Is eating fish healthy?

Intro

Hey what’s happening?!!…

This is Isai Rodriguez… host of the DadSplanation Podcast where I cater to the Professional Working Man, 40 and above, who’s looking to make positive changes to his health, lose weight, and become stronger overall through simple lifestyle changes.

I’m here to share inspiration, tips and proven lessons that I’ve personally learned and lived through in my 40+ years on this beautiful blue planet.

So today we’ll start the discussion with Make Your At Home Vacation Feel Like a Vacation in our first segment and then we’ll move on to our 2nd segment and answer the question Is eating fish healthy?…

And before we get into that, if you’d like to continue the conversation, then get on over to podcast.dadsplanation.com/vip to get on the VIP Insider’s Community where I share more entertaining “behind-the-scenes” stories, tips, and hacks that’ll keep you feeling younger each and every day!

That’s podcast.dadsplanation.com/vip…

Again, that’s podcast.dadsplanation.com/vip… be in the know… starting right now

Also, don’t forget to rate me on Apple Podcasts… OR wherever it is you’re listening to this Episode… AND leave me a NICE… FAT… JUICY… 5-star-review and some absolutely beautiful words of why you love the show so much! It really helps me get the word out and it’s honestly the one place where your vote truly matters!

And now let’s move into our first segment… Healthy Conversations…

Healthy Conversations:   Make Your At Home Vacation Feel Like a Vacation

So I know a lot of people who have been taking what’s known as a StayCation…

And why not?…

Just because we’re stuck at home in COVID lockdown doesn’t mean you should let that PTO go to waste… Or worse… letting it expire!

But there’s a little problem that I’m hearing people talk about.

So while you’re planning your stay-at-home-vacation, you’re all pumped about your genius plan to save money by staying at home.

But once you’re on it, you realize it’s not exactly as relaxing as you thought it would be.

It’s not as relaxing as the real deal…

And even though you might not actually be lounging on a sunny Florida beach or exploring the streets of Austin, you can feel like you are (even if you’re really sitting on your couch) simply by using this one expert-approved trick for tapping into that vacay-level chill zone…

Are you ready for the secret?…

It’s breathing.

Mindblown, huh?!

And now, if your first thought was, “Breathing? No way!” then hear me out.

Breathwork can seriously help with bringing a laid-back wellness travel vibe with you wherever you go, whether you’re in your kitchen to whip up a special snack or on a yoga mat in your living room for a quick power vinyasa flow session… breathwork is where it’s at.

And to make it happen, follow these tips from industry experts on how to use a breathwork practice to help you actually relax.

You want to find your happy place

The name kinda makes it sound fancy but you don’t actually need to know any special techniques to start with breathwork practice.

It just takes a few deep breaths and some imagination.

You can get a lot more out of self-care practice by just imagining where you want to be in that moment and then transporting yourself using your breath.

So I personally like to imagine the sounds of my inhales and exhales as the sounds of distant waves crashing on the beach.

Give it a try while you’re sitting on your couch or relaxing just before bed and you’ll have definitive proof you don’t need an actual beach to tap into that vacay mindset.

Channel your vacation vibes

So while Austin’s food trucks and Florida’s fresh fruit might be out of your reach, that doesn’t mean you can’t recreate a favorite food experience from a past trip or allow yourself to get inspired by your dream destination.

No matter what you choose for culinary inspiration, pausing to take a deep breath before your first bite can make all the difference in making your meal feel like a vacay dining experience.

Deep breathing before a meal really helps activate that rest-and-digest part of you and it’s suggested that you use all your senses to really experience the meal instead of just rushing through it.

Visualize it… feel it… sense it… and finally, taste it!

Do it for the experience

You’d never opt out of a vacation altogether because you weren’t sure if you were packing your suitcase correctly, right?

Opting out of starting a breathwork routine because you’re nervous you’re not doing it right is just silly doodles, if you ask me.

Forget all the sometimes-intimidating-sounding terminology and just focus on enjoying it—like you would with a vacation.

You hear a lot of these buzzwords all the time like, ‘I have to be present’ or ‘I have to clear my mind’ or ‘I have to manifest this in my life’

While these phrases can help get you in an intentional mindset, they can also enforce the idea that there’s a “right way to meditate” when the reality is there’s no Right or Wrong way… Just do it!

Just allow yourself to observe it.

Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and imagine yourself on the amazing vacation of your dreams.

What would that be?

Think about that for a second and then drop me a line down in the comments and tell me where you’re imagining yourself…

Are you on the beaches in Los Cabos, Mexico?
Snorkelling off the coast of Jamaica?
Or maybe you’re out cruising the Alaskan Glacier Bay on a Norwegiean Cruise Line tour…

Drop it in the comments… I can’t wait to see what you imagine yourself doing!

And so, with that said… Let’s move on to our SECOND segment… “Mighty Man”

Mighty Man:   Is eating fish healthy?

Fish has a reputation for being one of the healthiest foods we can eat.

We know this…

We know that fish is a healthy food, but do the health benefits of eating fish outweigh the risks of eating it…

… especially during these days when the actual sources of all fish is drying up?

And here’s another question for you to think about…

With the availability of plant-based alternatives and also the increasing concerns about seafood’s sustainability and carbon footprint, the question I’ve been hearing a lot is…

Do we even need fish in our diet at all?

And with all of the concern about Mercury and nasty stuff that get into the fish…

Does eating fish provide more health benefits – or health risks?

In fact… one of the biggest concerns about fish has always been its potentially harmful levels of pollutants and metals.

One of those pollutants is called PCBs (or Poly-Chlorinated-Biphenyls)…

And while they were banned back in the ‘80s…

… these industrial chemicals were used worldwide in huge quantities and can still be found in the ground and in the water we drink.

They’ve been associated with a range of negative health effects on everything from the immune system to the brain.

And even though PCBs are found in everything from dairy products to drinking water, the highest levels tend to be found in fish.

And here’s the funny thing…

The solution for limiting your intake of PCBs from fish may sound counterintuitive…

So it’s thought that part of the problem of this accumulation of toxic crap in fish is more of concern with wild fish that’s caught for direct human consumption.

So if you’ve shopped for fish you’ve heard of wild-caught salmon versus farm-raised.

It’s the wild-caught variety that’s no good! Go figure… who would’ve thought?

Because here’s the thing… the stuff that’s fed to farmed fish is generally cleaned or scrubbed to remove toxins and so from this perspective, farmed fish is often safer than wild.

And even though the whole “fish farming” is generally viewed as better for our health and better for the environment…

It’s been found that large-scale farming of fish comes with its own set of problems, like the polluting of oceans with waste and these “fish farms” becoming breeding grounds for diseases that can spill over into the wild.

The NHS in the UK recommends that pregnant and breastfeeding women limit their intake of fish species that are more likely to contain PCBs and other nasty stuff like dioxins…

They say they should limit this to two portions per week.

These are fish like salmon, sardines, sea bass, crabs… things like that.

And now “why am I mentioning this on a podcast made for men”?

Simple…

Most of you have special women in your life right?… Whether it be a wife… a girlfriend… your mother… Fiancee… whatever… Don’t you think you should know this for their sake?

Ok… let’s hope you don’t need it for your mother’s sake but you get what I’m saying right?…

It’s important to know either way…

Another worry with fish is mercury.

Here’s the bottom line with mercury…

There are numerous links between mercury ingestion and cancer…
between mercury ingestion and diabetes…
between mercury ingestion and heart disease!

C’mon guys! None of this is good for you… You know that!

There’s no denying this is some bad stuff but there’s a little good news too…

So general concerns around “heavy metals in fish” is more of a problem when it comes to species that live a particularly long time – like swordfish…

They can live for 15 to 20 years.

And now to give you a bit of perspective on this…

There was a study that compared Swordfish to Salmon that showed that the Swordfish specimens averaged around .995 PPM, while the salmon, which lives on average of about four to five years, had an average of around .014 PPM of mercury.

And they also said how these levels will be on the rise as the global ice caps continue to melt.

So as this Arctic permafrost melts, it releases mercury that was trapped in ice into the connecting waterways.

But there’s a lot of good stuff about fish too…

You know?…

It’s not all Doom-and-Gloom as they say.

So the consumption of oily fishes like salmon, tuna, sardines, and mackerel have been linked to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease thanks to its omega 3 fatty acids EPA and DHA.

Both EPA and DHA play a whole bunch of important roles in your metabolism but our bodies can’t produce them effectively and so it’s really important to have them as part of your diet.

We have plenty of DHA in our brains, retinas, and other specialised body parts and along with EPA, helps to fight off inflammation which has been linked to a higher risk of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.

One way to avoid potential damage from mercury exposure while still getting omega 3 is to take fish oil supplements.

But some research that was recently carried out on behalf of the World Health Organization (WHO) found that they don’t have the same effect as eating oily fish.

You see… Our bodies are adapted to metabolising whole foods rather than a single slug of a particular nutrient or ingredient.

But intervention trials, where people are randomly assigned to a group and an intervention such as taking omega-3 supplements is measured, have problems.

So analysing the potential health impacts of EPA and DHA deficiency, for example, is kinda difficult because people start these trials with varying levels of omega-3 in their systems to begin with.

Not only that but fish in general impacts everyone’s health differently depending on how well they can convert the different forms of EPA and DHA.

This difference could come down to a person’s overall diet and lifestyle but genetic differences could also play a big role in the equation.

And then you have to take into consideration “How” the fish were raised.

Were they farm raised, clean… where there’s thousands of fish in a cage and they eat what they’re given by the fish farmer?

Or were they raised out in the wild in a mercury infested part of the ocean where little fish eat marine plankton, and then get eaten by bigger fish, and the whole food chain passes on the omega-3 to humans?

All these variables come into play when we’re considering health impacts.

But the reality is that… Because all of these fish we mentioned are being caught at the maximum level at which the industry can be sustained, CURRENTLY…

There appears to be finite levels of omega fish oils that come out of the ocean each year and that’s all we’ve got!

So basically what’s happening is that a lot of the smaller fish (like sardines and mackerel) are being used to feed the larger fish in these big fish farms…

To meet the current demands of not only the fish meat but for the Omega-3 that’s extracted and used in supplements and other health and nutritional items.

Aside from omega-3, fish has other nutritional benefits as well.

There’s selenium, which protects your cells from damage and infection; Iodine, which supports a healthy metabolism; and of course protein.

Fish in general has always been called “brain food”.

In fact, researchers have found that eating baked or broiled fish is associated with larger brain volumes.

And it’s pretty simple… Our brain volumes change with improved health and also with disease. The more neurons you have, the more brain volume you have.

The relationship between fish and the brain could be down to fish having an anti-inflammatory effect, because when the brain responds to inflammation to try and reduce it, this action of response from your brain can actually affect the brain cells themselves in the process.

This means you can improve brain health and prevent Alzheimer’s with something as simple as adding more fish to your diet.

In fact, to make the brain as resilient as possible to dementia, it’s been advised that you start eating fish at least once a week when you’re in your twenties or thirties.

Another way of looking at fish as being healthy is in the sense that it replaces less healthy foods in your diet.

So basically, if you eat more fish, you tend to eat less of other less healthy things.

But still, there’s still not enough research data to suggest any major health inadequacies for people who don’t eat fish and so it’s kinda hard to truly say that fish is essential to overall human health.

What IS clear is that Omega-3 certainly promotes health and reduces the risk of disease.

That much we do know!

Closing

That’s it you guys… That’s my show for today!

I hope you found some valuable information here and if nothing else, I hope I’ve entertained you for a few minutes and was able to bring a little man-ly sunshine to your day.

Thanks for taking some time out of your day to listen to me… it’s very much appreciated!

On next week’s episode, we’ll be going over the question How Connecting To Others Help Men Heal so you definitely don’t want to miss out on that!

And if you’d like to continue the conversation with me, then get on over to podcast.dadsplanation.com/vip to get on the VIP Insider’s community where I share even more “raw-behind-the-scenes” stories, tips, and hacks that’ll keep you feeling younger and younger… each and every day!

That’s podcast.dadsplanation.com/vip…

Again, that’s podcast.dadsplanation.com/vip… be in the know… starting right now!

Also, don’t forget to rate me on Apple Podcasts… OR wherever it is you’re listening to this Episode… AND leave me a NICE… FAT… JUICY… 5-star-review and some absolutely beautiful words of why you love the show so much!

It really helps me get the word out and it’s honestly the one place where your vote truly matters!

Until our next chat… Take care!