Largemouth Bass – Mississippi’s State Fish
Everything! If you are fortunate enough to live in the coastal counties of Mississippi and have a pole and a hook, you can collect many tasty species from riverbanks, piers, and boats. While you are out there fishing for your supper, you are soaking up Vitamin D and other healthy nutrients from the sun, and hopefully having a relaxing time with friends and family.
If you are not inclined to bait your own hook or clean your own fish, there are many fishmongers along the coast that specialize in fresh-caught fish from the Gulf. If you know an avid angler, offer them a couple of dollars for boat gas and see if they can bring you a couple of fresh caught. Also, your local grocery store should have an inventory of canned fish such as salmon, sardines, anchovies, and tuna that are also high in nutrients.
Why eat fish? Number one they taste great no matter how you cook them, and there are many ways. Fish can be baked, fried, seared, broiled, blackened, sushi, and the list is endless.
Other than the great taste, the American Heart Association recommends that you eat 1,000 mg of omega 3’s per day. The human body cannot produce omega 3. So, where do you get omega 3’s? In fatty fish. Fish also provide vitamin D and B2 to your diet. Good fish available locally include trout, bass, catfish, redfish, flounder, snapper, mackerel, and the list goes on. Fish is a low-fat high-quality protein, a great source of iron, zinc, iodine, magnesium, and potassium.
Other seafood that also provides the health benefits and is loaded with Omega’s are crab, crayfish, scallops, shrimp, and squid.
In a publication by the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory entitled “Catch the Health Benefits – Eating Gulf of Mexico Fish”, Drs. Lytle and Lytle state “all warm-water Gulf of Mexico fish do contain these omega 3 fatty acids”.
Earing fish is also great for your brain. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/11-health-benifits-of-fish states “Studies also reveal that people who eat fish every week have more grey matter – your brain’s major functional tissue”.
Eating at least two servings of fish a week can lower blood pressure, reduce the risk of heart attack, and strokes. Omega 3’s are also beneficial in reducing the risk of depression, ADHD, Alzheimer’s, dementia, bipolar disorder, heart diseases, and diabetes.
So, with all the health benefits, the abundance of availability here on the Gulf Coast and the many great recipes that include fish, you’ve got no excuse to not go grab you some now.
