Why Don’t Cod Freeze Up

Joined
Nov 21, 2015
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10,501
PUFAs help cold water tissues avoid freezing. So cod are lean, low PUFA. Why don’t they freeze up?
 

boris

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Joined
Oct 1, 2019
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2,345
I thought that's no problem for cold blooded animals like fish and only mammals like whales need it to avoid freezing.

Maybe they have other mechanisms that keep them from getting frozen?
 

Tenacity

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Joined
Mar 12, 2016
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844
It's because they are low in fat. The freezing up would be from saturated fat in the tissues becoming too stiff to move. Cod is low in PUFA, but it's also low in fat, with more PUFA relative to other fat, so there's no SFA to stiffen it up in cold water.
 

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