sardines - bad super food experience :( not for the squeamish

[Glory87]

A little while ago, I bought a can of sardines in mustard sauce. Tonight, I wanted a little something healthy to eat. So I decided to eat some sardines with whole wheat crackers. I had never eaten sardines before. I open the can, it doesn't look too bad - little fish parts, that smush up easily. I'm like great, I will smush it up and eat it on crackers.

I take 4 crackers and about half the sardines on a plate to the living room where I'm reading a great book. I start eating and it's pretty good, there are a few little bones, but nothing too crazy. Then, I see it - a spine. A little plasticky-looking fish spine. Ugh, I push it to the side of the plate. I know that fish have spines OF COURSE (and turkeys and chicken etc etc) but it is just so gross. Then, I find another one and my stomach starts to feel kind of weird. I push both spines over and keep eating, it tastes okay.

Don't keep reading if you're squeamish!

I started to retch and ended up losing all the sardines and crackers I had eaten. I feel like such a wuss, I thought I had a cast-iron stomach, I have eaten some weird stuff in my travels to Asia (like a chicken foot), I'm not sure what it is about 2 tiny fake looking fish spines that made me completely lose it.

Sad to know that I can cross one super food off my list forever!

[AquaChick]

Oh wow! I hope your okay now! Maybe it was the brand you got? I don't eat sardines, so I don't know.

[Mummy_Tummy]

It's the same with canned salmon or mackeral (and anchovies, too). All the little vertebrae are in there but they're very soft and can be mushed up easily. Funnily enough, I think that the bony bits are part of the overall healthfulness of the food, because of the calcium in the bones. I have never nor will ever eat a sardine but I chop up and add anchovies to lots of different sauces and I love canned salmon. I love fish in general but hate the thought of eating anything that sill looks like a fish!

Poor Glory. Hope you've recovered but really, once you've been sick on a food, it's really hard to even stomach the mere thought of eating it again!

[alinnell]

I can't stand fish bones! I won't come close to a can of sardines. My Dad likes pickled herring--equally as gross! My DH and his old roommate used to eat something called kippersnacks. The smell alone would drive me out of the room! I can stomach salmon (canned or smoked in packages) but they usually have too much oil and that grosses me out. I also remember growing up and being served fresh caught trout. Sounds yummy now, but when you're a kid growing up, it just isn't fun to spend half the meal trying to find all the bones so you don't get one stuck in your throat. I'll only order trout if the restaurant bones the fillet first!

Glory--don't feel bad about hating a superfood! We all have our own tastes, likes and dislikes!!!!

[rawallison]

I like the bones in canned salmon- I always imagined that I was getting a lot of calcium while I was eating them! But I don't eat canned foods anymore- no more fish bones for me!

[Glory87]

It wasn't really the bones that bugged me - plain straight fish bones (like pins) aren't gross. It was the *ugh* spines. The backbones. With all the vertebrae. It makes my stomach feel glurpy just thinking about it! No more sardines, ever! (canned salmon is still hopefully okay, I love salmon salad).