eating some fat with it?  Or is it all pretty lean and mostly protein?

[TylerDurden]

Fish is relatively  lean, but go for fish higher in fat-content such as swordfish, mackerel etc.

[coconinoz]

basically, there are 2 kinds of body lipids in all animals:

~ structural: phospholipids & cholesterol; long chain pufa's (aa in land animals & dha in ocean 1s); found in all cell membranes & especially abundant in the brain & nervous system; perceptible as flavor & delicacy in land or sea meat; neither visible to the naked eye or touchable

~ in storage for fuel: mostly sat fat & mufa's; in visceral, muscular, subcutaneous adipose tissues; visible & touchable; these tissues, of course, also contain structural lipids in their cells membranes

land & sea mammals have both types of body fat: structural in their cell membranes as well as adipose tissues
fishy fish (nonmammal) & shellfish do not have adipose tissues; this does not mean, however, that they are devoid of body fat, it only means that their body fat is in their cell membranes as phospholipids (epa & dha) & cholesterol

the thing is, though, that structural lipids are highly fragile & vulnerable: microorganisms are able to hydrogenate (saturate) them thus turning them into transfat

also, such processes as freezing, aging, dehydrating, cooking destroy the cell membranes of all land or sea meat >> throwing the structural lipids down the drain so to speak, so that the eaters of such concoctions miss out on the most valuable brain food there is

 

[coconinoz]

references:

crawford & marsh, the driving force, 1989
cunnane, survival of the fattest, 2005

[Raw Kyle]

How does destroying the membranes throw the lipids down the drain?

[TylerDurden]

Personally, I think that the whole notion of deterioration of PUFAS is somewhat exaggerated, though I would agree that fish do deteriorate much faster than other meats - the solution is to simply eat fish fresh. Then again, the Eskimoes thrived on using mainly fish for making "high-meat", as opposed to other types of foods.

As regards the whole issue of hydrogenation of pufas in the stomach etc., not only are these traces of trans-fats microscopic by comparison to the trans-fats created via processing cooked junk-food, but also it's been suggested in many quarters that such natural trans-fats have not been proven to be harmful in the way that industrially-produced trans-fats have been, with claims that any minimal harmful effects are easily countered by the natural amounts of CLA(also a trans-fat of sorts) in the diet, etc..  In fact, studies have shown that some of the trans-fats produced naturally in the body, are actually highly beneficial(eg:-

http://www.bestsyndication.com/?q=20080403_butter_and_beef_fat_natural_trans_fat_reduce_ldl_cholesterol_triglyceride_levels.htm

) and, of course, there's plenty of evidence in favour of CLA(conjugated linoleic acid) that can be found online.

[wodgina]

Bears do not at the flesh, only the skin. This is where the fat is.

I may do the same and I found the skin on the underbelly most fatty (herring). I might ask if I can have the skins from filleted fish, see what they say.

[JustAnotherExplorer]

Bears do not at the flesh, only the skin. This is where the fat is.

This may be sometimes true, but I have seen video of grizzly bears consuming the entire fish.

[Raw Kyle]

I find the skin of say a salmon rather unappealing. Tough and the scales get everywhere.