what is it, benefits and what can you eat

Pescatar­i­an­ism is a new word in veg­e­tar­i­an diets and a very pop­u­lar style of eat­ing among lovers of a healthy lifestyle. It’s worth a try!

We under­stand what pescatar­i­an­ism is, what to include on the menu and what ben­e­fits it can bring to you. Is every­thing so good with pescatar­i­an­ism? Who is it for, and who should stay away from it? All your ques­tions will be answered in our new arti­cle.

What is pescatarianism

Pescatar­i­an­ism is a new and very pop­u­lar veg­e­tar­i­an diet. The pescatar­i­an menu allows veg­eta­bles, fruits, dairy prod­ucts, eggs and… fish with seafood!

Why do people give up meat in favor of fish

The deci­sion to give up meat is always dif­fi­cult and often involves eth­i­cal con­sid­er­a­tions. Many peo­ple sim­ply do not want some­one to die for the sake of their hearty din­ner, who just yes­ter­day jumped through the clear­ing, ate grass and breathed air. Some refuse meat because they are look­ing for a health­i­er and eas­i­er-to-digest alter­na­tive.

Anoth­er small per­cent­age of peo­ple switched to a pescatar­i­an diet for health rea­sons: meat is con­traindi­cat­ed for those who suf­fer from impaired kid­ney func­tion.

Mal­func­tion­ing kid­neys can­not prop­er­ly release the phos­pho­rus found in dietary pro­teins, and this can lead to heart prob­lems.

Pescatarianism: harm and benefit

As with any oth­er way of eat­ing, pescatar­i­an­ism has its pros and cons, which are worth dis­cussing and con­sid­er­ing before mov­ing on to it. Of course, let’s start with the pos­i­tive.

Benefits of Pescatarianism

What awaits you if one day you decide to remove meat prod­ucts from your diet and replace them with fish and seafood? Nutri­tion­ists and sci­en­tists are sure that pos­i­tive changes will not be long in com­ing.

It’s all about the omega-3s that this diet is rich in. By giv­ing pref­er­ence to meat, we miss the oppor­tu­ni­ty to sat­u­rate our diet with these fats, and there­fore miss their unde­ni­able ben­e­fits.

Thanks to pescatar­i­an­ism:

1. Your heart health will improve.
2. Reduce the like­li­hood of hav­ing cog­ni­tive impair­ment in old age.
3. Improve mood and reduce symp­toms of depres­sion.
4. Reduce weight: the loss of extra pounds is guar­an­teed!

Cons of Pescatarianism

Despite the pos­i­tive effect on the body, not every­one can adhere to pescatar­i­an­ism. What are the risks of switch­ing to this type of diet?

• The abuse of shell­fish and fish can cause pol­lu­tion and excess mer­cury in the body. The safest are salmon, Black Sea perch, squid, oys­ters, sar­dines, cod, scal­lops and shrimp.
• If fish and seafood in the diet is less than 10%, you need to urgent­ly include vit­a­min com­plex­es con­tain­ing B‑12 in your diet.

Menu

What do pescatar­i­ans eat? Of course, they can­not be called real veg­e­tar­i­ans, but that is not the point. So, let’s try to fig­ure out what is includ­ed in the diet of pescatar­i­ans:

1. Seafood.
2. Veg­etable prod­ucts.
3. Eggs, dairy prod­ucts.

All of these foods are fair­ly low in car­bo­hy­drates, so pescatar­i­ans get them from a vari­ety of veg­eta­bles and grains. You can also “fin­ish” car­bo­hy­drates from hum­mus, chick­peas, pota­toes and sweet pota­toes, and for lovers of harm­ful­ness — white bread, rice, cakes and french fries.

How to switch to pescatarianism

Switch­ing to pescatar­i­an­ism is much less painful than switch­ing to a strict veg­e­tar­i­an diet.

So, how do you switch to pescatar­i­an­ism?

• Con­sult a nutri­tion­ist: a sud­den change in diet, inept selec­tion of prod­ucts for the menu — all this can cause neg­a­tive con­se­quences. If you are in doubt about how to choose the right nutri­tion, seek help from an expert.
• After that, elim­i­nate meat and poul­try from the diet. You can grad­u­al­ly, or you can — imme­di­ate­ly, depend­ing on how and who likes it. Just keep in mind that you need to keep a bal­ance: fish and seafood should be in the diet as much as plant foods, dairy prod­ucts and eggs.
• Hang out with oth­er pescatar­i­ans if it’s hard to keep up. Ear­ly sup­port is extreme­ly impor­tant.

Find a good fish store. Proven seafood is impor­tant.

Reviews of those who have tried

We found reviews from forums writ­ten by peo­ple who have tried pescatar­i­an­ism. Get to know them:

“… I don’t see any short­com­ings in lead­ing such a lifestyle, but there are but:

Intol­er­ance or aller­gy to seafood. Here, I think, it is not worth explain­ing, and so every­thing is clear.

Fish abuse. As with any food, eat­ing too much can be bad for your health. You also need to be care­ful with fish and do not eat it dai­ly in large quan­ti­ties.

Humane treat­ment of liv­ing beings. If you made the deci­sion to give up meat from warm-blood­ed ani­mals because of cru­el­ty to them, think­ing that the fish do not feel any­thing, then you are wrong.

In any case, this prod­uct has more ben­e­fits than harm, and if you want to be health­i­er, this type of food is just for you!”

“Today is a week since I do not eat meat, and sur­pris­ing­ly, on the con­trary, I feel lighter and more ener­getic. In addi­tion to every­thing I eat fish, eggs are also pro­tein. A break­down in the rejec­tion of meat is due to a lack of car­ni­tine, it is found only in meat. I fore­saw that if this hap­pens, I will take liq­uid car­ni­tine or car­ni­tone. I hope there will be no prob­lems, because a very strong moti­va­tion worked and I was com­plete­ly turned away from meat, sausage. I con­duct­ed a small exper­i­ment, I imme­di­ate­ly bring a gag reflex to my mouth and mind.

Famous Pescatarians

There are also many pescatar­i­ans among the stars, so this is anoth­er moti­va­tion for the tran­si­tion, because all these celebri­ties look just amaz­ing!

Victoria Beckham

Vic­to­ria switched to a fish diet when her skin prob­lems began: rash­es and inflam­ma­tion did not go away until she switched to pescatar­i­an­ism and began to eat fish for break­fast, lunch and din­ner.

“At first I thought he was mock­ing me. But he was right! Beck­ham admit­ted in an inter­view. “But after a month of such a diet, my skin lit­er­al­ly changed, and all thanks to the record con­tent of omega‑3 fat­ty acids per­fect­ly fight inflam­ma­tion.”

Ariana Grande

Ari­ana has been on a pescatar­i­an diet for nine years and looks, as you can see, very slim and beau­ti­ful. She’s in great shape and does­n’t even seem to have changed in her face in all these years.

Pho­to: Freepik