I was first introduced to this amazing fish when I was in pre primary and for lunch they served us anchovy paste (fish paste) on bread. I will not even lie. I absolutely hated it. It was a weird shade of pink, had an odd smell and it probably doesn’t help that we were forced to eat it so there wouldn’t be any left overs.

Fast forward a couple of years later and at a friend’s sleepover her mom made us pizza for lunch. It was plain margherita with pieces of anchovies on it. Without wanting to sound rude, I proceeded to eat it, promising myself that I would spit out the pieces of fish. To my surprise, my taste buds were extremely happy to connect with the tiny salty patches on this perfectly delicious pizza.

Since then I have recreated that pizza over 20 times and on top of that a local eatery ‘Andiccio24’ makes a very good version of it.

What prompted me to talk about this obsession?  I am currently eating anchovies straight from the bottle and I am in food heaven! Which also got me wondering if eating too many will be harmful.

 

So I put my honorary online medical degree (yes fake) to use and spoke to my colleague Dr Google about the health benefits from eating anchovies. Here’s what my colleague had to say:

Anchovies are rich in protein, vitamins and minerals that help in maintaining good health. It contains calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and zinc. Anchovies are a good source of vitamins such as thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folate, vitamin C, vitamin B12, vitamin B6, vitamin A, vitamin E and vitamin K. It also contains fatty acids and cholesterol.

Here are 7 things that anchovies improve

• Heart health
• skin health
• tissue and cell repair
• bone health
• weight loss
• prevents toxicity
• eye health

So, according to my degree and knowledge, I am currently one of the healthiest humans alive.

Don’t believe me? Well you can Google it yourself.