Rainbow Trout: Good for Your Body & Your Brain

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Rainbow Trout: Good for Your Body & Your Brain 2Among the top five healthiest fish to eat, rainbow trout makes a tasty entrée and is one of the more affordable seafood options. Rainbow trout provides a number of nutrients important to physical and mental wellness.

A cooked 3-ounce serving of farmed rainbow trout contains 21 grams of muscle-building protein. For brain health, a serving provides over 900 mg of Omega-3 fatty acids including EPA andDHA. Omega-3 fatty acids may help prevent neurological disorders like dementia, depression, bipolar disorder and Alzheimer’s disease; they are also linked to a decreased risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, and certain types of cancer. Rainbow trout is low in total fat (just grams), and low in saturated fat and cholesterol.

There are several ways to cook trout: grilled, smoked, pan-fried, roasted or baked. When baking, measure the thickness of the fish and plan on 10 minutes per inch (5 minutes on each side), and bake at 400 to 450 degrees F. You can use nearly any seasoning — herbs, lemon, salt, pepper — to finish off your trout. Additionally, many salmon recipes work well for rainbow trout.

It’s best to buy farmed rainbow trout because wild trout can be contaminated from chemicals such as mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). In the United States fish market, all rainbow trout is farmed-raised , in accordance with strict environmental standards. This fish is farmed in raceways, which mimic a free-flowing river and use large amounts of freshwater.

Resources
USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference: Nutrient data for 15241, Fish, Trout,
Rainbow, Farmed, Cooked, Dry Heat. 

U.S.News & World Report Online – Health: Which Fish is the Best Fish? Consider Omega-3s,
Sustainability, and Mercury. 

MontereyAquarium: Seafood Watch Database: Trout. 

Environmental Defense Fund:  Rainbow (Steelhead) Trout

What You Need to Know about Buying Seafood.

Knoechel, C. et. al., “Omega-3 fatty acids: repurposing opportunities for cognition and biobehavioral disturbances in MCI and Dementia.” Curr Alzheimer Res. (2016) Jun 2 (epub ahead of print. Accessed via Pubmed on 4 Nov 2016).

“Dietary fatty acids in dementia and predementia syndromes: epidemiological evidence and possible underlying mechanisms.” Ageing Res Rev. 2010 Apr;9(2):184-99. doi: 10.1016/j.arr.2009.07.005. Epub 2009 Jul 28. Accessed via PubMed 4 Nov 2016.