The British Food Standards Agency (FSA) completely ignores shellfish in its seafood consumption recommendations. This is despite the fact that shellfish are as nutritious as finfish and, in some instances, more beneficial to human health.
The agency advises consumers to eat at least two portions of fish a week, including one of oily fish, but there is no mention of whether people should include shellfish as one of their seafood meal options.
“The FSA should be including shellfish in its two-a-week message,” said Tom Pickerell, director of the Shellfish Association of Great Britain (SAGB), the United Kingdom’s shellfish trade organization. “There is low domestic consumption of shellfish, and we want to highlight the importance of shellfish to policymakers.”
To this end, the SAGB has just concluded a three-year project investigating the nutritional and health benefits of eating shellfish. “During the three years we have gathered the evidence to prove that we should be eating more shellfish if we want to eat healthily,” said Pickerell. “We can now provide the definitive guide to the health benefits of eating shellfish.”
According to the SAGB, shellfish are one of the best possible dietary sources of protein available. “They contain almost as much protein per 100 grams as meats without anywhere near the same levels of saturated fat, which is linked to an increased risk of heart disease,” said the SAGB. “The protein in shellfish is of high quality and, because of a lack of connective tissue, very digestible for people of all ages.”
In fact, shellfish contain all nine amino acids essential for human health. Some species such as brown crab, mussels and oysters also contain high levels of the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids essential for heart health. The levels are comparable to those found in oil rich finfish species such as salmon.
Shellfish contain none of the negatives of red meat, said Pickerell. “They are very low in fat and calories, much lower than meat. A dozen oysters contain less than 100 calories and only 0.2 grams of saturated fat. Most shellfish are less than 5 percent fat, with many varieties containing less than 1 percent.”
An added bonus is that while it is generally recognized that seafood is an excellent source of minerals, shellfish are especially valuable sources of copper, iodine and zinc. Other minerals in shellfish include iron, potassium and selenium. Shellfish are also loaded with vitamins. For example, half a dozen oysters provide approximately 10 percent of the recommended daily amount of vitamin A, while a cocktail amount of prawns provide around 50 percent of the recommended daily amount of vitamin E.
Despite all the health benefits, it will take a great deal of effort to persuade the average British consumer to increase his or her shellfish consumption. “Unfortunately, shellfish has rarely been considered a healthy food in the UK,” said Pickerell. “In fact, in a nation where fish and chips is the most commonly eaten seafood, our rich harvest of shellfish is often ignored and instead shipped across the Channel where it is consumed with passion, often by us Brits on holiday.”
In 2008, the last year for which statistics are available, the British fishing fleet landed about 140,000 metric tons of shellfish, 68 percent of which were exported, mostly to France and Spain.
The cost to the UK’s National Health Service caused by 200,000 deaths a year from coronary heart disease, plus the number of people suffering from obesity doubling each year, may persuade the government to promote seafood, including shellfish, consumption, noted Pickerell.
But, at best, this is a faint hope. As usual, it will fall to the seafood industry itself to take this on. Past experience shows that this is unlikely. But at least the SAGB has now provided the ammunition should someone want to try.
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