A pescatarian is someone who consumes fish and seafood on a vegetarian diet. Numerous reasons can make one choose to quit meat, poultry and fish. People add fish to a vegetarian diet to get many benefits from a plant-based diet and heart-healthy fish.
Here are some of the main reasons that can make people choose to go for a Pescatarian diet:
- Health Benefits
There are numerous health benefits to a plant-based diet, including a lower risk of chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.
- Ethical Reasons
Ethics can be the main reason why people choose to go vegan. It can be a primary reason for the pescatarians people too.
Some of the ethical reasons that people choose not to eat meat are:
- Opposing slaughter
They don’t want to kill animals for their taste. They are against the factory farms that raise livestock in totally inhumane conditions.
- Poor labour conditions
Some people refuse to support factory farms because of the poor state of their workers.
- Humanitarian reasons
They consider grain production for animal feed as an unjust use of land and resources when so many people suffer from hunger in the world.
Removing land animals from your diet can raise some of these ethical concerns.
Overfishing and aquaculture can also be problematic.
What Do Pescatarians Eat?
An everyday pescatarian diet contains primarily green veggies with the addition of seafood.
Pescatarians also consume:
- Grain products and whole grains
- Tofu, beans, lentils and hummus
- Seeds like hemp, chia and flax seeds
- Nuts and nut butter, peanuts and seeds
- Dairy products like yoghurt, milk and cheese
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- Shellfish and fish
- Eggs
Pescatarians Don’t Eat:
- Pork
- Beef
- Chicken
- Lamb
- Turkey
- Birds
Benefits of adding seafood to a vegetarian diet:
- More Omega-3s
Fish is the best source of protein, and it’s the best option to gain a good amount of omega-3 fatty acids.
Some plant foods like flaxseeds and walnuts contain alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), a type of omega-3 fat.
- Boosts Protein Intake
It is tough to gain high-protein from just plant proteins, especially if you don’t want to earn extra carbs or fat in addition to protein.
Fish and other seafood offer a significant amount of lean protein.
- Packed With Other Nutrients
Including omega-3s and protein, seafood is also very much rich in a lot of other nutrients. Adding seafood to a vegetarian diet can give you more options to gain a good amount of protein, omega-3s and other essential nutrients.
Eating a pescatarian diet can have some disadvantages because it is easy to overeat carbs, and some fishes are often high in mercury. A pescatarian diet is quite a healthy diet, and it lets you avoid some of the ethical and environmental issues related to diets that include flesh. It is a way of eating that helps to provide more flexibility and a lot of additional nutrition compared to the standard vegetarian diet.
Overall, it’s an excellent option to eat a plant-based diet with seafood. Hence, it is a healthy diet for the human body.
