How often do you eat fresh fish and what kinds of fish do you eat?

[Dutchie]

I was just wondering about how often do you eat fresh/frozen fish?

Across here fish is just as expensive as meat (depending of course what kind of meat/fish) etc.

We (including our kids) eat fish about once or twice per week just because we love it and that's not counting the times that I make a tuna fish salad with french bread for dinner on warmer days.

[hotprincesscm]

I don't eat it much...fish and seafood is much more expensive than meat here! Once in a while I'll buy salmon or shrimp..even clams...but it's not often. Don't get me wrong I love seafood...just expensive!

[tigo]

Back home (on the Gulf Coast) we would eat it at least twice a week. Here it is just so costly that we only eat seafood once every two or three weeks.

[imagine]

Here Seafood is very very expensive and lake fish and river fish is expensive if not caught yourself.

We buy frozen salmon and canned tuna when it is on sale. So it is varied the amount we eat it.

Some people meet at the river to catch fish for dinner but it not a guaranteed you will catch anything even if you are there a few hours.

My parents have a lake on their land so you can get some fish there (and normally eat it there) but again you aren't guaranteed you will catch anything

[TexasPeanut]

Living where I do, we eat plenty. We have the gulf and tons of lakes and rivers all around us so we have plenty of opportunities for both fresh and saltwater fishing. Generally we eat fish or seafood twice a week. Sometimes it's fresh caught catfish from a nearby lake or river, we set up trotlines overnight and let them catch themselves....or usually it's fresh caught gulf shrimp, crabs, red drum, trout or some other type of fish we can catch on a good day. Even when we aren't able to catch anything it's widely available and reasonable to purchase, but for the most part we spend a lot of time fishing so we usually bring home something. I also prepare tuna salad especially during the summer time a few times a month for our weekend lunches.

[JustMegan79]

Around here fish is so much more expensive than meat. So we never buy it. We do, however, catch and eat Rainbow Trout, Brown Trout, and Native Brookies whenever we can. Dh likes it more than I do, I detest the bones. I catch, he cleans/cooks/eats. Its just fun for me, the fishing, he gets the fun of fishing and of the eating since he enjoys it.

[Grainlady]

I agree with the high price keeping fish/seafood a low-priority food item - other than canned tuna and salmon. I try to keep to $2.00/pound for meat and fish purchases (or I limit total spent for meat/fish a week to $10 - which is 1/5 of my total food budget), so that squeezes most fish products out of my budget unless it's an unusual bargain purchased as a "treat". Which is about as often as a rarely purchased beef steak.

Another thing to consider is the safety of fish in the diet. If you are doing your own fish harvesting, be sure to check to see if there is a "FISH ADVISORY" in the area you are fishing. Recreationally caught fish may not be the healthiest choice. Many lakes and rivers are under a health advisory of some kind. The EPA recommends women of childbearing age eat no more than 6-ounces of recreationally caught fish a week; children should eat no more than 2-ounces per week.

EPA's National Database for Fish Advisories:
http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/fish/

Some kinds of fish have too much mercury, so choose the right kinds of fish if you:

-are pregnant or nursing
-for young children
-are thinking about gettin pregnant

Low-mercury choices:
-salmon
-flounder
-cod
-catfish
-trout
-pollock (the fish used for imitation crab)

Other kinds of seafood that are low in mercury:
-clams
-shrimp
-scallops
-lobster

When it comes to canned tuna, it has some mercury in it. The amount you can safely eat depends on how much you weigh. If you normally consume a lot of tuna, you may want to switch to salmon.

This is a chart I got when I took a class on "Fish in the Diet", for consumption of canned tuna....

Eat no more than this much tuna per week:

25-pounds / 1 tablespoon or 1 oz.
50-pounds / 2 tablespoons or 2 oz.
75-pounds / 3 tablespoons or 3 oz.
100-pounds / 5 tablespoons or 5 oz.
125-pounds / 6 tablespoons or 6 oz.
150-pounds / 8 tablespoons or 8 oz.
175-pounds / 9 tablespoons or 9 oz.
200-pounds / 10 tablespoons or 10 oz.

Fish to avoid due to high amounts of mercury:
-Swordfish
-Shark
-Tilefish (aka Golden Snapper)
-King mackerel
-Tuna steak

I watched a TV show that showed the dangers of mercury poisoning from canned tuna in a young child. It wasn't a pleasant thing and no parent would wish the disabilities associated with mercury consumption on their child. The mother allowed the child to consume whole CANS of tuna daily.

For more fish information: http://www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/oehas/fish/default.htm

[imagine]

Thanks Grainlady for the EPA's National Database for Fish Advisories:
http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/fish/ Link

I clicked on the map to see local advisories None in the areas I have local to fish. Locally it also allows higher fish consumption oz per week here.

It was very interesting very helpful link. It even told you what parts of what rivers from point X to pint Z that should be avoided or limited.

Thanks again.

[frugal.lass]

My mother detests seafood in basically every shape so growing up the only fish I ever had was canned tuna or breaded fish sticks. Now as an adult, I do eat fish but I tend to stick to frozen fish...I'm not really sure what to do with fresh fish and it tends to be more expensive. I'm like most posters on this thread...fish tends to be a rare treat unless I can find it on a fantastic sale and then I stock up.

[baxjul]

We eat alot of Bass, red fish, and some catfish here. My dh goes fishing every other week.

[suki]

Fish is one source of protein that is easy for me to digest. Crohn's disease has marked a lot of things, including red meat and legumes off my diet. Serving per serving (not pound for pound), I've found that fish really isn't more expensive than meat.

I eat salmon, tilapia (love fish tacos) and shell fish on a regular basis (several times a week and daily if stomach is not digesting food well). All of these come to us frozen since we live far from the ocean.

We are blessed to be surrounded by three rivers and two beautiful lakes. From our local bounty we enjoy smoked trout, fresh catfish and striper. Bass and crappie are available, but I don't really eat them.

When I have to eat out, I enjoy Subway's seafood sub with spinach, or McD's fish sandwich.

I prefer not to eat very much heavily fried fish or seafood.

Because fish is one of the few things that I can eat well and receive nutrients from, I tend to think we evolved to include fish in our diets.

[ml2620]

We eat bass, haddock, smoked bluefish and as much tuna as we can get!

We probably have fresh fish 2 times a week, but we live on the ocean and my BIL is a fisherman. A generous fisherman!

[MomToTwoBoys]

We only really eat it if it's ice fishing season. We eat white fish (which is fresh water, but it's a bottom feeder type fish) quite a bit. Most fish here is pretty expensive if you get it in the store and the kids wouldn't touch fish unless it was breaded anyways.

[Trishagirl]

We don't eat fish here very much. For one I don't like it at all. Dh loves it but it's expensive so we don't buy it except for special occasions. I made salmon patties for his birthday in March.

[Nana2two]

We love fish here. Plus with me having pancreatic problems fish and chicken is the best for me.. We eat SHARK--MAU-MAU SP? ORANGE ROUGHY--COD-SALMON--CRAB--SHRIMP-BASS-TALIPIA-AFEW OTHER ONES. It does add about 60 bucks more a month to the food bill. But when you have stomach issues its well worth it.