Let's eat fish ...

I went fishing in Norway last week; at a fjord near Bergen, a city on the west coast of the country, to be exact. The weather was fine; a little chilly despite the temperature recorded at 20°C. 
Between the 13 of us, including the captain of the boat, we not only caught five fishes, but also got ourselves a little bit of a tan being in the sun. Jon Erik Steenslid, the Norwegian Seafood Council regional director for South-east Asia, identified the fishes we caught, which were then released into the water after a brief photo taking for keepsake. 
The Norwegian Seafood Council arranged for the media trip to enable us to learn more about the Norwegian fisheries industry, especially on two of their biggest exports, namely salmon and trout.
 Contrary to popular belief, the salmon we eat at most Japanese restaurants here do not come from Japan but from Norway. In fact, salmon was never part of the Japanese sushi and sashimi menu until the 1980s after a Norwegian seafood delegation visited Japan and Project Japan — a Norwegian initiative to promote its seafood industry in the Land of the Rising Sun — was launched. Today, Norwegian salmon is the sushi fish of choice among the Japanese. 
Here in Malaysia, local chefs have baked and fried salmon and trout, and cooked them in curries and asam pedas. I am not sure if anyone had tried cooking salmon and trout in masak lemak tempoyak, masak asam or masak lemak cili api yet as these pelagic fishes are as oily as the famous patin fish from Temerloh. 
Malaysians are generally seafood eaters. A 2014 study by fishery products expert Infofish showed that Malaysians were among the world’s biggest consumers of fish, eating at least 56.5kg of fish per person each year. 
This was way above the world average of below 20kg per capita and even slightly ahead of Japan. The major species consumed in Malaysia included mackerel, shrimp, squid, tilapia and catfish, but, we are increasingly buying imported and more expensive “high-value fishery products” such as cod, salmon, mussels, oysters and abalone. 
The study also showed that a majority of Malaysians, 54 per cent of respondents, eat fish once to three times a week while 37 per cent eat fish and seafood on a daily basis. 
In fact, Norwegian National Institute of Nutrition and Seafood Research (NIFES) director of research Ingvild Eide Graff recommended that we take two to three seafood dinners a week. Seafood contains marine Omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, iodine and selenium, which are nutrients that are not found in any great quantity in other types of food. 
In addition, seafood contains easily digestible proteins. Omega-3 fatty acids are thought to provide a wide range of health benefits, including a lower risk of coronary heart disease and improvement in cholesterol levels. Vitamin D helps, among others, to regulate the amount of calcium and phosphate in the body. Lack of iodine can contribute to mental retardation while selenium has antioxidants that protect cells from damage. 
But, there are local myths relating to eating seafood, especially fish. A former prime minister does not eat fish (but takes dried salted fish or crispy fried tamban instead) because his mother told him that eating fish will not make him smart. 
When we were growing up, my grandmother and my mother told us not to eat fish head for the same reason when, in fact, there are bountiful meat tucked in and around the collar of the fish, in the cheeks and the forehead. Most of all, there is flavour in the fish’s head. 
I asked Graff if she was able to debunk another popular myth, if I can call it that, of seafood causing gout. It has been said that eating seafood would increase the uric acid levels, which would in turn result in gout, a kind of arthritis which causes swelling in a joint, usually at the feet. 
She was unable to do so as she had not done any research on it. In fact, she said that it was her first time hearing about it. Her research, however, has shown emerging evidence of beneficial health effects from seafood. 
Most interestingly, the Norwegian government has also introduced a programme called Fiskesprell, which literally means wriggling fish, in 2007. It is a national diet programme aimed at increasing seafood consumption among children undertaken by the Norwegian Health Ministry, the Trade, Industry and Fisheries Ministry and the Norwegian Seafood Council, which together with fish sales organisations are funding the programme. 
Most kindergartens in Norway have introduced this programme where children are taught the importance of a healthy seafood diet. These children, with the assistance of their teachers, will prepare their own lunches using fish. They get to use real knives (not the plastic ones) to cut up the fish fillets into smaller pieces and chopped vegetables that go with it. Their teachers will cook these ingredients outdoors, on the campfire or grill. In primary and secondary schools, children are taught about health and food under the Fiskesprell programme.
 Well, I guess eating fresh fish beats having to down a spoonful of the awful tasting fish liver oil like what I did when I was a child.