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Josh Clark

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Sam J

What's up, fam? I'm sports journalist Ari Chambers. Hey, what's up, y'?

Jacob Goldstein

All?

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Josh Clark

She looks good.

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Chuck Bryant

Hey, and welcome to the Short stuff. I'm Josh and there's Chuck. And we're just sucking down sardines on the short stuff because Jerry's sitting in for Dave, which means it's short Stuff about sardines.

Josh Clark

That's right. I picked this. Cause a couple of weeks ago, you mentioned sardines. Cause I mentioned I'd been eating tinned, like, salmon and tuna for lunches. For light lunches. He said, try sardines. I said, I got some sardines and I tried them today. Finally.

Chuck Bryant

Yeah.

Josh Clark

And I have to say this. I liked, like, the flavor was good, but I got skeeved out.

Chuck Bryant

Yeah. The same thing happens to me, man. I have zero recollection of telling you to try sardines. And I find them difficult to eat because of the texture.

Josh Clark

You did not mention any of that when you told me to try sardines.

Chuck Bryant

I don't know what you're talking about.

Josh Clark

I'm not saying last week or the week before.

Chuck Bryant

That is bizarre.

Josh Clark

I think you're even like, oh, sardines are good. Go eat them.

Chuck Bryant

Huh? That sounds like me. Yeah. Like, one part of my brain was saying it and the rest of my brain didn't even know that I just said it.

Josh Clark

Yeah. So the idea was to I got some bagels when I Was just in New York from my favorite Essa bagel. Everything's bring them home in the suitcase, put them in the freezer, cut them in half, put them in the freezer. Cause eating a whole giant bagel like that is a lot. So I put a, like for lunch. Sometimes I'll do a half a bagel with like maybe sometimes nothing, just a half a bagel. Or sometimes I'll put some of that tinned tuna on top. So I was like, today I'm gonna throw some sardines on that. But let me try them first. And I tried em and I'm glad I didn't waste that bagel because I couldn't do it, man. They skeeved me out. But the flavor was still fine. It was hard to describe why it skeeved me. I guess cause they're ten tiny little fish looking at you.

Chuck Bryant

Well, that's the thing. Yeah, it's a whole little fish. They don't grind it up like tuna or salmon or anything like that. Like it's a little fish in a tray, a metal tray that didn't skew me out. Again, it's the texture, the taste is fine. Like they smell way more fishy than they taste and their taste is fine.

Josh Clark

It wasn't unlike tuna taste wise.

Chuck Bryant

No, it's. No. And it's certainly not nothing like anchovies, which are definitely their own thing and they're good in their own way. It's nothing like that. I saw some recipes because I got into sardines before I ever tried them. And we still have cans left from years back. And I'm always looking for ways to use them up. And I found that you can just fry them up like Spanish tapas is to fry them. And I'm like, if they crisp up a little bit, I might be able to handle them better.

Josh Clark

Agreed. And grilling them, had I maybe just placed them on that bagel and toasted it in the toaster oven, it might have been a little better. But yeah, I'm with you. So we're talking sardines. These are tiny little fish, of course, very silvery. They're very nutrient dense, which we're going to talk about because they're actually pretty good for you. And you can get them, you know, you can get fresh sardines in a lot of Asian countries. Usually over here in the United States and other places in the west, you're going to buy them in the little, you know, their little bunk bed that you twist open. I wish you still twisted open things like that with A little key, but unfortunately, it's the stupid pull tab now. Yeah, but one benefit of a sardine, if you're into, like, a light tinned fish for lunch, is that you don't have to worry about mercury because they don't eat other fish. And apparently that's where mercury comes from, is fish eating fish. They eat plankton, and so you don't have to sweat the mercury.

Chuck Bryant

Yeah, I saw the reason why it's a problem because plankton actually have mercury in it, but it's very small amounts. The problem with eating fish with mercury is that it bioaccumulates. So when you one fish eats another fish that has mercury, that fish's mercury combines with the fish that ate its mercury and so on and so forth. So that by the time you eat a fish, you're eating a bunch of mercury. Potentially. Since sardines only eat the little bit of mercury that plankton have, they're fine.

Josh Clark

Yeah. Which is a shame, because if not for that, I would honestly eat a little tin of nice tuna every day for lunch.

Chuck Bryant

Yeah, I don't eat it every day, but I eat a lot. Lately, I've been eating way more fish than usual. Have you ever had branzino?

Josh Clark

Oh, yeah. Anytime it's on a menu, a whole branzino at the table for everyone to share. That's what I do.

Chuck Bryant

Okay, my friend, you can go to a certain alternative grocery store, I guess you could call it that, has a lot of their own brand stuff. Basically, that's all they sell is their own brand.

Podcast Announcer

Okay.

Chuck Bryant

And they have frozen branzino filets. And, like, just put a little salt, a little pepper, maybe not even olive oil, and eat it, and you will just be in seventh heaven.

Josh Clark

Throw it in the oven or just eat it cold.

Chuck Bryant

You can throw it in the oven. I throw it in the air fryer sometimes.

Josh Clark

Yeah, sure.

Chuck Bryant

Yeah. I don't recommend eating it cold. It's not like sashimi.

Josh Clark

Oh, okay. That's what I thought, because you didn't mention cooking it.

Chuck Bryant

I'm sorry, buddy.

Josh Clark

You know you're not supposed to eat that much tuna. I hope you're not, because that's a serious thing. Like, eating more than one, like, tin of tuna a week is not great.

Chuck Bryant

I didn't know that, but I don't think I eat a tin of tuna every week. No.

Josh Clark

All right, good. You. You don't want to turn into

Chuck Bryant

the Mad Hatter.

Josh Clark

No, the guy that ate too much tuna. Ari from Entourage.

Chuck Bryant

Do you know plot lines from Entourage?

Josh Clark

No. Ari, the agent in Entourage. What's the guy from Maldejohn?

Chuck Bryant

I know who you're talking about. Go ahead.

Josh Clark

Yeah, what's his name? I can't remember his name.

Chuck Bryant

Not John Favreau?

Josh Clark

No, the guy.

Chuck Bryant

Jeremy Piven.

Josh Clark

Jeremy Piven? Yeah. He got sick from eating. He got, like, mercury poisoning years ago from apparently eating too much sushi.

Chuck Bryant

I think you told me that before.

Josh Clark

Yeah.

Chuck Bryant

Did you ever see pcu?

Josh Clark

I saw parts of it. I never saw the whole thing.

Chuck Bryant

I saw the whole thing multiple times for some reason.

Josh Clark

Well, that's where you were in your life at the time.

Chuck Bryant

I guess so.

Josh Clark

All right, so back to sardines. They are found in shallow coastal, temperate subtropical oceans all over the world. And they're very popular in Europe, obviously Portugal and Spain. You can find them a lot of tapas menus. You can grill those things up, throw them on a pizza, toast. You're eating the bones, by the way. They're very tiny, so you don't feel like you're eating bones. They just sort of dissolve in with the rest of the little silver fish.

Chuck Bryant

I think that might be part of the texture problem, too.

Josh Clark

Yeah, maybe.

Chuck Bryant

But there's a lot of health benefits. Including the bones. The bones are chock full of calcium. Apparently. Just eating one tin, I think, of sardines gives you like a third of the calcium you need as a human being, at least according to the US government.

Josh Clark

Yeah. And if you're lactose intolerant, it's a good place to get calcium. Also, because it's a fish, you're going to get lots of vitamin D, B12, phosphorus, selenium, and those omega 3 fatty acids which are great at preventing heart disease while also being low in saturated fat.

Chuck Bryant

Yeah, I was reading about that because I take Omega 3s for cognitive stuff. Like, it helps me focus and it really works really well. I've heard that, but there's a history of atrial fibrillation in my family, and I read that if you have a family history of heart disease taking omega 3s, there was a study recently that found taking omega 3s actually increases your risk of developing it yourself.

Podcast Announcer

Oh, really?

Chuck Bryant

But it has a protective function if you already have heart disease. It's really bizarre.

Josh Clark

Oh, geez, man. The human body's so weird sometimes it is, but.

Chuck Bryant

So this was one study. It was a recent study, but it was a pretty big meta analysis. And it doesn't seem to be being poo pooed in the scientific press. So it might be legit, I don't know. But it was enough to make Me stop taking it every day.

Josh Clark

All right, all right. Well, we'll take a little break and we'll come back and talk a little bit more about sardines right after this.

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Chuck Bryant

Okay, Chuck, so we talked about Omega 3s, we talked about calcium. Talk about some other stuff that's in these things, because they're basically like little miracle fish, essentially.

Josh Clark

Yeah. I mean, what else you got?

Chuck Bryant

One of the things that stands out to me is that they've got this nice balance of protein and fats, but healthy fats, part of the omega 3 thing. They're high in omega 3s, but they're low in saturated fats. So it's like the good stuff. And they have just enough protein too, that if you eat them, you're not gonna be like, I need some more food. Like, they'll satiate you.

Josh Clark

Yeah, for sure. And that's what I'm looking for with these light lunches is something to kind of make me go like, all right, that's enough for now. Yep. Unfortunately, sardines don't have a place in my life now yet.

Chuck Bryant

You have to fry them first.

Josh Clark

Yeah, I'm gonna try that.

Chuck Bryant

I am, too.

Josh Clark

Although that means I'll have to buy more.

Chuck Bryant

I can give you some. I'll loan you some of mine.

Josh Clark

Yeah, bring some to Canada next week.

Chuck Bryant

Okay.

Josh Clark

Oh, man. You probably can't sneak sardines into Montreal. Are you kidding me?

Chuck Bryant

I don't know.

Josh Clark

I don't know.

Chuck Bryant

Let's find out.

Josh Clark

It's not all rosy when it comes to sardines, though, everybody. Because if you have gout, if you have kidney stones or high blood pressure, you might want to not to, like, overload on sardines. I'm sure a little is fine, but they are high in purines, and that is going to create extra uric acid, which is obviously the problem with gout and kidneys and how your kidneys process uric acid. So maybe, you know, again, in moderation. I doubt if, like, a little bit of sardine is going to be too bad for you.

Chuck Bryant

Yeah, I think this is excess kind of stuff where you're just pounding.

Josh Clark

Like, Jeremy Piven level.

Chuck Bryant

Exactly. Also, if you have chronic kidney disease, sardines are so packed with protein that they can actually make it hard on your kidneys to process all of it. So there's essentially, we've reached the point where we want to remind all of you that we are not doctors nor dietitians, nor nutritionists. We're just fans. And if you are like, well, I've got chronic kidney disease, but these guys have really made me curious about sardines. Maybe talk to a professional or ask your AI assistant.

Josh Clark

Yeah, for sure. They'll tell you. Ireland is in Ireland. I know that much. A lot of sodium, too, sometimes depending on what kind you buy. So buy the ones in water because we didn't say they could be packed in oil. Sometimes it's different sauces and things.

Chuck Bryant

Yeah.

Josh Clark

I do like some of the tuna and salmon packed in oil, and then you drain most of that off. But get sardines packed in water that don't have a lot of added sodium.

Chuck Bryant

Yeah. The problem with tuna packed in water is because you use so much more mayonnaise to make up for the oil that's missing, that it just at least washes out. If not gets worse.

Josh Clark

That's right.

Chuck Bryant

There's one other problem that has to do with basically anything that you get in a can. The can probably has some sort of bisphenol in it.

Josh Clark

Oh, yeah, BPAs.

Chuck Bryant

Yeah, BPA. BP. I think F was one. All of the, remember the replacement ones that they're like BPA free, but there's other bisphenols in here, so don't ask too many questions about those.

Josh Clark

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Chuck Bryant

So that's a problem with basically any canned thing. And sardines are no exception. So go listen to our short stuff on BPAs. It was fairly enlightening, I think.

Josh Clark

Agreed. Is short stuff out.

Chuck Bryant

Yes.

Josh Clark

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Josh Clark

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