I don’t often visit the canned fish section of the grocery store. As a child, our home always stocked cans of tuna for our three cats, who enjoyed this preservative-laden feast of meat as dessert after a sad meal of chalky dry food. To me (and many other Americans), the idea that a human could find their dinner on the back of a tinfoil lid violates the fundamental principle that seafood is best eaten fresh. So I Excited Last Monday, I came home from the market with a pile of cans of sardines, each marinated in a unique flavor: coconut curry, spicy marinara sauce, olive oil and black pepper. These tiny, headless fish were going to be my breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next 24 hours. According to sardine fanatics around the world, my life would never be the same again.
The stunt is called the “sardine fast.” It’s become one of the health-related internet fads in recent years, and the rules are ridiculously simple: eliminate all sources of nutrition from your plate except for salty canned sardines, with no bread, crackers, or other accompaniments that might make the fish more palatable. During the fast, you can only drink water, tea, and black coffee. It’s said you need to keep doing this for three full days to complete the challenge. The sardine fast was originally popularized in 2023 by Annette Bosworth, a physician known on YouTube as Dr. Boz and a strong proponent of the low-carb, high-protein ketosis diet. Bosworth sells beef liver capsules on her website, and was stripped of her medical license in 2015. After violating many election laws in the unfortunate South Dakota Senate electionGiven that, it is not surprising that Dr. Boz did not respond to my repeated requests for an interview.
Scandal aside, some 652,000 people have watched Bosworth’s video detailing the benefits of the sardine fast. Bosworth claims that sardines are rich in omega-3s, vitamin E, and calcium, and that eating large amounts over a three-day period will “surge in ketones” — a physical state called ketosis, in which the body gets its energy from fat instead of glucose, promoting weight loss. (Ketosis is the name given to the low-carb ketogenic diet.) Bosworth uploaded the video last May, and since then, social media has become abuzz with fitness bloggers, keto advocates, and curious regular people all over the world trying the sardine fast. It’s full of people He grimaces in disgust as he struggles through the third or fourth serving. Help for smelly lukewarm fishSome wholeheartedly support the process, while others point out the pitfalls of such a restricted palate. For example, YouTuber Kendra Von Esch said that after just two days of eating only sardines, She was struck with “diarrhoea.”
Meanwhile, blogger and former chef Courtney Luna I recently logged a week-long sardine fast. She explains on her channel that she had to cut her 10-day sardine fast short by three days because her body was “telling me not to.” But she still found the fast worth it. “This fish is magical,” she says. “It really helped me understand my hunger cues. I eat too much bacon or steak because they’re so tasty, but I don’t really like sardines, so I was eating them because I was really hungry.”
Luna told me that every promise Bosworth made about the sardine fast came true: Her blood sugar dropped, her ketones soared, and by the end of the seven days, Luna had lost six pounds. (She do not haveLuna was especially prepared for such a dramatic change in her eating habits. She lives by the teachings of the “carnivore diet,” an extreme lifestyle advocated by Jordan Peterson that asks participants to consume only animal products. Proponents of the diet claim it can regulate blood pressure and stabilize mood swings, but as Healthline points out, “No controlled studies support [those] Generally speaking, you should also get some plant compounds in your diet, Healthline adds, noting that a meat-only diet doesn’t contain fiber, which can lead to terrible Not just constipation Osteoporosis, gout, and renal dysfunction.
Nevertheless, the sardine fast has taken hold among carnivores and, medically speaking, Wrong Fish is surprisingly beneficial for human biology. “The American Heart Association recommends eating fish at least twice a week,” Beth Cherwony, a dietitian at the Cleveland Clinic, told me. She pointed to research showing that regular consumption of oily sardines can improve cholesterol levels, keep your digestive tract in order, and even lower your risk of developing dementia. Cherwony noted that fish is very high in mercury, and she wasn’t in favor of eating sardines all day. But all things considered, it’s certainly a good idea. Try the worst fad diets.
“The first two days I was feeling sick and irritable, but by the third day I felt great and didn’t want to eat anything else,” said Alex Momsen, an insurance agent from Utah. do not have Although he’s a carnivore, he recently completed a 72-hour sardine circuit and has developed a love for fish, claiming that sardines help with everything from energy levels to joint pain.
“I would recommend this to everyone,” Momsen continued. “I’m trying to convert people. There was a guy at work who became interested when he saw that I eat sardines regularly. He always says he wants more protein, and I pick up a can and say, ’22 grams of protein, no carbs, vitamin B12. You’ll feel great after you eat it.’ People think I’m weird, but once they try it, they get it.”
Personally, I was not prepared to sacrifice three days of my mortal existence on the altar of sardines, mainly because I wasn’t even sure if I was ready to sacrifice myself on the altar of sardines yet. I like it I had fish. But 24 hours? I could do that. So at 9am, I peeled the lid off my breakfast can. I picked the cheapest, most bland brand of sardines from my assortment. The container contained six gutted, descaled, and immersed in olive oil. I wanted to get a good understanding of the fish’s intrinsic flavor profile, and I suspect that many other marinades on the market are primarily intended to mask the fish’s rancid odors, like burying a heaping dollop of Purina before giving your dog its medicine. I pulled out my fork, but the fillet slid off the fork tine, so I nibbled on it with my fingers instead. I was stuffed!
It seems you don’t dislike sardines. Thank you. God. Though it wasn’t the most satisfying breakfast I’d ever had, the fish was relatively easy to eat, and I occasionally paused to savor the unexpected meaty flavor of each bite. The oiliness was strong, but not overpowering; I’ve endured much worse fishy flavors in other dishes. Suddenly I understood why America is in the midst of a millennial-driven canned-fish boom. luckIndustry-wide sales are expected to soar from $2.3 billion in 2018 to more than $2.7 billion by 2023. We suspect a big part of that is down to their Art Deco-inspired canned ship exteriors. The cans make for great, Instagram-worthy picnic fare, but the seafood inside isn’t bad either. Maybe Europeans are on to something.
Thirty minutes later, I downed another can, and my gut hit cruising mode shortly thereafter. My biggest fear about this fast was that I’d spend the whole day feeling hungry and cranky, with the usual carbs and sugars blinking out of my kitchen. But that didn’t happen. Instead, I found myself surrendering to the rhythm of work, feeling hunger-free and full. Maybe this would be easy. Maybe making a sudden nutritional shift would work better than I thought. Maybe I could always make the choice to be healthy.
Luke Winkie
That was, of course, until it was lunchtime, at which point I went into cardiac arrest. I live in New York City, so I’m always about a half-block away from a grocery store with a wide selection of delicious processed foods. Most weekday mornings, I head downstairs looking for a little treat. I’m usually looking for something salty or sweet, usually sprinkled with artificial sour powder or traffic cone orange cheese. I don’t consider this a bad habit in any way. dependence, I say this because it feels like an insult to those who suffer through heavier contraband afflictions. But it’s hard to explain in non-withdrawal terms what happened to me that afternoon of my sardine fast. Suddenly, I felt lightheaded, foggy, and unable to concentrate. My stomach growled. My whole body felt contorted. I wasn’t hungry., The sardines alone were about 400 calories to be exact, but I was craving carbs and sugar. The ketogenic community has a term for this “keto flu” – that feeling of nausea that occurs at the beginning of a purge, usually the first day or two. I don’t think I was completely destabilized, but my body was definitely starting to reject it. something.
I opened two more cans of sardines, one coconut curry, the other with a spicy kick of chili, hoping the different flavors would jolt my body back to equilibrium. But it didn’t work; I still didn’t feel well. A few more hours passed, and I tried every tactic I’d learned to overcome the temporary nausea and dizziness. I drank water and took deep breaths. I paced slowly around the living room, but finally I gave up. I grabbed a plastic bag of 99-cent corn chips from the grocery store. I stuffed a handful into my mouth, and the shock of carbohydrates brought me back to reality like an injection of morphine into my bloodstream.
Luke Winkie
After that, I was mostly okay. An emergency corn chip mission was the perfect break from a long sardine day. I opened two more cans for dinner and went to bed hungry but not crazy. The next morning, the scale told me I was the heaviest I’d been in four years. Had I achieved the legendary ketosis? Probably not, but on a recent trip to the grocery store, I steered my cart back to a place I rarely visit: the eternally mysterious shelves of canned fish, brimming with flavors I haven’t yet tried. Maybe I’m a convert of sorts. I might be eating a lot more sardine lunches in the future. Just don’t be surprised if they come with a pack of Skittles. side.
