If you eat fish, pls read
I love catfish. Love a lot of different types of fish. I bread them up, or put a mayo and fried onion (the kind you put on your green bean casserole) toppings, and fry or bake them till delish. Fish is an excellent source of protein, as well as other fats and Omega 3s.
Having said that, I want to pass on the rules to safely eating all fish - fresh, ocean, wild or farm raised. Fish have a ton of parasites in them - that's right, worms.
1. Always eat fish that has been frozen. Freezing kills fish parasites. If you buy "fresh" fish, or catch your own fish, toss it in the freezer for at least 24 hours. I do mine for 3 days, just to be sure. The worms are still in the fish, but they are dead when it's thawed.
2. If you eat it fresh, I would salt it really well and let it sit on the counter. I hear that salting the fish drives the worms out also.
3. I always cook my fish till done. No rare stuff for me. I do eat Sushi, but that fish is graded for raw consumption so you have a much, much cleaner fish.
4. I always take a fork and flake the fish apart on my plate. Every piece of catfish I eat, I get at least one worm. I do not take a bite till I've worked the fish over with my fork. You will see a white, stringy thing that looks like a vein. Pull on it gently till the end pops out – toss that.
5. Some fish are prone to more worms than others. Farm raised fish tend to have less worms than wild. Flaky white fish (tilapia, bass, catfish, etc.) tend to have more parasites than others.
6. Obviously, warm water fish are more prone to parasites than cold water fish. That being said, I have a cousin who worked in the Alaskan fisheries. She was one the line. As salmon, halibut, you name it was caught, it was filleted, and her job was to go through each fillet and pull out the live worms. She would stick a cold knife near a worm, and the worms would curl up around the knife and she could pop them out of the meat. Many times the fillet was so full of worms, they just tossed it to the birds. It left a lasting impression on her to this day…
Wow. I grew up on fish and am having fish for supper tonight, frozen. I certainly believe you but would have never thought about it. I do remember growing up that we didn't eat catfish because they were bottom feeders and "dirty". I sure do eat it now. the only fish I eat rare is tuna. It gets so dried out and tough when cooked done. I guess I will have to be sure it is frozen somewhere along the line. I guess the worms, if dead and cooked are just more protein. 
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We've all been eating these things for ever. They are a little variety in your protein intake. :-) I got over it, but I do flake my fish apart before I take a bite. The worms are always dead, and I'm sure I've eaten my fair share over the years.
Catfish are bottom feeders, but so are farm raised Talapia that you buy in the grocery store. There are huge tanks and Bass are raised on the top layers and Talapia are the bottom feeders of those tanks. The two species are raised together because Talapia cleans the tanks - just like a catfish would.
I'm sorry to post this and make you rethink dinner.
I have been eating a lot of catfish lately, and it dawned on me to remind people to fish the worms out first before eating.
Then I started researching it, to see if fish parasites ever migrate to humans (rarely, if ever), and one thing lead to another.
I think I'm going with CandyV.....I've never had catfish (and now never will), and had tilapia (frozen) last night....will definitely think twice about it....ugh....but, thanks for the info, didn't know that....
HW 275 SW 246 CW 162.5 GW 150 ( 5'1" Over 1 1/2 inch lost in the last few yrs! LOL) lost 50 lbs on my own, stable for 3 yrs, gained back 21 during year b4 surgery.
