Seal Meat Health Benefits

If you’ve made a close study of healthy dieting, chances are you already know that seal meat is extremely low in cholesterol, but it is also loaded with nutrients. So let’s dig in to a plate of seal loin (125g) and take a look at just some of them.

Seal meat is an excellent source of zinc, phosphorous and magnesium, all of which play important roles in energy metabolism, the complex process by which our bodies combine calories in our diet with oxygen to produce the energy we need to function.

Recommended Daily Values of any nutrients vary depending on such factors as gender, age, size, and if we’re pregnant or breastfeeding. But for ease of consumption by the general public, health authorities round these numbers off. So for an adult man, Health Canada recommends a DV for zinc of 11 mg. And since our bodies don’t produce zinc or store it for long either, we must get a steady supply in our diet.

The good news is that zinc is found in modest amounts in a wide variety of foods, and deficiencies are rare in developed countries (but quite common in poorer ones). If you really want to load up on zinc, nothing beats a plate of oysters, but red meat and poultry are great sources too. Our plate of seal loin provides 2.5 mg of zinc, or 23% of our DV.

For phosphorus, the recommended DV for adults is 1,250 mg. As with zinc, phosphorus deficiencies are rare in developed countries, but if you’re concerned, nothing beats cuttlefish. Luckily, chicken and pork are great sources too, as is our seal loin platter, which will give us 200 mg, or 16% of our DV.

And then there’s magnesium, with a recommended DV for adults of 420 mg. Vegetarians can rest easy on this one since cashews, whole grains and dark chocolate are all fantastic sources. But for dedicated carnivores, our serving of seal loin will still get you off to a good start, with 60 mg of magnesium, or 14% of the DV.

Our immune system is made up of special organs, cells and chemicals that fight against infection by microbes, and keeping it in good repair is literally a matter of life and death. The zinc and protein in seal meat can help us do just this.

Zinc plays an important role in normalising the function of our immune system, and as we’ve already seen, our plate of seal provides 23% of our DV.

Protein, meanwhile, strengthens our immune system by helping to build antibodies, themselves proteins which are used by the immune system to identify and neutralize foreign objects such as pathogenic bacteria and viruses. By weight, our seal loin is 23% protein, which is a lot, but we’ll discuss the more important protein rating below.

Protein is essential in our diets to maintain and increase our muscle mass and strength. Enzymes in the stomach and small intestine break protein apart to form peptides – chains of amino acids that our bodies use to rebuild muscle fibres and grow new ones.

The amount of protein we should consume is not expressed as a DV because our individual needs vary so greatly. For example, a large, physically active male looking to bulk up for the next football season requires significantly more protein than a petite female librarian looking to lose weight.

Instead, experts assess the quality of protein in a food type in terms of its bioavailability and amino acid profile, and weigh this against the quantity provided in a Reasonable Daily Intake. The resulting “protein efficiency ratio” can be expressed in a number of ways, one of which is a protein rating. In Canada, for a food manufacturer to claim its product is an “excellent” or “very high” source of protein, it must have a protein rating of 40 or more. Our seal loin earns this badge of honour with flying colours, boasting a protein rating of 62, while seal flipper is slightly lower at 57.

It is Health Canada’s position that the protein efficiency ratio (PER) represents an acceptable method for accurately measuring the protein quality of food products.

Anemia is the most common blood disorder, affecting about a third of the global population. It results from an abnormally low level of red blood cells, the principal means by which oxygen is delivered to our body cells. A common cause of anemia is too little iron and/or vitamin B12 in our diet, both of which play important roles in the formation of red blood cells.

Dietary iron comes in two forms, heme iron and non-heme iron, the key differences being as follows. Firstly, while many plant foods are rich sources of iron, they contain only non-heme iron, while animal flesh contains both heme and non-heme iron. And secondly, heme iron is best for humans because it is more readily absorbed by our bodies. In short, meat is the best way to get iron in our diets, and one of the very best – better even than pork liver – is seal meat. So rich is seal loin in iron that our single serving contains 44 mg, equivalent to 244% of our DV.

Vitamin B12, meanwhile, is involved in the metabolism of every cell in our bodies, and one of its key roles is in the maturation of developing red blood cells in the bone marrow. Most people in developed countries obtain enough vitamin B12 from meat, fish, fowl, milk and eggs, but the elderly and diabetics taking metformin are particularly prone to deficiencies (as are vegans, but that’s another matter). The recommended DV for vitamin B12 is 2.4 µg, so if you like clams (124 µg per 125 g serving) or beef liver (103 µg), you’re already well over the top! But there’s no need to go that far. Our serving of seal loin provides a healthy 7.7 µg – more than pork (5 µg) and double beef (3.5 µg).

• Table of Daily Values. Government of Canada. <https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/technical-documents-labelling-requirements/table-daily-values.html> Visited on May 20^th
• Nutrient function claims. Government of Canada <https://www.inspection.gc.ca/food-label-requirements/labelling/industry/health-claims-on-food-labels/eng/1392834838383/1392834887794?chap=9> Visited on May 20^th
• FCÉN pour Gibier, viande, phoque du Groenland, cru (Code de l’aliment: 3645). <https://aliments-nutrition.canada.ca/cnf-fce/switchlocale.do?lang=en&url=t.search.recherche> Look for code 3645. Visited on May 20^th
• Seal Meat Loin nutritional Value. Project Report No. 16-13, Merinov Nutritional Evaluation of Harp Seal Meat – For SeaDNA, 2016
• Summary table of protein claims Government of Canada. <https://inspection.canada.ca/food-label-requirements/labelling/industry/nutrient-content/specific-claim-requirements/eng/1389907770176/1389907817577?chap=3#protab.> Visited on May 20^th
• Nutrient content claims: what they mean. Government of Canada. <https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/understanding-food-labels/nutrient-content-claims-what-they-mean.html> Visited on May 20^th
• Measuring the protein quality of foods. Government of Canada. <https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/food-nutrition/legislation-guidelines/policies/measuring-protein-quality-foods.html> Visited on May 20^th