Omega-please

In preparing to make this change in my life, I’ve been experimenting with a lot of seafood. I never used to be a fan of it, but am having fun trying new recipes. Last night, I made tilapia with chermoula sauce and cucumber blood orange couscous.

Tilapia with chermoula sauce and cucumber blood orange couscous.

Chermoula, or charmoula, is popular in Algerian, Libyan, Moroccan and Tunisian cooking, as a marinade, and to flavour seafood. It was really simple to make by mixing cumin, coriander, sweet paprika, cilantro, olive oil, and lemon juice together.

Eating seafood seems like an important part of the anti-inflammatory diet because essential fatty acids play such an important role in the body. Fatty fish are high in fatty acids, especially omega-3s, which help form the classic eicsanoids that affect inflammation; the endocannabinoids that affect mood, behaviour, and inflammation; the lipoxins that also affect inflammation; and others — even acting on DNA.

However, when my kid was 3 years-old, they once famously said: “Fish are for swimming; not for eating!” And poof! We had a new vegetarian in the family. Eventually, they even became vegan and I cooked nothing, but vegan food, for ten years. They grew taller and more talented than me without eating any fish for a large portion of their life. So, is eating fish really that important?

It turns out my kid probably benefited from not eating certain kinds of fatty fish because they are also high in mercury, PCBs, and other toxins that can be especially harmful to children and pregnant women. Walnuts, flaxseed, canola, and soybean oils are all much safer sources of essential fatty acids.

Because I just started experimenting with these great fish recipes, I am not going to give them up just yet. In the meantime, I suppose I could give walnuts a chance.