Monday, October 6, 2008

Live Maine Lobsters are good for You, Too!

By Sherry Shantel

It's hard for us to imagine why Maine's earliest residents didn't eat the lobsters they harvested. Although they've been harvested from the Maine coastal waters for generations, it wasn't until recently that people started respecting them as the fine fare they are. In fact, early Colonists used them as fertilizer. They were only food for the poor, slaves, indentured servants, and children. Since that time, though, our eating tastes have changed. In the 1840s the demand for live Maine lobsters was so great that the first commercial lobster fishery came into being, supplying the finest restaurants in America's biggest cities.

The most obvious reason for eating lobster is that it just plain tastes good. It might surprise you, though, to hear that it's also extremely good for you. Would you believe that ounce for ounce lobsters have fewer calories, less fat, and about the same amount of cholesterol and skinless chicken breasts?

By examining the nutrition fact sheet on a can of lobster meat, we find that a 3 oz. serving contains only 98 calories with only five calories being attributed to fat. The serving also contains 300 mg. of the important mineral, potassium. The daily percentages of the vitamins and minerals which are supplied by this 3 oz. piece as listed on the can are as follows:

1. Vitamin A - 2% 2. Calcium - 6% 3. Riboflavin - 4% 4. Iron - 2% 5. Vitamin E - 6% 6. Niacin - 4% 7. Vitamin B6 - 4% 8. Vitamin B12 - 45% 9. Magnesium - 8% 10. Selenium - 50% 11. Manganese - 2% 12. Phosphorus - 15% 13. Zinc - 15% 14. Copper - 80%

Just think of enjoying a food that is as high in nutrients as lobster is. By taking a look at the labels on different canned goods you have in your kitchen, you'll be able to see just how high these percentages really are.

Live Maine lobsters are harvested by independent boat captains with possibly an assistant or two. Most harvesting is done during day trips that go out no farther than 10-12 miles from shore. An individual harvesting operation can maintain as many as 800 traps by following a daily schedule of setting new traps and hauling in filled ones. Harvesters mark their traps with buoys containing their own state-registered designs.

Inclement weather doesn't halt the lobster harvest in Maine which operates twelve months a year. Lobsters are most active between late June and late December, and that's when the majority of harvesting takes place. Although the catch is smaller during the other months of the year, that doesn't stop harvesters from making their daily rounds.

Although all live Maine lobsters are of superior quality, new shell lobsters are the finest of the lot. When the adult lobsters molt once a year, they rid themselves of their old outgrown shells which are replaced with softer, larger ones that harden over time. It's at the point when the shells are softest that connoisseurs are most anxious to pay the highest prices for them. New shell lobsters have delicate, succulent meat unparalleled by the meat at any other time of year, and the soft shells can be cracked easily with the bare hands.

You don't have to wait to go to an expensive restaurant in order to give into your craving for fresh Maine lobster. There are websites online which ship them overnight, fresh from their door to yours. Add the taste and convenience to the healthy qualities of lobster meat, and you've got a combination that's hard to beat! - 15359

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