Anyone eat mostly fish?

[AsAYouthIUsedToLoveTheSmellOfCatalogues]

I'm not pescatarian but eat mostly fish, I also love dairy, but I haven't eaten red meat in over 25 years due to an unfortunate experience with food poisoning after which I never regained a taste for it.

I've been reading about nutrition recently and the more I research iron rich foods, it seems people who eat mostly fish don't get enough and often have low ferritin. I eat sardines, mackerel and salmon, with a bit of chicken every few weeks. I do eat a lot of non heme iron in veg and legumes but they are quite low in iron (per gram) than red meat as well as less bioavailability.

Wondered how this pans out in real life for people? Anyone tried pescatarian and seen a drop in iron after blood tests?

What's odd is that in the 25 yrs that I haven't eaten red meat, I have never experienced/tested low iron. Maybe I am lucky, or our bodies all react differently?
I know a lot of vegetarians do great, but I am primarily interested in those who eat mostly fish, because most sources say fish contains more iron than chicken and pork. So how come many scientific studies report pescatarians having low iron if sardines, mackerel etc are so iron rich!?

With a fish based diet I would be more concerned about heavy metals

I guess it depends on the specific of the diet - most veggies eat enough iron rich foods and perhaps pescatarians are less balanced in their diets ?

I wondered if some pescatarians were eating cod in batter or fish fingers
Who knows!?

Yeh I do try to keep an eye on mercury etc.

I’m a pescatarian but take iron.

most sources say fish contains more iron than chicken and pork.

I've never seen this- can you link to the science?

And it's about quantity too.

My weekly diet is usually 3 fish meals, one red meat (venison), chicken, and vegetarian.

Not vegetarian, but I never eat red meat and very rarely other meat now that I think of it! My haemoglobin and ferritin levels are safely in the mid range and have been steady like that for a long time. I do eat some fish, eggs, cheese etc. and I take a ferroglobin iron fizzy tablet every day. I don't eat much veg either BTW, tut tut to me!

I think that a significant number of pescatarians are likely to have a small amount of a limited range of seafood and fish in a week and eat vegetarian/vegan the rest of the time - and whilst the levels may appear higher, sometimes this isn't taking into account that a single chicken thigh is likely to be larger than the size of a serving of fish, which means they're reducing opportunities to consume those nutrients to sufficient levels.

I eat fish and seafood at least 5 times a week - all different types, none with batter or breadcrumbs, also with lots of high iron plant sources and vitamin C, eggs too - but I still dip into anaemia/iron/B6 deficiency really quickly after a couple of heavier or prolonged periods (joys of my age, I guess). This could be at least in part because I am coeliac and don't do much in the way of dairy, but as soon as we add 2-3 red meat meals into a month, my levels go straight back up again.

The other issue leading on from that is why people are choosing pescatarian - is it to deal with food intolerances, could they also have issues with absorbing nutrients, do they have undiagnosed bowel conditions that make eating meat uncomfortable but can go under the radar when they stick to fish, are they also having dairy or eggs, is it more of a wanting to be vegan but compromising on the tiniest amount of fish possible, is it just too expensive to eat as much as is actually needed?

It's hard to come up with a single explanation and it's not likely that all of it is due to only eating 2 and a half fish fingers a week - the reasons why they don't eat meat may very well be part of the problem/solution to deficiencies, though.

I can only link to the study about girls and low iron in Sweden.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40035857/

The info regarding iron levels in fatty fish keeps altering when I search, so I don't have a scientific paper link, only that per 100g a tin of mackerel scored higher for iron than 100g chicken breast.
Further searches are mixed.
I can only conclude that I cannot trust the internet

Thanks, that's helpful. I think some people seem fine with less red meat, whilst others don't, it sure is puzzling. I know there are people who have issues absorbing iron whatever they consume, or it may have a genetic link?

I have seen quite a few people become pescatarian after being veg/veggie, preferring not to eat land animal meat, but feeling better with some added animal proteins.

I don't suppose there's a decent way to predict how we will feel unless we try. I had previously never thought about my own preferences, as I have never had issues with iron or tiredness. But I do wonder why I am able remain healthy on mostly fish whilst some do struggle.

In honestly I prefer vegetarian dishes, but do like meat. I wouldn't like to shut myself off from it. I used to wonder if I ought to try eating steak, but I'm not sure what the point would be (outside of an imagined new vitality!) after decades without it.

I am also past meno now so presume I require a bit less iron than when I was menstruating.

Well, a friend and her partner, both vegetarian/vegan for many years (at least in part due to allergies and prior to her having a hysterectomy aged 33 for endometriosis) were on a solo trekking holiday somewhere very isolated and the only food they could get was a meat and vegetable based stew offered by a local who took pity upon them as their tent had blown away. As they were so grateful to be rescued off the side of a mountain - and so cold and hungry - they ate it.

She told me that they both felt amazing for the rest of the holiday with the energy and strength they had 'So this is why people eat meat!'. Afterwards, she decided that if she ever began feeling run down, they'd eat fish as a halfway measure, keeping meat for the most extreme situations, but acknowledging that for all their experience and expertise in cooking, when it came down to it, eating meat was in all likelihood an easier way to rapidly access essential nutrients than their carefully planned and prepared, pulse and vegetable heavy diet.

I guess that whatever diet people have, whilst population level data may show one is better than another, where it comes to individuals, there are always outliers who either thrive or really, really don't.

Surely that paper just states the obvious?
That omnivores have higher iron levels than vegetarians or girls eating mainly fish?

It's not new .

Maybe you're okay because you're getting iron in the rest of your diet apart from red meat.

Possibly, and I also imagine that we all have differing levels of absorption, so perhaps for me it is just luck. No idea!

This makes a lot of sense tbh, it's an interesting example.
And perhaps that's how we used to eat prior to industrialisation? Lots of staples such as bread, potatoes and veg, some foraged stuff, fish and larger, red meat sources when we could get it. And this, compared to the endless supply we have access to now, especially in overly processed products might seem excessive.
Whilst I'm not mad about meat I am hard pushed to consider it harmful in moderation. Like anything really.

No I'm omnivore but did consider it. My old boss went pescatarian & was very ill with mercury poisoning.