A healthy pescatarian diet is largely made up of minimally processed plant foods, plus seafood and possibly dairy and eggs. A pescatarian is someone who adds fish and seafood to a vegetarian diet and there are many reasons people choose to forgo meat and poultry, but still eat fish. Some people choose to add fish to a vegetarian diet so they can get the health benefits of a plant-based diet plus heart-healthy fish. Others might be trying to curb the environmental impact of their diet. For some, it might be simply a matter of taste. Yim and I like Salmon and Cod, Halibut and Snapper and look for organic fish only when we do eat fish.
What Is a Pescatarian? Health Benefits
Most simply, a pescatarian is someone who doesn’t eat meat, but does eat fish. The term pescatarian was coined in the early 1990s and is a combination of the Italian word for fish, “pesce,” and the word “vegetarian.” In scientific literature, this diet is often described as “pesco-vegetarian,” and is lumped into the spectrum of vegetarianism. By that definition, a pescatarian is someone who chooses to eat a vegetarian diet, but who also eats fish and other seafood. It’s a largely plant-based diet of whole grains, nuts, legumes, produce and healthy fats, with seafood playing a key role as a main protein source. Many pescatarians also eat dairy and eggs, as we do.
Of course, just as vegetarian diets can vary widely, so can pescatarian ones. It’s possible to eat a meat-free diet that’s full of processed starches, junk food and fish sticks, rather than a healthier one based on whole foods.
Why Do People Choose a Pescatarian Diet?
There are several reasons people may choose to eat a pescatarian diet. Here are some of the main ones.
Health Benefits
There are many proven benefits to plant-based diets, including a lower risk of obesity and chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes. And according to research, you can get many of those protective benefits from a pescatarian diet too.
One study found that women who were pescatarians gained 2.5 fewer pounds (1.1 kg) each year than women who ate meat and people who shifted their diet in a more plant-based direction gained the least amount of weight, showing that reducing your animal consumption may be good for you no matter your current eating patterns. Another study concluded that pescatarians had a lower risk of developing diabetes at 4.8%, compared to omnivores at 7.6%.
Additionally, one large study looked at people who ate meat rarely or were pescatarians and they had a 22% lower risk of dying from heart disease compared to regular meat-eaters.
Environmental Concerns
Raising livestock comes with a high environmental cost. According to the United Nations, raising livestock contributes to 15% of all human-made carbon emissions. In contrast, producing fish and seafood has a lower carbon footprint than producing any type of animal meat or cheese. A 2014 study calculated that diets of fish eaters caused 46% less greenhouse gas emissions than the diets of people who ate at least a serving of meat a day.
Ethical Reasons
Ethics can be a major reason why people choose to go vegetarian. It can be a major reason for pescatarians too.
Some of the ethical reasons people choose not to eat meat include.
- Opposing slaughter: They don’t want to kill animals for food.
- Inhumane factory practices: They refuse to support factory farms that raise livestock in inhumane conditions.
- Poor labor conditions: They refuse to support factory farms that have poor conditions for their workers.
- Humanitarian reasons: They consider producing grain for animal feed an unjust use of land and resources when there’s so much hunger in the world.
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