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Why is eating fish healthy?
Fish is a high-protein, low-fat food that provides a range of health
benefits. White-fleshed fish, in particular, is lower in fat than any
other source of animal protein, and oily fish are high in omega-3 fatty
acids, or the "good" fats. Since the human body can’t make significant
amounts of these essential nutrients, fish are an important part of the
diet. Also, fish are low in the "bad" fats commonly found in red meat,
called omega-6 fatty acids.
Why are omega-3s good for your health?
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A growing body of evidence indicates that omega-3
fatty acids provide a number of health benefits. They:
help maintain cardiovascular health by playing a role in the regulation
of blood clotting and vessel constriction;
are important for prenatal and postnatal neurological development;
may reduce tissue inflammation and alleviate the symptoms of rheumatoid
arthritis;
may play a beneficial role in cardiac arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat),
reducing depression and halting mental decline in older people.
The omega-3s found in fish (EPA and DHA) appear to provide the greatest
health benefits. Fish that are high in omega-3s, low in environmental
contaminants and eco-friendly include:
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wild salmon from Alaska (fresh, frozen and canned),
Arctic char,
Atlantic mackerel,
sardines,
sablefish,
anchovies
farmed rainbow trout and
albacore tuna from the U.S. and Canada.
What about fish oil supplements?
Besides eating fish, another way to consume omega-3 fatty acids is by
taking store-bought supplements. Fish oils come from both fish caught as
food for humans and from small fish caught for animal feed, such as
Peruvian anchovies.
A word of caution: contaminants such as PCBs accumulate in fish oil just
as they do in fish, so make sure to buy capsules that are made from
purified fish oil
What are other sources of omega-3 fatty acids?
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Alternative sources of omega-3s come from terrestrial sources like
flaxseed, walnuts and wheat germ. While still beneficial, these do not
appear to provide as a great a health benefit as the omega-3s found in
fish, shellfish and marine algae.
Do the health benefits of omega-3s outweigh the
risks associated with contaminants in seafood?
Fish is generally a healthy food source and can be safely eaten in most
cases. But depending on your age and health circumstances, some people
should limit the amounts of fish they eat. Consider the following:
For young children and women of childbearing age, excessive consumption
of mercury-contaminated fish can severely impact a child's development.
Older women and men may find it an acceptable tradeoff to exceed
recommended seafood meal limits to increase their omega-3 intake.
People at high risk of cardiovascular disease must weigh the cancer risk
of eating fish high in PCBs with the benefits of eating fish high in
omega-3s, in which case the benefits of omega-3s may outweigh the cancer
risk (1 in 100,000 - the level recommended by the EPA). However, these
chemicals are known to cause serious health problems besides cancer, so
the tradeoffs are not simple.
The good news is that there are several low-contaminant, high-omega-3
seafood options available (see list above), so there’s no need to risk
eating contaminated fish.
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