Posted on April 19, 2014  Comments (1)

I try to eat healthfully, especially when I can tweak what I eat to gain a health advantage. I know fish have good qualities. I live in Malaysia now and squid (called sotong here) is often available. I often prefer squid to fish here as the fish use here are often fairly small with bones to deal and not much meat for the effort (it is great sometimes but I am often lazy).

Sambal Sotong (squid) with bitter gourd (home delivery). Very tasty. The bitter gourd is very bitter, but a few bites are ok.

So I looked online for some details, it wasn’t as easy I would have hoped. The Shellfish Association of Great Britain offered a good overview.

They say 100g of raw squid (pre cooking weight) provides about 200% of Vitamin B12, 100% of Selenium, 80% of Copper, 50% of Vitamin B6, 35% of Vitamin E, 34% of Phosphorous, 30 % of Protein, 20% of Niacin, 10% of B1 (Thiamin), 8% of Potassium, 10% of Magnesium, 14% of Zinc.

From various sources online it seems there are 92 calories in 100 grams of Squid with a calorie breakdown of 72% protein, 14% fat and 14% carbs.

From the Heart Association of Australia “omega-3s are found primarily in oily fish, such as Atlantic and Australian salmon, blue-eye trevalla, blue mackerel, gem fish… Other fish such as barramundi, bream or flathead, and seafood such as arrow squid, scallops and mussels, are also good sources of omega-3… To reduce the risk of heart disease, the Heart Foundation recommends that Australian adults consume about 500 milligrams of omega-3 (marine source) every day.”

You can’t really see but this fish is not very big. Tasty, but not much food for the effort.

Squid (arrow squid), in the USA, is often served as fried calamari (I never get it that way here) and that has the downsides of deep frying.

In my searching I have decided it seems I can use squid as a substitute for fish. I also like shrimp dish which I probably eat as much as the others combined (shrimp here are often huge and not very expensive). And there is very good sushi here so I get some more fish that way (and no bones :-): salmon, tuna, octopus…

Related: The Wonderful Coconut – Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. – Grandma’s House, Thai Restaurant, Malaysia (shrimp dish) – another home delivery meal in Johor Bahru – Staphylococcal Food Poisoning – Cancer Risks From Our Food