When You're Pescatarian, This Is What Happens To Your Body

Pescatarianism could be the way to go if you're thinking about ways to healthify your eating habits. Pescatarianism — a vegetarian diet that incorporates fish and other seafood as protein sources — can help you to lead a balanced, healthy lifestyle, and steer away from eating too much white or red meat.

While meat can act as a valuable source of nutrition as part of a varied diet, too much of it can have some negative effects. As a study from Public Health Nutrition indicates, consuming too much red or processed meat can be harmful, with researchers finding that "higher consumption of total red meat and processed meat is associated with an increased risk of total, cardiovascular and cancer mortality."

Adopting pescatarianism, therefore, can be a lifestyle choice that can help you cut down on meat consumption while still retaining fish as a protein source — and it could do wonders for your body. In this article, we'll look at the effects that pescatarianism can have on your body, and how it could benefit your health in a whole host of ways.

The word "cholesterol" tends to shoot fear into the hearts of everybody — but it's important to remember that there's a good kind and a bad kind. "Good" cholesterol, or high-density lipoprotein (HDL), can help protect against strokes and heart attacks, whereas "bad" cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), is the type that sticks to our blood vessels, increasing the risk of stroke or heart problems (via WebMD).

Eating a diet that's high in meat can raise your levels of LDL cholesterol. While we typically think of red meat as being the main culprit of this, a study from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that white meat can have as much of an effect on excess LDL levels as red meat can. The study further showed that participants following plant-based diets that favored non-meat protein sources had lower LDL levels than those eating red or white meat.

Although Omega-3 fatty acids found in fish "don't affect LDL cholesterol levels," according to the Mayo Clinic, fish is a good replacement for cholesterol-raising meats. If you're concerned about your cholesterol level, adopting a plant-based diet that favors protein sources other than meat — like pescatarianism — could help to keep them in check.

Type 2 diabetes is among the most common health conditions in the United States today; around one in ten Americans have diabetes (about 34 million people), with 90 to 95 percent of those having type 2 , according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With type 2 diabetes causing health problems that can extend to heart and kidney disease and vision loss, trying to make healthy changes to our lifestyles — and our diets — is a wise move.

Healthy eating is one of the most effective ways to both help prevent and help manage type 2 diabetes, with pescatarian and other plant-based diets offering increased protection. A 2009 study published in Diabetes Care showed that within a group of 60,000 adults, those eating vegetarian and pesco-vegetarian (pescatarian) diets had a lower prevalence and risk of type 2 diabetes. It was also found that plant-based diets may provide better protection from obesity.

A shift to a pescatarian lifestyle can mean that you're eating less of the unhealthy stuff and more of the healthy stuff — and in doing that, you might find that you're less susceptible to weight gain than those who routinely incorporate meat into their diets.

This is shown by a U.K.-based study published in the International Journal of Obesity, which looked at average weight gain over five years across meat-eaters, fish-eaters (pescatarians), vegetarians, and vegans. The study showed that pescatarians gained less weight per year on average than meat-eaters (with vegetarians and vegans gaining the least weight on average).

It's useful to point out that the study was conducted among a "health-conscious cohort," which suggests, perhaps, that the study group was making healthy choices anyway. As such, it's sensible to remember that just switching to pescatarianism won't automatically make you lose weight; however, it's a great way to cut out any excess saturated fats from meat that might contribute to weight gain.

On the other hand, if you're on a pescatarian diet and you need to gain weight, you'll want to focus on high-calorie, high-protein foods that still fit your pescatarian lifestyle. This could include plenty of fish and seafood, as well as things like peanut butter and legumes.

Pescatarianism is often paired alongside the Mediterranean diet — a similar diet that's seen commonly throughout Greece, Italy, and Spain. The Mediterranean diet emphasizes eating fatty fish, beans and pulses, and vegetables, and it shares many of the health benefits that pescatarianism has been shown to offer (via Verywell Fit).

One of these benefits is the increased support the two diets can offer to eye health. At least in animals, a diet rich in Omega-3s has been shown to help preserve vision and reduce chronic eyelid inflammation (via Harvard Health Letter).

Additionally, a study analyzing those who followed the Mediterranean diet closely found that their likelihood of developing age-related macular degeneration (or AMD), a leading cause of vision loss and blindness among older Americans, was reduced (via WebMD). The study found that although not one single aspect of the diet affected the likelihood of macular degeneration, it was the diet as a whole that contributed to sustaining eye health. Given the two diet's similarities and emphases on Omega-3-rich fish and healthy fats, pescatarianism could just be a fantastic choice to help maintain good vision.

One of the main worries people have when taking on a diet that's lower in meat (particularly red meat) — whether it's vegetarianism, veganism, or pescatarianism — is how to get enough iron. And indeed, with iron playing such an important part in our bodily systems and preventing anemia , according to WebMD, it's natural to be concerned.

Although it's common to assume that no meat equals no iron, scientists have found that's not quite the case. In a study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers found that switching from a Western-style diet heavy in meat to a Mediterranean-style diet with more fish and whole grains didn't affect iron levels negatively. What's more, they found that eating more fish increase the amount of selenium in their test participants — and some of the people taking part ended up having more iron after eating less meat and more fish! This makes sense, given some fish (like tuna) are very high in iron (via Healthline).

Part of the B vitamin family, B12 is one of the most important vitamins our body can acquire regularly. However, with pescatarianism, sources of this can sometimes be lacking.

B12 is important for the correct function of our red blood cells, nervous system, and production of DNA. Since our bodies can't produce it or store it for a long time, consistent intake of this vitamin is vital (via WebMD). Unfortunately though, as B12 is most commonly delivered from animal food sources, plant-based diets can frequently result in lower B12 levels among those who adhere to them, as a study from Nutrition Reviews has shown.

Although fish is a source of B12, you may still be lacking if you your diet is mostly made up of plants (via Sutter Health). Make sure you're consuming a wide variety of foods from a range of sources, and foods such as eggs and yogurt will help to top up your B12 levels, Harvard Health Publishing suggested. It can be useful, too, to take a B12 supplement if your levels are too low.

Although a pescatarian diet's emphasis on nutritious choices, no meat, and healthy fats might have you feeling pretty virtuous (cue choir of angels singing), it's important to remember that it doesn't automatically mean you'll be eating "pure" from here on out — and you might need to keep an eye on any meat alternatives you're incorporating into your diet.

Although plant-based meat alternatives have boomed in recent years, they're not always the most healthy. As a study published in Nutrients shows, plant-based meat alternatives can often be higher in carbohydrates and sugar than similar meat-based products such as sausages — and only 4 percent of the products found were low in sodium.

Still, many of the plant-based products studied were lower overall in calories and saturated fat — which is useful to bear in mind. But while the benefits of embracing a diet higher in fish and whole food sources are vast, you could end up eating too many processed foods if you frequently consume meat alternatives (via Cleveland Clinic). Check food labels before you buy, and aim for a well-balanced diet.