Do You Know Where Does Your Seafood Come From

 Sea provides us a lot of things. Food, livelihood, entertainment, and sailing are a few of them. You may imagine the usual scene of fishermen with their nets when you hear the term seafood but things have changed now.

Commercial companies have been employing high technology equipment to track and catch the fishes in the oceans. High-Technology equipment helps them catch a large number of fishes and other marine animals. But this is causing a serious impact on the ocean ecosystem. Fishes that are in high demand such as Salmon, Tuna and several others are hunt more. This results in the decline of these varieties in several parts of the world. This also includes some endangered and protected species.

Another problem associated with modern fishing is bycatch. The fishing industry uses the term bycatch to represent those unwanted fishes that come along with the target fishes. As these fishes are undesirable, they are thrown back into the sea dead or alive. With the growing competition and the demand, the situation is becoming worse day by day.

Fortunately, several individuals and non-profit organizations have joined the sustainable seafood movement started in 1990 to save the oceans. However, their contributions alone would not be enough to change the current situation. Everyone has to take responsibility and perform the necessary things.

Now what should you do? Well, you can do a lot of things. Being a consumer, the first thing you can do is to buy sustainable seafood. Brands and companies that provide sustainable seafood take into concern issues such as overfishing, bycatch that are seriously damaging the ocean ecosystem. They follow certain rules and standards set by international communities such as FAQ. This includes certain practices such as no target stocking, use of selective fishing gear, no bycatch, etc.

You can also drive the market for sustainable seafood by demanding sustainable seafood from local restaurants. The consumer can eat those fishes that are caught locally or that are lower in the food chain such as codfish. It would be great to educate yourself on endangered species and avoid eating them.

You can also go with farm fishes. These fishes are raised in a closed environment or a pond. It doesn't matter where you are thinking to buy your fish from, but make sure that it is posing minimum effect on the nearby habitat. Whether the fishes are placed in the open ocean or raised in a pond, the structure should be built in harmony with the environment.

What Are the Benefits of Eating Sustainable Seafood

 As more and more doctors are recommending seafood, it has become difficult to take into consideration the sustainability and ecosystems associated with fishing.

What is a sustainable fish? Does the risk associated with fishing exceed the health benefits of fish? What one should eat, raised fish or wild fish? Well, there can be a number of questions where one can get lost. So, let's understand what are the benefits of eating sustainable fishes?

1. They are healthy

Numerous sustainable fishes are high in protein, nutrients, minerals, and heart-sound omega-3s while containing low measures of destructive synthetic chemicals. Overfish fish, for example, Salmon and Tuna, as a general rule, contain Mercury, PCBs, and contaminants. Bigger fish that are higher up on the food chain will, in general, have more elevated levels of unsafe synthetic chemicals because of bioaccumulation. Thus, sustainable seafood is pure and healthy.

2. You have to spend less money on them

Sustainable fishes such as trout and Arctic char are quite affordable, unlike salmon. You can also buy farm-raised fishes instead of expensive wild-caught fish to save your money.

3. You can consume seafood in the form of fish oil

One can gain the immense benefits of eating seafood by consuming it in the form of supplements and fish oil. The fish oil is obtained from fishes that are caught to feed humans as well as from the fishes that are caught to feed animals. Buying sustainable fish oil and supplements not only benefits your health but also benefits the ocean's ecosystems.

4. It will help you support local farmers

Local farmers survive on small scale fisheries, unlike big commercial fishing companies that can hunt fishes in large amounts using modern gears and fleets. By choosing sustainable seafood and third-party certified products, you will help poor farmers to earn their living.

Is it wise to stop eating fish?

Several people claim that one should stop eating fish as the oceans are getting depleted of marine life. We think it is not the solution because several fishermen are dependent on fishes for their livelihood plus fish is packaged with a lot of health benefits. They are high in nutrients, vitamins, minerals and high-quality. They contain omega-3 fatty acids, which is vital for a healthy body and reduces the risk of disease such as heart attacks.

They boost brain health, prevent depressions, reduce the risk of autoimmune diseases, and can improve sleep quality and many more.

Fish is a delicious food having a lot of health benefits. So, instead of taking a drastic step, you must take a certain step that can benefit both the environment's being and human health. The best way to achieve this is to start looking for sustainable seafood.

How to check if the seafood you are buying is sustainable or not?

Sustainable fish has become an intriguing issue in the previous decade because of worries of overfishing and seabed harming fishing practices. For fish to be described as sustainable, numerous elements are considered like what sort of feed is given to the fish if it is cultivated raised, ecological effect of fishing, angling strategies, and current stock of the fish, etc.

There are numerous sustainable seafood certifications and programs that work in collaboration with fisheries, farms, and companies to promote sustainable seafood practices and to guarantee a protected, solid and responsible fish supply. You can check for these certifications when you are going to buy groceries. You can also look in for sustainability options when you are going to eat at a nearby restaurant.

According to the report of the international union for conservation on wild fishes, more than 85 percent of the world's fisheries are completely misused. So, picking reasonably cultivated fish lessens the weight on wild fisheries and permits them to reproduce.

At last, seafood is a wonderful source of protein, omega 3 fatty acids, but to create the right balance among the fish, humans, and oceans nothing is better than opting for sustainable seafood choices.

Breakfast Of Champions: Cold Cereals

 There is no question that cold cereals revolutionized the American breakfast table. No longer did mom have to cook hot cereal, eggs or meat, and kids could independently prepare something for themselves before heading off to school. At the turn of the twentieth century, the creation of cold cereal basically began with two enterprising men who saw the possibilities and took a gamble. And breakfast has never been the same.

In the late 1890s, a rather eccentric man named John Harvey Kellogg, ran a health sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan, and had created a bland, tasteless food for his patients with digestive issues. A few years later, his brother Will decided to mass-market the new food at his new company, Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company, adding a bit of sugar to the flakes recipe making it more palatable for the masses, and a star was born.

Around the same time, C. W. Post, who had been a patient at Kellogg's sanitarium, introduced an alternative to coffee called Postum, followed by Grape-Nuts (which have nothing to do with either grapes or nuts) and his version of Kellogg's corn flakes, naming them Post Toasties, and America's breakfasts were never the same.

Both men could thank an enterprising gentleman by the name of Sylvester Graham, who forty years earlier had experimented with graham flour, marketing it to aid "digestive problems." He created a breakfast cereal that was dried and broken into shapes so hard they needed to be soaked in milk overnight, which he called granula (the father of granola and graham crackers).

Capitalizing on that original idea, in 1898 the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco) began producing graham crackers based on the experiments of Sylvester Graham, first promoting them as a "digestive" cracker for people with stomach problems; (Seems a lot of people had digestive problems even back then.)

Fast forward and other companies were sitting up and taking notice. The Quaker Oats Company, acquired a method which forced rice grains to explode and began marketing Puffed Rice and Puffed Wheat, calling them a marvel of food science which was "the first food shot from guns" (oh boy, would they come under fire for that one today, no pun intended);

1920s Wheaties was introduced and cleverly targeted athletes as they proclaimed to be the "Breakfast of Champions;"

The 1930s saw The Ralston Purina company introduce an early version of Wheat Chex, calling it Shredded Ralston (sounds a little painful);

Soon Cheerios appeared and would become the best-selling cereal in America, worth about $1 billion in sales in 2015.

No one can dispute the convenience and versatility of dry packaged cereal. In the last fifty years, this multi-billion dollar industry has spun off multiple uses, unlimited possibilities and targeted kids with clever packaging, outrageous names, flavors, colors and choices (all loaded with sugar of course). What could be more American than corn flakes?

How to Make Alfredo Sauce From Scratch

 There's a story behind creamy Alfredo sauce. Like so many other Italian sauces, this one originates in the States. They say that a man named Alfredo di Lelio created the sauce to tempt his pregnant wife to eat something different. In 1914, he cooked fettuccine and made a sauce with butter and Parmesan cheese to pour over it. She must have loved it as when Alfredo opened his own restaurant in Rome, one of the dishes he served was his fettuccine Alfredo. Now it is served in many Italian restaurants around the world.

There are several methods of making Alfredo sauce, and of course, you can serve it with any kind of pasta that you have. It doesn't have to be fettuccine.

You will need a heavy-bottomed saucepan to make the sauce Alfredo and, of course, a wooden spoon for stirring it.

Alfredo Sauce recipe

half a cup of butter

1 pint of thick cream

4 ozs of cream cheese

1 or 2 cloves of garlic finely minced (more if you love garlic)

1 handful of basil leaves, finely shredded

1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

salt and freshly grated pepper to taste

Method

Melt the butter and stir in the cream with the cream cheese. Cook over a medium heat, stirring all the time to prevent the sauce burning or sticking. When the cream cheese has melted, add all the other ingredients, except the Parmesan cheese.

When the sauce is smooth and simmering, add the Parmesan cheese. Stir for around 3 minutes until the Parmesan has melted.

Serve hot with the pasta of your choice.

Alfredo sauce is very versatile, so you an experiment with it. Pour it over lightly boiled broccoli as an alternative to cheese sauce. Add cooked strips of chicken or bacon to the sauce, or add both. If you like flat-leaved parsley, add some to taste.

You can use different cheeses, try a mixture of parmesan, and two of your favourites. Blue cheese can be used in this sauce to great effect.

If you are on a diet, you can use milk instead of cream, just make a white sauce and add cheese(s). If you don't have Parmesan, don't worry! You can use shredded Mozarella and grated Gruyere or a strong cheddar if you prefer.

It's best not to use pre-packed grated Parmesan cheese, it spoils the flavour of the sauce.

When you have made this sauce successfully, you'll never want to buy nother kind. Your home-cooking is best with no additives or preservatives.