Healthy Cooking Columns

Shrimp are Fine!

Shrimp is OK for you.

At the core of eating healthy is to eat less saturated fat and trans-fats, more fruit and vegetables, more legumes like beans, good fats like olive oil and nuts and more seafood. And shrimp does qualify as seafood.

Shrimp does have a more cholesterol than many other ingredients. While the amount of cholesterol that you eat is important, by eating lean meats, fish, veggies, legumes, fruits and nuts that are low in cholesterol, it’s OK to have shrimp or (gasp!) eggs. The more important factor is saturated fat and trans-fats.  While saturated fats are not evil and are part of a healthy diet trans-fats are not.

Let’s compare:

Notice that the shrimp and chicken breast have about the same number of calories and fat but the shrimp has far more Omega 3 fats. This is a trade off that’s more than worth it for only an extra 105 mg of cholesterol. The shrimp is far better than the ground beef, which has almost 5 grams of saturated fat (and again the shrimp has only about 100 mg more cholesterol).

The take-home message here is that eating healthy is about balance and the table above supports the research showing that eating lean red meat is OK about once a week. Eating foods that are lower in calories and saturated fat are equally important, and how much cholesterol you eat is less important. The bonus with the shrimp is the extra Omega 3 fats.

One key is how you cook your shrimp. Deep fried foods really aren’t all that healthy, and cooking the shrimp swimming in butter just adds saturated fat. The best way to eat shrimp and enjoy it is the good old fashioned Shrimp Cocktail. Try Barbecue Shrimp with Romano Grits (now that’s eating). Or even better, Linguine with Shrimp in Tomato Cream Vodka Sauce or Whole Wheat Linguine with Shrimp and Leeks.

There’s enough to focus on in eating healthy. The amount of cholesterol in any particular food is one that we now know is not as important.