and when it’s old.
The Healthfulness
of Fish Oils
Why should fish and not Angus steers provide
the highly unsaturated fats that turn out to be
good for us? Because oceanic waters are
colder than pastures and barns, and most fish
are cold-blooded. Throw a beefsteak in the
ocean and it congeals; its cells are designed to
operate at the animal’s usual body
temperature, around 100ºF/40ºC. The cell
membranes and energy stores of ocean fish
and the plankton they eat must remain fluid
and workable at temperatures that approach
32ºF/0ºC. Their fatty acids are therefore very
long and irregular in structure (p. 801), and
don’t solidify into orderly crystals until the
temperature gets very low indeed.
The Perishability of Fish
and Shellfish