Calamars/Cuttle-Fish/Squid? When filling out my commissary sheet this week I decided to see what would happen if I switched to a different protein source for my evening meal. I have been using a can of tuna for lunch and octopus for dinner.

I am still struggling with the sinus problem although it is much better than it has been. The swelling of my sinuses comes and goes. I am using a steroid-based nasal spray, an allergy pill, and a decongestant pill. Sometimes the nose is clear, sometimes clogged, and sometimes somewhere in between. I have just finished a 21 day course of Levofloxacin and while a recent sinus X-ray showed some type of "clouding," the antibiotic has not seemed to make much of a difference.

My thought was what if it is the abundance of octopus in my diet that is causing the sinus congestion? Since the antibiotic did not seem to make much of a difference, I started wondering if this is more an allergic type of problem as opposed to an infection. I decided to buy five of the Calmars (squid).

Squid was recently listed in the New York Times as fish that you could eat on a daily basis as opposed to only once a week. Amazingly, octopus was not even on the list.

Tonight was day three of no octopus and day two of the cattle-fish, and the nose is still not all that different.

While I was-preparing tonight's dinner, angel hair pasta with calamrs, I was checking the ingredients and nutritional information, comparing the calmars against the octopus.

Both cans weigh 4 ounces net weight. The octopus is packed in Soya oil, and salt (2.50.mg.). The calmars is packed in Soya oil, tomato, onion, ink, spices and salt (250 mg.). The octopus and squid are from Spain. Ah, imported, nothing too good for us inmates.

The interesting part of this whole discourse is the difference in the nutritional values. The items that differ are:

Item Octopus Squid
Calories 100 142
Fat Calories 35 98
Total Fat 4 g. 10 g.
Sat. Fat 1 g. 2 g.
Trans Fat 0 g. 0.5 g
Cholest. 40 mg. 44 mg.
Protein 14 g. 11 g.

It would appear that the octopus is the "healthy" option. The above numbers are per serving, each can offering two servings. I use one can for each meal.

The octopus has higher protein and lower fats. Now if I can figure out if staying away from the octopus makes a difference in my sinuses. Such weighty issues I have to deal with.  ¶ 7:04 AM