Don't Die: Eat More Small Fish

The nutritional case for small fish.

Jul 21, 2025

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Post summary

Small fish like anchovies, sardines, and mackerel are among the most nutritious foods on the planet.
Eating them can improve your health by delivering whole protein, a better source of omega-3s, and the micronutrients we often lack. Plus, they’re one of the most sustainable forms of protein on Earth.
And yet … most people avoid small fish because they think they’re gross.
Luckily, a renaissance is happening in the small fish world, and they now taste great. Really great.
We’ll cover the benefits of small fish and why you should eat more of them.

Housekeeping

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ICYMI:
- On Wednesday, we published The Ultimate Guide to Weight Vests Vs. Backpacks. It’s the most detailed analysis of the subject.
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In my book Scarcity Brain, I wrote about the Tsimane tribe. They live in the most remote reaches of the Bolivian jungle and practice a hunter-gatherer-horticulturalist lifestyle.

I wanted to visit them because of a remarkable finding: The Tsimane basically don’t die of heart disease1.

Meanwhile, cardiovascular disease is the number one killer in the developed world. Heart disease is preventable, yet the average American has a coin flip’s chance of dying from it.

The main difference, the lead researcher told me, is their diet. The Tsimane eat no ultraprocessed foods. (P.S., if you’re wondering how movement factors in, read this footnote2).

When I was with the tribe, we ate a lot of fish: big fish, small fish—all kinds of fish.

When I got home, I decided to eat more fish. Because I, like most Americans, suck at eating fish even though I know it’s good for me:

Roughly 70 percent of the protein we eat comes from meat—chicken, beef, pork, etc. We generally exceed government recommendations for meat protein.
20 percent comes from eggs, dairy, and plant sources.
Only 7 to 9 percent of our protein comes from fish—far less than the government recommends for a healthy diet.

But of course, cooking fish is kind of a pain in the ass. And I like cooking about as much as I enjoy doing my taxes—I just want to get it over with quickly.

When I looked for ways to make eating fish easier, I scanned the grocery store aisles for tinned fish. There was tuna, of course, but tuna also contains a lot of mercury. Then I spotted sardines, anchovies, and mackerel.

I always thought those small fish were gross—the smelly, slimy stuff my grandfather ate (granted, he lived long and well, but I digress).

I discovered that there’s a renaissance happening in the world of small tinned fish. Foodie types have entered the industry and are producing tinned sardines, mackerel, and anchovies that taste really, really good.

My favorites are from Patagonia Provisions, which is why Two Percent partnered with the brand. But Patagonia Provisions is, of course, not the only brand offering excellent tinned fish. Visit a good specialty grocery like Whole Foods and you’ll find some amazing options.

My diet has improved thanks to eating more small, tinned fish.

These fish are a powerhouse not only for our personal health, but also for planetary health.

I read research on small fish and also spoke to Daniel Creagan, a regenerative food system expert at Patagonia Provisions. He’s a wealth of info and known as “Fish Daddy.”

You’ll learn:

Why tinned fish are a convenient form of whole nutrition and protein.
Why real fish, especially small fish, trump omega-3 supplements.
How small fish fix a common nutrition gap.
Why small fish are better for sustainability than other forms of whole protein.
How to actually eat them.

Convenient whole protein

In a perfect world, everyone would get their protein from whole, minimally processed sources.

But life isn’t perfect. Most whole proteins require refrigeration and spoil relatively quickly—so they’re not easy to eat when you’re busy or traveling.

As a result, we often reach for protein bars. But protein bars are usually just candy bars with a bunch of protein (and a million other ingredients) injected into them.

Tinned fish are an equally portable way to get whole protein. A can offers anywhere from 15 to 25 grams of protein—plus many vitamins and minerals that protein bars lack.

I’ll often travel with a can if I know I’m going somewhere where real food will be hard to find. They’re also great for backpacking and camping.

Better than omega-3 supplements

Eating fish appears to promote general health and heart health. But research on the benefits of omega-3 supplementation is mixed. For example, a Cochrane Review3 found:

Taking more long-chain omega 3 fats (including EPA and DHA), primarily through supplements probably makes little or no difference to risk of cardiovascular events, coronary heart deaths, coronary heart disease events, stroke or heart irregularities.

By distilling omega-3s into a supplement, we may miss the full matrix of health-promoting nutrients whole fish provide.

Small fish like sardines have 4x the omega-3s of tuna and about 50 percent more Omega-3s than salmon.

Fish Daddy4 also pointed out that to make Omega-3 supplements, we catch a bunch of small fish then grind them up for oil. “But you lose 50 percent of the fish in the process,” he said. “If you just ate fish instead of eating fish oil, we’d have much more sustainable oceans.”

Vitamins and minerals we often lack

Small fish can help us cover nutritional gaps.

Despite access to thousands of foods, most Americans lack at least one of the 29 vitamins and minerals we need to function optimally. These deficiencies are associated with everything from obesity and heart disease to fatigue, depression, and impaired intelligence and performance.

Small fish fix two common gaps: magnesium and iron. Half of Americans don’t get enough magnesium, and 20 percent don’t get enough iron.

One study noted:

Sardines contain calcium, potassium, magnesium, zinc, iron, taurine, arginine and other nutrients which together modulate mild inflammation and exacerbated oxidative stress observed in cardiovascular disease and in haemodynamic dysfunction. In a common serving of sardines, calcium, potassium, and magnesium are the minerals at higher amounts to elicit clinical benefits, whilst other nutrients are present in lower but valuable amounts.

Low in mercury

Popular tinned fish like tuna is often high in mercury, a neurotoxin that the EPA states5 can “harm the brain, heart, kidneys, lungs, and immune system of people of all ages.” It’s particularly harmful to young brains.

This is why the government warns pregnant and breastfeeding women and their children to limit or avoid some canned tuna and cuts of fish “because of its potential effect on developing brains.”

Even adults can eat enough tuna to build up high levels of mercury.

Harvard docs pointed out “Small fish are less likely to contain contaminants such as mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) compared with large species like tuna and swordfish. Those and other large fish feed on smaller fish, which concentrates the toxins.”

Small fish like sardines and anchovies have about 10 to 20 times less mercury than larger fish. That’s why the EPA says they’re OK for pregnant women and kids to eat.

Better for the planet

Small fish are generally more sustainable than larger fish. There are a few reasons for this. Fish Daddy explained:

They have a shorter lifespan and reproduce quickly, so they’re better able to withstand fishing pressures.
They require the lowest amount of carbon emissions to harvest than any other animal. For example, they need about one-eighth the greenhouse gas of chicken, one-twentieth of that of beef, and half that of tuna6.
They trump farmed fish. We often think farmed fish would be more sustainable, but the World Wildlife Fund7 points out that we feed farmed fish with wild-caught fish. They write, “the growing number of farmed fish could eat their way through wild stocks of small pelagic fish—a major food source for a number of animals, including orcas, puffins, and other wild fish.”
They result in less bycatch. This is because small fish tend to swim in tight clusters in known areas, so netting generally results in less bycatch, especially when fishermen are careful.

If you care about environmental impacts, I like Patagonia Provisions because they fish in areas with high stocks. They also collaborate with traditional local fishermen to keep the small-scale fishing industry vibrant.

Other brands, like Fishwife and Scout Canning, also have stringent environmental practices.

How to eat them

This is where the rubber meets the road. To get a human to eat anything, it has to taste good.

My two go-to methods:

A quick lunch: Small fish with bread or crackers. Try a few brands and find what you like.
- I love this lunch because it takes no time or effort. Good brands like Patagonia Provisions use high-quality olive oil, so use the bread to soak the oil.
As a quick dinner: I’ll mix Patagonia Provisions Sardines in Coconut Curry with rice and vegetables. It’s quick, easy, and delicious.

I’m admittedly lazy when it comes to cooking. Check out the recipe section of Patagonia Provisions’ website—or any other food website you like—for a ton of great recipes.

Have fun, don’t die, eat small fish.

-Michael

Kaplan H, Thompson RC, Trumble BC, Wann LS, Allam AH, Beheim B, Frohlich B, Sutherland ML, Sutherland JD, Stieglitz J, Rodriguez DE, Michalik DE, Rowan CJ, Lombardi GP, Bedi R, Garcia AR, Min JK, Narula J, Finch CE, Gurven M, Thomas GS. Coronary atherosclerosis in indigenous South American Tsimane: a cross-sectional cohort study. Lancet. 2017 Apr 29;389(10080):1730-1739. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(17)30752-3. Epub 2017 Mar 17. PMID: 28320601; PMCID: PMC6028773.

The Moseten tribe lives a few hours downriver from the Tsimane. They’re equally active, but they live close to a town, where they buy and eat far more ultraprocessed foods. The Moseten have significantly higher rates of cardiovascular disease.

Cochrane. (2018, July 16). New Cochrane health evidence challenges belief that omega-3 supplements reduce risk of heart disease, stroke or death. Cochrane.

That’s what we’re calling him, because the nickname is too good not to use.