My gran loves to tell the story of when she got a fish bone stuck in her throat and had to go to hospital to get it take out. She loves it, because she was proud of herself for staying calm and being brave throughout the ordeal. Every time someone picks a bone out of their fish fillet, she tells this story.
The fear of eating fishbones is prevalent across the UK. We just eat the flesh – maybe the skin if we’re feeling adventurous. Maybe we avoid eating smaller fishes (like anchovies and sardines) because they have too many bones.
But in other cultures, it’s normal to eat the bones as well as other parts of the fish. For example, the Bangladeshi might eat fish almost daily – their seafood is often small native fishes with lots of small bones. These small bones, along with the skin, are a fantastic source of calcium and other micronutrients that aren’t in the flesh.
Are we westerners doing ourselves a dis-service by being hypervigilant about fishbones in our food? Perhaps noshing down on the small bones in anchovies and sardines could give us a little boost of nutrients.
Fish By The Pounds 