ultimate safety in preventing the transfer of microorganisms from the squid to other foods,
keep one cutting board exclusively for raw fish, meats, or poultry, and a second one for
everything else. Don’t forget to wash your hands.
What Happens When You Cook This Food
Heat changes the structure of the proteins in the squid and octopus. The proteins are
denatured, which means that they break into smaller fragments or change shape or clump
together. These changes cause protein tissues to lose moisture and shrink, so that the sea-
food becomes opaque as it cooks.
Squid cooks fairly quickly. Its thin-walled body can be fried or sautéed in less than a
minute and stewed in half an hour. Octopus, on the other hand, may need to be simmered
for as long as three hours. But take care: the longer you cook the octopus, the more moisture
you squeeze out of its protein tissues and the more rubbery it becomes.
How Other Kinds of Processing Affect This Food
Freezing. Commercially processed squid are soaked in brine before freezing, which makes
them much higher in sodium than fresh squid.
Medical Uses and/or Benefits
Protective effects of omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3s appear to reduce the risk of heart attack.
A 20-year project at the University of Leyden in the Netherlands, comparing the eating
habits of more than 800 men at risk of heart disease, found that men who ate more than an
ounce of fish a day had a 50 percent lower rate of heart attacks. Since then, a lengthening list
of studies has shown similar protection among men who eat fish at least two or three times
a week. One possible explanation is that omega-3s reduce triglyceride levels. Another is that
your body converts omega-3s to a compound similar to prostacyclin, a naturally occurring
chemical that inhibits the formation of blood clots.
Omega-3s also reduce the risk of “sudden death” heart attack. In the United States,
about 250,000 people die each year from sudden cardiac failure caused by ventricular fibril-
lation, an unexpectedly irregular heartbeat. A 1995 study from the Australian Common-
wealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (Adelaide), showed that laboratory
monkeys fed omega-3 oils from fish had a steady heartbeat when exposed to electrical
current twice as powerful as that which caused ventricular fibrillation in animals that did
not get the fish oils.
Omega-3s inhibit the production of leuketrienes, naturally occurring chemicals that
trigger inflammation. This may be beneficial to people with rheumatoid arthritis. In 1995,
the Arthritis Foundation published the results of a study by Piet Geusens at the Catholic
University in Pellenberg (Belgium) suggesting that patients who take omega-3 fatty acid
supplements along with their regular arthritis medications have improved pain relief.
Squid (Calamari)