Anchovies As A Source Of Calcium

[yerrag]

I'm still in the process of finding a combination of foods that I could eat daily that would satisfy my daily requirements of calcium of 1500mg. This is the amount of calcium that would balance my intake of phosphate from eating meat. With a balanced calcium-phosphate ratio in my food intake, and with adequate vitamin D, I would be able to build or maintain strong bones, as well as other benefits that are protective of my well-being.

I'm not drinking that much milk, and my daily intake of milk is less than a glass. I also don't eat a lot of cheese. So I would sprinkle eggshell powder on my fried eggs, and also have eggshell powder on top of the milk froth on my coffee. Ideally, if I have two sprinklings of eggshell powder with my 2 cups of daily coffee, I would meet my calcium requirements.

But I don't always get to drink my twice daily cup of coffee, and when I do, I don't always have milk froth on my coffee.

So I would be eating plenty of cooked green leaves, but that is a lot of green leaves to eat. I'm getting used to it, and I have enough carrot tops and talinum leaves growing in my backyard, that I don't ever run out of supply. Yet, I still would rather eat something I truly enjoy than force myself to eat so much greens. Mooo.

I went to the public market yesterday and I was offered fresh anchovies by the fish-monger. Since my sister was visiting from the US to visit my ailing mom, I thought it would be nice to make some deep-fried anchovies. They taste crunchy and good, and goes well with salt sprinkled, or dipped into vinegar.

Then I recalled how my late dad would eat these often for its calcium. I'm glad now that I have another food item in my list of foods to build and maintain strong bones. And a tasty one at that. With good stuff - fried in refined coconut oil, and given a good sprinkling of salt.

The anchovies I get in the Philippines are what's called Indian Anchovies. I don't get real large ones. They would be around 2-3 inches in length. They're not too expensive either. There was much fish caught yesterday, so I got these anchovies for about a dollar/kg.

 

[ecstatichamster]

i like to put a teaspoon of eggshell powder into a few teaspoons of yogurt and eat it. It's easy and it's a lot of calcium.

Anchovies unless they are from really warm waters are often loaded with PUFAs. Sounds wonderful that you can get these fresh fish.

 

[yerrag]

i like to put a teaspoon of eggshell powder into a few teaspoons of yogurt and eat it. It's easy and it's a lot of calcium.

Anchovies unless they are from really warm waters are often loaded with PUFAs. Sounds wonderful that you can get these fresh fish.

Yes, these are warm waters. I used to fret that fish from warm waters don't have enough EPA and DHA, now I don't. Anchovies being low in the food chain, they have less mercury as well.

 

[Agent207]

Anchovies unless they are from really warm waters are often loaded with PUFAs. Sounds wonderful that you can get these fresh fish.

You call "pufa loaded" to 1.6gr /100gr? Do you know by the way, they have almost the same content on saturated fat than polyunsaturated?

 

[ecstatichamster]

Cold water anchovies have a ton of pufa fat

 

[Agent207]

Cold water anchovies have a ton of pufa fat

How much is a ton? Could you link me to any source for having an idea of pufa loading on those?

I say it because I use to eat them from time to time, and I'd like to know..

 

[yerrag]

Says here that in 100g of raw European anchovies, 1.6g out of 4.1g of fat is PUFA:

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/finfish-and-shellfish-products/4027/2

39% of the fats is PUFA.

These are European anchovies, as opposed to Indian anchovies, which are found in warmer waters.

I'll see if I can find the pdf file I downloaded of a study made by Indian researchers on Indian anchovies. I hope I can still find them as I don't remember the fat breakdown, and the information isn't available in nutritiondata, which is mostly geared for the Atlantic side of things.

 

[Agent207]

Yep, 1.6gr /100gr is very low for a nutritious food like anchovies, with good calcium/phosphorus, protein, sea minerals.. and inappreciable heavy metal content.

 

[yerrag]

I guess somebody forgot that 75% of the weight of these anchovies is water. Yep, that's you Agent207.

 

[Agent207]

You mean less water content than eggs (80%), double the protein and 3x better calcium/phosphorous balance? really???

Wow, yerrag.. I though anchovies were an OK food but not that it was that good, so thanks for your enlightenment :)

 

[schultz]

Calorie for calorie, butternut squash has almost the same calcium as anchovy and a better calcium to phosphorus ratio. It's also higher in micro nutrients (though would be missing trace minerals you get from the ocean if that matters) and has only 0.1g of PUFA instead of 1.6g.

Coconut water also has more calcium calorie for calorie than anchovy as well as a better calcium to phosphorus ratio. It also has a high mangnesium and 0.0g of PUFA instead of 1.6g.

Though if you enjoy the anchovy's, I say eat 'em! Sounds good the way you made them. I am also curious in the fat difference between Indian Ocean anchovy and north Atlantic. If you dig up that paper, post it!

 

[Agent207]

But what's the point on comparing calorie by calorie just by isolated micronutrients?

I'm valuing more the overall nutritional profile, including macros and micros as whole foods. Do you consider coconut water a whole food? I don't think is a fair comparison.

Anchovies are a protein oriented food, just to add variety to the diet, whats the problem with them.. a "ton of pufa", 1.6gr? really??

Life is more than eggs cheese liver gelatin...

 

[yerrag]

I found the pdf file on Indian anchovies:
https://www.researchgate.net/profil...638556399a1000000.pdf?origin=publication_list

The fat content, at 2.41% (for the 3-5g/fish size) is much less than that of European anchovies (which is 4.8%), but the % PUFA in the fat is 52%.

For larger sizes of anchovies, the fat content is less, and the PUFA percentage of fat is lower as well.

But since the discussion is implied to be about the small anchovies, the values shown indicate that indeed, both the total fat and the corresponding total PUFA content in Indian anchovies is less than that of European anchovies: 1.25g vs 1.6g per 100g.

Since anchovies are actually less fatty than many other fish such as tuna and mackerel, it makes me think twice about eating fatty fish, as their PUFA content would likely be significantly higher.

As for Indian anchovies, I would probably not have them as often as I'm inclined to when I posted this thread. But if I were to eat them on a regular basis, I would opt for the larger sized anchovies. The 6-10g/pc sized Indian anchovies have a fat content of 2%, and the PUFA % of the fat is also lower at 25%. This translates to only 0.5g of PUFA/100g.

The caveat is that the larger anchovies would also have less calcium, as indicated by the lower ash content of 4 percent, as opposed to the 6.6 percent ash content of the smaller anchovies. Also, the eating enjoyment factor may be different as well.

 

[schultz]

But what's the point on comparing calorie by calorie just by isolated micronutrients?

It's just a way of comparing two foods. I see some people compare by weight, which I think is way less consistent since some foods can be dry and others can be calorically dense. Calorie for calorie, orange juice is better than white sugar because orange juice contains micro nutrients and sugar does not. People can only handle so many calories in a day, so it's important to get nutrient dense foods.

Another reason to compare foods like that is to give someone an idea of other foods that may have a particular micro nutrient that you are try to get (like calcium). People don't often think of butternut squash and coconut water as having calcium, so I compared them to anchovy's in an effort to help people reading this thread to realize that they have comparable calcium levels.

I'm valuing more the overall nutritional profile, including macros and micros as whole foods. Do you consider coconut water a whole food? I don't think is a fair comparison.

I'm not sure what you mean by a whole food. It contains protein, fat and carbohydrates as well as appreciable amounts of vitamins and average amount of vitamins. It also tastes good. I value it mainly for the taste and minerals though (though I only like certain brands as a lot of them are not sweet... when I lived in the States there was a brand called Amy and Brians which was pretty good, but I can't find it here.)

Life is more than eggs cheese liver gelatin...

I agree. I think if you like Anchovy's and you want to eat them then you should. The PUFA content could maybe be a consideration, but not a deal breaker. I don't think people should feel bad about the things they eat though. I consider that unhealthier than the bit of PUFA or whatever.