The salmon with its pink color is the most popular food fish in Germany. Mackerel came in ninth. Completely wrong – says our nutrition expert. And FITBOOK explained what makes mackerel one of the healthiest edible fish.
Mackerel is one of the fatty sea fish. The Munich nutritionist Prof. Dr. At FITBOOK, Nicolai Worm explains why mackerel is so particularly healthy for this very reason. Spoiler: it’s not just because of the abundant omega-3 fatty acids.
The big 5 when eating fish
Whenever fish is served in this country, it is usually salmon. According to the German Fish Information Center, it accounts for almost 20 percent of fish consumption in Germany. Alaska pollock, herring, tuna, trout and cod follow – these are our five most popular fish species. Far behind is the mackerel.
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What makes mackerel so healthy?
From a health point of view, the schooling fish, which is 30 to 50 centimeters long, is completely wrongly spurned, says nutritionist Prof. Dr. Nicolai Worm: “Mackerel is a fatty sea fish, so it has a lot of healthy omega-3 fatty acids. The protein is of high quality and it contains an extremely large amount of vitamin D as well as various other vitamins and minerals.” Its vitamin A content, for example, is particularly high: important for healthy eyes, skin and mucous membranes. With around 20 percent protein, mackerel is also an excellent source of protein, which makes it particularly interesting for athletes.
According to Prof. Worm, mackerel, wild salmon and herring are the most omega-3 fatty fish of all. When it comes to salmon, what matters most is the “game”. Because farmed salmon is often fed with inferior grain feed and does not contain as many omega-3 fatty acids as salmon from wild waters.
However, the proportion of omega-3 fatty acids in mackerel also varies greatly. Depending on the season, the mackerel can have between three and 30 percent fat. They are fattest in autumn when they have prepared for wintering in deep water – leanest in early summer right after spawning.
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How can you tell if a mackerel is fat?
With the whole fish you can tell by the bulging volume of the specimens, which are around 30 to 50 centimeters in size. Above all, you can taste it. Prof. Worm: “It tastes oilier, greasy. You notice the difference in consistency, for example between low-fat and high-fat quark.” With processed fish, such as canned fish, it is difficult to tell the difference.
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Isn’t the fat mackerel a calorie bomb?
At first glance, the high fat content makes mackerel high in calories. According to the nutrition experts, you have to consider something very important. When discussing calories, it is important that “a fatty food such as mackerel keeps you full for longer and may therefore contribute to you consuming fewer calories at the end of the day”. You shouldn’t just look at calories as calories without assessing the satiety effect at the same time: Fatty foods fill you up better and help you to feel fuller overall fewer eats
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What is the best way to eat mackerel?
Prof. Worm always prefers fresh food and often eats the “Stickerlfisch” mackerel – skewered and grilled on a stick. In the case of packaged food, you just don’t know which particles are released into the food – regardless of whether it’s plastic packaging or canned food made of aluminum. Of course, packaging cannot always be avoided, but in general fresh and unpackaged food should be preferred – including fish.
What should you pay attention to when buying?
As with all sea fish and fruit, you should also pay attention to sustainable fishing when buying mackerel. The MSC seal of the Marine Stewardship Council is particularly helpful. This is only awarded if the stock of the fish in question is in good condition, the impact of the fishery on the ecosystem is not too great and there is an appropriate response to stock fluctuations. Only when a fishery has proven these criteria in an intensive testing process is it MSC-certified.
For example, Northeast Atlantic mackerel fishermen from Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Great Britain, the Netherlands as well as Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands lost the MSC blue seal for sustainable fishing in early 2019. «According to recent data from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), the mackerel stock in the north-east Atlantic has fallen below its minimum sustainable stock size,» the MSC explains its decision.
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In the case of canned goods in particular, however, it can happen that even months later the seal is still in circulation on mackerel products that were certified before the MSC made its decision. Since this cannot be undone, it is not deliberate consumer deception. Ultimately, the remaining certified products only disappear when they are sold off.
What if I don’t like sea fish?
For those who don’t like sea fish or don’t eat it regularly, the expert recommends taking long-chain, highly unsaturated omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil or algae oil preparations. It should be at least 1 gram of eicosapentaenoic and decosahexaenoic acid (EPA + DHA).