Carp fish or cyprinus carpio in Latin, is one of the fish that is very famous in Indonesia. The pretty body shape and pretty cheap price also adds up to the value of this fish. Although the fish is not originated from Indonesia, it is pretty easy to cultivate. Thus, making it easily found in Indonesia.
Nutrition Contents of Carp Fish
The main contents of carp fish are protein, fat, mineral and vitamin which have precise compositions inside of the fish. Here is the detailed list of the fish nutrition contents:
- Protein (16 g)
- Energy (86 kcal)
- Fat (2 g)
- Calcium (20 mg)
- Phosphor (120 mg)
- Iron (2 mg)
- Vitamin B1 (0,05 mg)
It is unfortunate that we can only consume about 80% out of the total number of carp fish. Anyway, a lot of people are not aware yet that this fish, which originated from China, have a lot of benefits for human’s life. The health benefits of Carp Fish are:
- Minimalize the Developing of Heart Diseases
One of the contents in carp fish, which is the omega 3, is good for the venous arteries of the heart, that shapes the cardiovascular system. The other function would be to control the heartbeat at normal rate. This will also enlarge the tightened arteries due to fat. Consuming the carp fish twice a week can even decrease the risk of dead due to heart failure.
- Lower High Blood Pressure
The triggering factor of high blood pressure (hypertension) is the bad fats such as the saturated fat and trans fat which then can lead to cholesterol. While the fat content in carp fish can go up to only as high as 2 grams. Therefore, consuming carp fish is not something that you should be worried about.
The other content that is pretty important in controlling cholesterol is the fish oil. The main component of fish oil is, as we all know, the omega 3 that is very functional to prevent the fat from entering the body.
- Weight Controller
The other health benefits of Carp fish is that it is capable to control your weight. The content of fish oil in it allows the body to decrease the concentration of bad fats. Aside from that, carp fish also have low calories, making it fit to be one of the menu on your diet program! You can look up further about the health benefits fish diet and find out why fish is a good menu for your diet program.
- Develop the Brain
There are a lot of fish supplements out there that offers to make your children become smarter than before. Do you ever know, what is the substances inside of those supplements? Yes, it is fish oil! The DHA nutrition or Docosa Hexaenoic Acid which have the long chain of omega 3 in fish oil will be very good to stimulate the development of your children’s brains.Â
This then will result in a developing brain and make the children become smarter. The DHA stimulation is able to strengthen brain’s memory and increase the children’s willing for learning. In some of developed countries such as the United States, this nutrition has been recommended to be consumed especially for the children.
- Help Increase Height
Another benefit of omega 3 is to help with body’s growth. The stimulation caused by omega 3 is able to stimulate the growth of cells faster. Omega 3 is also included and can give health benefits of tuna.
- Prevent Cancer
One of the deadliest disease that can easily developed in women is breast cancer. According to the latest research, fish is able to prevent the growth of cancer cells, even more breast cancer. Some of other cancers that can be minimalized with fish is the colon cancer and prostate cancer.Â
- Decrease the Risk of Arthritis
Aside of preventing cancer, another benefit of carp fish is that it can decrease the risk of arthritis. The reason of this is the content of fish oil that can respond to the inflammation or swelling. Therefore, arthritis that swells will be neutralized by the fish oil.
- Healthy Eyes
A healthy pair of eyes is certainly what everybody wishes for. In developing membrane, it needs the help of unsaturated fats. One of unsaturated fats type is the DHA. Then, other benefit of fish oil in carp fish is how it can fight off the decreasing macula, dry eyes syndrome, and glaucoma. One of the health benefits of walking one hour a day can also help your eyes to stay healthy, especially to reduce the risk of glaucoma.
- Stay Young
Same like healthy eyes, everybody must be wanting to stay young as well. One of the functions from fish oil is to postpone the process of premature aging (wrinkles) and prevent it.
Some of the creams and masks for skin above 35 or 40 years old has also began using the fish oil as one of their compositions. Aside from this, you can certainly get and definitely need to have the health benefits of drinking 4 glasses of water in the morning to help yourself stays healthy and prevent premature aging.
- Good for Mental Health
Consumption of fish oil in balance is believed to be able to decrease stress and depression. The components in it can control the high blood pressure, thus enabling it to suppress the emotion and make it more positive. With that being said, then it can be concluded that fish can play a big role for your mental health.
- Control Cholesterol Level
The fat content in carp fish can be used as a cholesterol controller. This can be said since it have the ability to make HDL come out, which is the type of cholesterol that is good for the body. As a generation who lives with so many fast food stalls around us, we definitely need to learn and know further about the health risks of high levels of saturated fat and cholesterol.
- Decrease the Risk of Constriction Blood Vessel in the Brain
Besides helping the brain to work well and be smarter, DHA also functions to decrease the risk of constriction blood vessel in the brain. DHA is one of the unsaturated fatty acids that can work pretty active on the brain. The reason of this is about 60% of the fatty acids in the brain is DHA.
- Decrease the Risk of Atherosclerosis
In one research about the health benefits of Carp Fish, it is said that carp fish contains EPA or eicosa pentanoate in it. This nutrition, if combined with DHA, will become omega 3 complex which can decrease the compounds in the body such as cholesterol, triglycerides, and lipoproteins. The existence of this unsaturated fatty acid implied to decrease the chances to develop atherosclerosis.Â
Healthy Processing of Carp Fish
Carp fish is good for consumption since it has a lot of benefits. However, the benefits will not show up if the fish is processed wrongly. The content of unsaturated fat in carp fish is very easy to be damaged. In order to preserve it, you can cook it by turn it into a soup, steam it, to wrap it in leaf before cook it or known as pepes in Indonesia. It is advised not to fry the fish.
The Importance of Consuming Fish
Have you ever wonder why Japanese people are very smart? There are a lot of opinions saying the Japanese are smart because they consume seafood. One of it is, of course, fish since Japan does have a lot of waters around it. The result of this is the massive amount of fish production. Even Japanese traditional food which have fish as the main ingredient is really well known too in Indonesia. Take sushi for an example, which contains seefood in it and now become one of the menu whose nutrition is calculated a lot.
Actually, the nutrition that people look out the most when consuming fish is the amino acid protein. In the amino acid, there are some types of indispensable such as hystadine, lysine, phenylalanine, tryptophan, yalin, isoleucine, methionine, and thereonin which are very needed by the body. This content of amino acid can not be produced by the body, thus have to be obtained from other sources. Although, one of the amino acid traits is indispensable which is very easy to dissolve and can’t be kept.
Therefore, it is important to consume fish everyday to avoid yourself from kwakshiorkor disease. One of the way for this is, by consuming the carp fish.