Fish & Poultry
Clean protein at its best - proper sourcing is the key
Fish & Poultry
Clean protein at its best - proper sourcing is the key
You are what you eat
What does your chicken or fish eat? Do you want to know? The answer is Yes! As author Michael Pollan says - You are what you eat, eats!” Turns out that’s the pivotal question because protein is easy to find in the good old USA but most is cheap and dirty. Some poultry / fish however is pristine - full of good protein, good fats and good nutrition.
Check out this "quick list" here, then scroll down for a bit more detail on how to get the quantity and quality of protein your body really needs for optimal health, wellness and peak performance.
Best
Wild Caught Salmon
Alaskan salmon, wild caught and frozen at sea or quickly brought to shore, filleted and flash frozen there. Eat this high omega 3 source weekly. Fave
Mackerel, herring, sardines
These small oily fish offer robust flavor and great nutrition. Fave
Lake Trout
White fish, mild, good omega 3 source. Canadian fisheries offer a clean crop. Fave
Tuna
These are predatory fish so the smaller the tuna the cleaner the better - albacore!
Halibut
Wild caught, high in Omega 3’s
Cod
Ditto, yum
Lobster and Shrimp
Only wild caught from clean waters, especially the shrimp, never foreign or Gulf of Mexico.
Pastured Poultry
Chicken and turkey raised outside on grass, moved often to fresh pastures, eating clean grain, grass and bugs for protein. Low density, fresh air, sunshine and no antibiotics.
Pastured Eggs
From the above oh so happy pasture raised poultry. Organic feed is even better. With deep orange yolks these eggs have superior fat profile and higher nutrition.
ok in a pinch
Organic Eggs
Not as good as pastured eggs but... organic grain fed, antibiotic free, high omega 3 feed is way better than standard eggs.
Fresh Fish
Unless you live on a coast and even then, "fresh" fish has often been sitting around way too long, Flash frozen on the boat is still the best.
avoid
Farmed Fish
All the same issues as any confinement feedlot animal - toxins, unnatural feed, hormones, disease. Farm fish also lack the healthy fats that wild caught fish offer in abundance. If it doesn't say "wild caught" it's farmed. “Atlantic” or “Norwegian” are farmed.
Cheap Poultry
Fed antibiotics in high density confinement - bad. Fed GMO grain which changes the birds fat profile and not for the better.
Cheap Eggs
Nutritional lightweights from caged birds. And don't fall for meaningless marketing terms like "Cage free, Free range, and pasteurized". Cheap eggs lack nutrition.
Processed Deli Meat
Low grade cuts from grain fed confinement feedlot poultry plus lots of additives, preservatives, salt, sugar, etc. Not healthy.
primo proteins
The scoop on getting your share of lean clean protein
primo proteins
The scoop on getting your share of lean clean protein
Fish Finishes First
Getting enough protein is a very easy goal to accomplish in America today. Getting the right kinds of protein, sources that actually support optimal health instead of degrading it - that is your quest and fish and fowl are great choices.
The omega 3 fatty acids, fat soluble vitamins, important minerals like iodine, selenium, magnesium all make fish a nutritional powerhouse source of protein.
Throughout the history of mankind even landlocked peoples went to great lengths to trade or travel in order to get fish and seafood into their diet.
Today fish is prized not only for it's flavor but how it helps reduce inflammation, a core component of most major disease states.
Avoid all farm raised fish. Most have unacceptably high levels of pcbs and other chemical contaminants. They are often fed an unnatural diet of grains which can greatly decreases their omega 3 fats. They are also fed antibiotics.
In short, farmed fish suffers all the same problems as any confinement feedlot animal so wild caught is the way to go.
Mercury Scare
No need to avoid fish because of the potential for mercury. Just choose smart and get all the benefits fish has to offer.
Always wild caught / never farm raised fish. Choose smaller fish that are lower on the food chain - albacore tuna is an example vs bigger tuna species. Alaskan waters are especially clean, same with deep cold water fish.
Fresh vs Not So fresh
Do not buy “fresh fish” because unless you live by the harbor, it is in no way fresh. Grocery store display case fish has typically been frozen and thawed multiple times and is at the end of it range. Stores often freeze it one last time and place it for sale in a store package, skip that too.
Eat Fat Fish
Eat Fat Fish. It sounds funny but no other piece of nutritional advice could ring more true. We hear a lot today about how we need more, much much more omega 3 fats in our diet, and less of those pro inflammatory omega 6s. So where do we get our omega 3s? Fish! Specifically in the soft brown flesh just beneath the skin.
Besides all those heart healthy fats, fish and seafood also satisfy our daily clean protein allotment. And how much protein do need? An easy formula, your weight divided in half = grams of protein per day. Thus a 180 lbs dude needs 90 grams....
And fish is a great choice - a 3 oz serving of fish contains lots of quality protein...
Alaskan wild caught salmon - 22g
Herring, sardines, mackerel - 22g
Lake trout - 21g
Flounder, cod, halibut - 21g
Tuna canned - 17g
Tuna steak is 25g
Shrimp - 17g
Poultry Power
Chicken and turkey, not to mention eggs are good protein too. The key is to get to know your farmer. What are the chickens fed? Are they living outside and moved to fresh grass every few days? Good because this means hormones and antibiotics won't be necessary. It also means their fave protein - live bugs and grubs will be available along some tasty grasses. It all adds to their health, nutrition profile and flavor. Pastured poultry is good stuff.
Two Eggs - 16g of protein
Turkey - 27 g
Chicken 28g