This way of eating can be beneficial for your health and have a lower environmental impact than your typical omnivore. However, it must be well planned to ensure you're getting all the nutrients your body needs, without exploiting already overfished fish stocks.
The major benefit of being pescatarian is that there is an emphasis on plant-based foods, which is beneficial for our health and when well-balanced, it can lower our risk of chronic diseases and increase omega 3 fatty acid intake, which can benefit chronic disease prevention. This can be particularly beneficial if you don't like or choose to eat plant-based sources of omega 3 such as flaxseeds, walnuts, chia, or hemp seeds.
Nutrients to consider
When following a pescatarian dietary pattern, the nutrients you need to consider are all dependent on the amount of each food group you choose to consume. Consuming fish approximately twice per week meets your recommended intake of omega-3 fats. However, it's important to consider the environmental impacts of this behaviour.
If you're eating a lot of fish, not only is it putting additional pressure on already stretched global fish stocks, but you may also be consuming too much mercury, and this is particularly harmful for pregnant women and their unborn babies. Mercury is a natural element that is found in all areas of the environment. The mercury content of different fish species varies, however, larger fish at the top of the food chain tend to contain higher levels. This is because they eat the smaller fish and it accumulates, so the higher up the food chain the more mercury a fish is likely to contain. High mercury fish species are shark, ling, swordfish, barramundi, and orange roughly - a few of the commonly consumed fish species in the Australian diet.
If you’re new to a pescatarian diet, a few nutrients to consider are iron, protein and zinc.