Do you suffer a fear of eating seafood? Seafood fear affects many people and for very different reasons. In fact, seafood phobia is actually one of the most commonly observed of all food fears.
Simply being afraid of eating seafood for whatever reason, but still eating all other types of food, certainly does not qualify a person to be diagnosed with avoidant restrictive food intake disorder. Many, many people do not eat seafood for whatever reason, but still eat a wide diversity of other foods that satisfy all of their nutritional needs. While seafood is widely considered healthy, especially when compared to meats, refusing to consume it will not inherently compromise a person’s health. Just ask the countless extremely healthy vegetarians who object to eating animals, including all manner of sea creatures…
This post examines the fear of eating seafood. We will discuss the reasons for this fear, how it expresses itself and the consequences of not consuming seafood.
Fear of Eating Seafood and Ichthyophobia
Ichthyophobia is the fear of fish in general. Most people who demonstrate this fear have phobias concerning anything to do with fish. They certainly do not eat fish, but also are nervous around live fish and will refuse to go fishing for sport. In essence, anything fish related creeps them out!
I have met some people who are mildly to moderately ichthyophobic, in that they do not like to be around live fish and will not go fishing. However, they might eat some types of seafood on occasion, if the food is already prepared to not resemble fish…
Seafood phobia is seen far more often in children and people who are very smell-sensitive to their food choices. Many children overcome this fear organically as they grow up.
Reasons to be Afraid of Eating Seafood
People who do demonstrate a distinct fear of eating seafood might cite a variety of known reasons for their conscious choice to abstain:
People might not believe in killing and eating fish or any other type of animals. This reasoning is often found in animal rights’ activists, animal lovers and people who believe in sustainability for our planet.
Some people might fear mercury poisoning, which is often associated with fish consumption. Other people fear ingesting toxic microplastics which fish are now proven to consume, even in captive fish harvesting farms.
Other people might fear food poisoning or ingesting parasites sometimes found in raw or undercooked fish. This is one of the most common types of seafood fears, often related to a bad experience eating fish in the past and resulting illness.
Fear of Eating Seafood Consequences
While seafood fear might be part of a larger eating disorder, such as ARFID, it is most often found in people who otherwise eat quite normally. In these otherwise typical eaters, fear of eating seafood might produce the following consequences:
Affected people might choose to eat more meat to supplement their protein intake, often resulting in negative health consequences and a tendency to gain unwanted weight, especially when combined with a high fat diet commonly seen in the developed world.
The affected person might endure restrictions when it comes to dining out and socializing at seafood establishments. For beach and island lovers where seafood restaurants are commonplace, affected people might have markedly fewer dining options.
Other people demonstrate fear of eating seafood as part of a much larger food phobia. This is certainly not surprising, since seafood does tend to be a food that turns off many people due to its appearance, aroma and origin. For people who do not eat seafood as part of a much larger restriction on food intake, a diagnosis of ARFID might be appropriate. For more information, please refer to my post covering the diagnosis of avoidant restrictive food intake disorder.
On a personal level, I have never eaten fish in my life. I was fearful of it prior to age 4 and realized its animal origin at age 4, therefore including fish in my permanent list of prohibited food items for life. Although I now eat normally (except for animals), I still do not consume any fish products to this day…
