Eat H2O

What? Eat your water? You mean crunch on ice cubes all day?

No…this month it’s all about foods that have high water content, and learning how to eat your water in foods. We can get up to 20% of our H2O from food if we are eating foods that have high water content.

This week let’s focus on Seafood. Did you know that shrimp or prawns are 77% water?

According to the National Library of Medicine, “Seafood is an important source of nutrients in the human diet in various places in the world and comprises valuable proteins and lipids”. The way in which you prepare seafood also affects the water content once prepared. Also note, seafood that is from different places in the world and farms do not adhere to the guidelines of American caught in the wild seafood. This is from their article on December 3rd, 2014.

The second major component of seafood is protein. For physiological reasons, strong relationships exist between protein and moisture levels in meat [8] and seafood [5,9]. In general, in muscle meat, the water content is close to 77% and protein to 23%, which results in a water-to-protein ratio of 3.35. This information is also used to control excessive water addition. If a seafood says a higher water content than the average, the food has been tampered with. This can happen at farms verses wild, and is also seen in the poultry market.

Here’s a list of the top twenty, highest water containing fish and shellfish from Diet and Fitness today. There is a n extensive list of nutritional information at this link.

Below is a basic list for water in fish and shellfish for the top 20 fish and shellfish. A more comprehensive list for the top items can be found at the bottom of the page along with different servings.

1. Mollusks, oyster, eastern, wild, raw 89.04g
2. Mollusks, oyster, eastern, farmed, raw 86.20g
3. Fish, flatfish (flounder and sole species), raw 84.63g
4. Crustaceans, crayfish, mixed species, farmed, raw 84.05g
5. Fish, haddock, raw 83.38g
6. Fish, monkfish, raw 83.24g
7. Fish, ocean perch, Atlantic, raw 83.07g
8. Mollusks, scallop, mixed species, raw 82.53g
9. Crustaceans, crayfish, mixed species, wild, raw 82.24g
10. Mollusks, oyster, Pacific, raw 82.06g
11. Frog legs, raw 81.90g
12. Fish, pout, ocean, raw 81.36g
13. Fish, cod, Atlantic, raw 81.22g
14. Fish, lingcod, raw 81.03g
15. Crustaceans, lobster, northern, raw 80.95g
16. Crustaceans, crayfish, mixed species, farmed, cooked, moist heat 80.80g
17. Mollusks, mussel, blue, raw 80.58g
18. Crustaceans, crab, queen, raw 80.58g
19. Mollusks, cuttlefish, mixed species, raw 80.56g
20. Fish, catfish, channel, wild, raw 80.36g

Highest Amount of water per Serving

Please remember that the above gives an accurate value in 100g for high water foods in your diet. You should also take into account portion sizes when you are considering the water nutritional content.

The food with the highest water content per typical serving is Crustaceans, lobster, northern, raw which contains 121.43 g in 1.000 lobster (or 150.00 g). For this serving the Energy content is 115.5 kcal (6% RDA), the Protein content is 24.78 g (44% RDA), the Total Fat content is 1.13 g (2% RDA) and the Carbohydrate content is 0 g.

Grams of water in fish and shellfish (per 100g)

The list below gives the total water content in the top 100 items from the general description 'fish and shellfish' each of which show the water amount as well as Energy, Protein, Total Fat and Carbohydrate. The top 50 food items are shown in the graph below, to give a quick and easy dietary comparison for the different items, where each item is listed at the bottom of the page with a nutritional summary.

The level of water can be affected by the method of storage for example canned or frozen and also by the method of preparation for example either raw, cooked or fried. The total food items which are raw is 84 items. The highest amount of water from the 84 raw items is in Mollusks, oyster, eastern, wild, raw where the content is 89.04 g per 100g. The number of food items which are cooked are 8 items. The highest amount of water from the 8 cooked items is in Crustaceans, crayfish, mixed species, farmed, cooked, moist heat where the amount is 80.80 g per 100g. Comparing raw and cooked fish and shellfish shows that cooking can change the levels of water by 8.24 g in a 100g serving.

If you’re looking for a reliable source to purchase seafood, Alaska Home Pack is a great choice. They have a dock to door flash frozen product. Sena Sea (draws on the Wheelers’ long history as fisherpeople) also ships around the country. I don’t recommend the tail-end catch that Costco buys, most of the small-boat companies take excellent care of their fish. Marx Foods is another place from the Pacific Northwest.

Lastly, here’s a link to 50 seafood recipes to keep your rotation fresh! And another, simple seasoned grilled fish by Lana Stuart.