Parkinson’s Nutrition: Yes, You Can!
That is, you can eat some kinds of canned fish for great nutritional benefits. I believe the best canned fish are: salmon, sardines, and anchovies. (I don’t know about tuna.)
Here are the plus sides for canned fish:
- Omega-3 fatty acids: You get a lot in canned fish, especially those that are packed in oil, not water. Omega-3 fatty acids are supposedly so important to brain health!
- Calcium: Sardines, anchovies and even canned salmon often have bones in them that are edible, as the canning process softens them.
- Mercury: If you’re worried about mercury (for example, if you’re pregnant), canned fish is a better choice than fresh, because usually smaller fish are used for canned, meaning they had less time to absorb mercury. Larger fish, which end up in fish stores and restaurants, live longer, so they have more time to ingest and retain mercury.
- Wild vs. farmed: Most farmed fish is heavily laced with pollutants, tasteless, and generally vile. Almost every kind of fresh fish sold at my local supermarket is farmed, so I avoid it. Canned fish is way more likely to be caught in the wild, and it usually says so on the can.
- Cost: Canned fish is cheaper.
- Shelf life: Compared to fresh fish, canned fish lasts forever.
Here are the downsides:
- Sodium: Canned fish may be high in sodium. This may not be an issue for some Parkies. In my case, I never eat other kinds of processed foods and I never use salt when I cook fresh food, so the sodium content of canned fish doesn’t really concern me.
- Calories: Fish packed in oil may be high in calories. But you can drain the oil off, or use the oil for salad dressing or another cooking purpose. If it’s olive oil, realize that you’re getting many additional health benefits.
Note: I got all this information from a New York Times article comparing canned to fresh fish.
What are some ways to eat canned fish?
There are recipes aplenty on the Interwebs! Here are a few:
- Leeks with Anchovy Butter
- Pasta with Anchovies and Arugula
- Smoked Sardines Rillettes
- Pasta with Sardines, Bread Crumbs and Capers
- Salmon Sandwich
And here’s some of what I do:
Sardine Sandwich: Toast two slices of whole wheat bread. Drain a can of sardines. Put a large lettuce leaf on each of the slices of toast. Spread out the sardines on one slice, then top with ground pepper, the other lettuce leaf and slice of toast. It might get messy when you eat it, so have a few paper napkins handy!
Quinoa ‘n Veggies ‘n Canned Fish: Quinoa is so easy to cook and has a gazillion nutritional benefits. Here’s how I prepare it:
- Rinse 3 cups of quinoa in a strainer.
- Boil 4 cups of low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth.
- Add quinoa to boiling broth.
- Add a few large handfuls of chopped vegetables (string beans, cherry tomatoes, kale, scallions…your choice!). You could also add some frozen corn or frozen peas. Keep the vegetables on top of the quinoa and don’t stir. You want all the quinoa to stay on the bottom with the broth.
- Bring to a boil again, cover and simmer for ten minutes.
- Add a can or two of chopped sardines, salmon, or anchovies, including the oil.
- If you want, add some spices like caraway seeds, turmeric, red pepper flakes…your choice!
- Stir everything together with a big spoon.
- Cover and let sit for another ten minutes.
Pasta with Fava Beans: Click here for my recipe. Fava beans help your body produce dopamine, an added benefit. They are a bit controversial in the PD community, but my take (as well as my neurologist’s) is that there’s no harm in eating them occasionally.
Sidebar: If you haven’t tried quinoa, do so! It’s easy to prepare and can substitute for rice, potatoes or pasta. Here’s the Wikipedia section on its nutritional value:
Nutritional evaluations indicate that raw (uncooked) quinoa is a rich source of protein, dietary fiber, several B vitamins and dietary minerals, nutrients whose contents are substantially reduced by cooking. Analysis shows its protein is relatively high inessential amino acids.
In a 100 gram serving, cooked quinoa provides 120 calories and is a moderate source (10-19% of the Daily Value, DV) of protein, dietary fiber, folate, and the dietary minerals, iron, zinc, magnesium, phosphorus, and manganese.
It is gluten-free and considered easy to digest. Because of these characteristics, it is being considered as a possible crop in NASA’s Controlled Ecological Life Support System for long-duration human occupied space flights.
It has a notably short germination period: only 2–4 hours in a glass of clean water is enough to make it sprout, as opposed to 12 hours with wheat. This process softens the seeds, making them suitable for salads and other foods.
When pasting this from Wikipedia, I saw that it provides more nutrients if you don’t cook it, but germinate it as sprouts to use in a salad. Good to know!
Oh, and quinoa recipes? OMG!
For more info on nutrition and Parkinson’s disease, check out what the Michael J. Fox Foundation says, ditto the Brian Grant Foundation.
