Biochemistry & Analytical Biochemistry

Evaluating the Nutritional Diversity of Seafood and its Effects on the Climate

Robert Kim^* Department of Resource and Environmental Studies, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
^*Correspondence: Robert Kim, Department of Resource and Environmental Studies, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada, Email:

Received: 03-Oct-2022, Manuscript No. BABCR-22-18612; Editor assigned: 06-Oct-2022, Pre QC No. BABCR-22-18612 (PQ); Reviewed: 21-Oct-2022, QC No. BABCR-22-18612; Revised: 28-Oct-2022, Manuscript No. BABCR-22-18612 (R); Published: 07-Nov-2022, DOI: 10.35248/2161-1009.22.11.458

Description

Seafood has the potential to help meet nutritional needs while having a low environmental impact. They assess the nutrient density and greenhouse gas emissions from fishing and farming of globally important species, weighted by production method. Consuming wild-caught small pelagic and salmonid species, as well as farmed bivalves like mussels and oysters, provides the greatest nutrient benefit while emitting the fewest emissions. Many, but not all, seafood species provide more nutrition while emitting fewer greenhouse gases than land animal proteins, particularly red meat, but there are significant differences, even within species groups and species, depending on production method.

The nutrients that contribute to nutrient density vary by seafood, as do the nutrient requirements of population groups within and between countries or regions. Based on the nutritional attribute and climate impact patterns discovered, they recommend refocusing and tailoring production and consumption patterns toward species and production methods with improved nutrition and climate performance, while taking specific nutritional needs and emission reduction goals into account. More seafood is produced and consumed globally than ever before, and demand is expected to rise in tandem with rising wealth and population.

In 2017, seafood accounted for 17% of global animal protein consumption. There is substantial evidence that the health benefits of eating seafood outweigh the potential negative health effects of contaminants or other safety risks. Because seafood contains significant amounts of protein, omega-3 fatty acids, and micronutrients such as vitamin D, vitamin B12, selenium, iodine, iron, zinc, and phosphorus, aquatic ecosystems play an important role in meeting human nutrition goals. Seafood is also beneficial in the prevention of many non-communicable diseases and in addressing widespread micronutrient deficiencies which is why many governments advocate for increased consumption. Furthermore, replacing other animal foods with seafood has been shown to have potential environmental benefits.

The public debate on future diets is currently heavily focused on the so called green shift, which involves shifting consumption away from terrestrial animal-based foods and toward plant-based foods, with far less attention paid to a possible blue shift, in which aquatic sourced foods play an increasingly important role. Instead, in studies examining the combined health and environmental impact of diets sea food is frequently either omitted entirely from discussions or treated simplistically as an undifferentiated whole. To increase sustainable seafood consumption, a better understanding of the performance of this diverse food category is required.

While food sustainability is complex and multi-dimensional, climate change is one of the most urgent challenges confronting humanity, and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions are readily quantifiable across production systems, making comparisons between diverse sources possible as long as methods are aligned. Climate impact is frequently, but not always, linked to other environmental concerns, and in such cases, efforts to reduce emissions will result in broader improvements. Studies assessing and comparing the GHG emissions of seafood and other food products typically report emissions per kilogram of product, ignoring variations in nutritional value and food function. Some studies compared products based on portion size or protein content, but did not account for the broader nutritional variation.

Recently, nutritional density indices were proposed to more comprehensively describe the nutritional profile of foods when comparing their environmental impacts. Nutrient indices summaries macronutrient and micronutrient densities and indicate the extent to which foods contribute to average nutritional requirements. In that study, the nutrient density score was based on data for 24 nutrients and related the content of each nutrient to the Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) of desirable nutrients or the Maximum Recommended Intake (MRI) of undesirable nutrients. In order to ensure methodological consistency and representative production techniques, seafood products consumed in Sweden were carefully selected and weighed.