Lobster or Crayfish
Food · Protein · Food, Typed Supps
Very lean, very high in protein — until the melted butter arrives.
Stage by stage
- Intake (Dense muscle chewed): Firm, short-fibred tail muscle is broken down by chewing.
- Digestion (Proteases cleave protein): Pepsin and pancreatic proteases break the protein into peptides.
- Absorption (Amino acids and trace minerals): Amino acids, iodine, selenium and zinc are absorbed in the small intestine.
- Use (Muscle and thyroid): Amino acids rebuild muscle; iodine and selenium feed thyroid hormone synthesis and activation.
Time to effect
- Hours: Amino acids peak in the blood within 1 to 2 hours; iodine is taken up or cleared within about a day.
Allergens
Contains: Crustaceans. Derived from what this food is, not from a product label.
Eating patterns
Fits: Pescatarian, Keto, Gluten-free. Depends on the product: Halal, Low-FODMAP.
Satiety
220 on the satiety index, where white bread is 100 — very high. Modelled from the Holt et al. (1995) measurements.
Environmental footprint
26.9 kg CO2e and 3515 litres of freshwater per kg, matched to "Prawns (farmed)" in Poore & Nemecek (2018), Science 360.
Cost band
Pricey — roughly £28 per kg, as a band midpoint rather than a price.
Key nutrients
Nutrition per 100g
- Calories: 98
- Protein: 22.5g
- Carbohydrate: 0g
- of which sugars: 0g
- Fat: 0.8g
- of which saturated: 0.1g
- Fibre: 0g
- Sodium: 283mg
Food vs. supplement
A serving supplies well over 20g of protein at under 100 calories, and enough iodine to cover an adult day's requirement — one of the few foods besides seafood, dairy and iodised salt that does so reliably. An iodine supplement is rarely necessary where seafood or iodised salt is eaten.
Kitchen tip
Cook it briefly and stop early — the protein sets low and overcooking makes it rubbery rather than dry. If the point is a lean meal, serve it with lemon and herbs rather than drawn butter, which is where most of the fat in a lobster dish actually comes from.
Common myth
"Lobster is loaded with cholesterol, so it is bad for your heart." In reality: The 262mg of cholesterol per 100g here sits alongside about 0.13g of saturated fat. Endogenous cholesterol synthesis is downregulated when dietary intake rises in most people, and the association between dietary cholesterol and cardiovascular outcomes weakened substantially once saturated fat was properly separated out in the analyses. A minority of people are genuine hyper-responders. Either way, the accompaniments deserve more attention than the animal.
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