Eating Seafood: A Healthy Way to Get Plenty of Protein
The USDA's ChooseMyPlate website recommends that people eat seafood at least two times every week as a way to get plenty of heart-healthy omega-3 fats in their diet. This is one of the healthier sources of protein, as it's naturally low in fat. Other healthy sources of protein include beans, soy products, unsalted nuts and lean poultry.
When choosing seafood, consider salmon. It's one of the types of seafood that is highest in omega-3 fats, with farmed Atlantic salmon providing about 1,825 milligrams of omega-3 fat per 3-ounce serving. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends getting an average of at least 500 milligrams per day of a combination of EPA and DHA, the two types of omega-3 fats found in fish, so this one serving of fish provides more than 3 day's worth of omega-3 fats. Salmon farming provides at least half of the salmon consumed in the United States.
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Women should eat about 5 to 5.5 ounces of protein foods each day and men need about 5.5 to 6 ounces of protein foods per day if they're moderately active. Each 3-ounce serving of farmed Atlantic salmon provides about 19 grams of protein.
Salmon is also rich in vitamins and minerals, with each serving providing about 40 percent of the daily value for vitamin B-12, 19 percent of the DV for thiamine, 34 percent of the DV for niacin, 13 percent of the DV for pantothenic acid and 28 percent of the DV for vitamin B-6. These B vitamins are essential for turning the food a person eats into energy and keeping skin and hair healthy. This same serving is rich is selenium, with 50 percent of the DV, and phosphorus, with 21 percent of the DV. People need selenium and phosphorus for forming DNA and selenium also helps with proper immune function.
While salmon is a healthy food, like all seafood it can be contaminated with mercury. Salmon is relatively low in mercury, and it's safe for most people to eat up to 12 ounces per week of seafood from this category, which also includes a large number of other types of seafood, including shrimp, pollock, canned light tuna and catfish.
