Fish Is A Great Source Of Omega-3 Fatty Acids

The big selling point for oily fish like tuna, mackerel and salmon is their high omega-3 content. Omega-3 from fish oils is associated with a wide range of positive health outcomes.

That dates from studies done on Greenland’s native Inuit population over thirty years ago. At a time when the standard health advice was to eat lots of grains and go jogging, researchers were curious as to why a population that ate over 90% of its calories in the form of saturated animal fat had lower rates of heart disease than the general population in Denmark. Researchers found that Inuit who ate only one or two fish meals a week had a rate of heart attack that was up to 50% lower than those who didn’t eat fish. On this foundation has been laid three years f research into the effects of eating fish oils, showing that they have a protective effect on the heart now thought to be due to their ability to prevent oxidative damage to the lining of blood vessels.

Fish is convenient

Fish are an incredibly convenient food. Tinned tuna can simply be eaten right out of the can. If you prefer, it goes well cold with sweetcorn or mayonnaise. It’s easy to prepare, doesn’t need heating and it’s rich in protein and omega-3. Many other fish can be cooked easily and are also very versatile. You can poach, fry, bake or grill most fish in twenty minutes or less depending on the fish and portion size.

If you’re cooking for a family, fish can make a snap dinner delicious as well as simple. Something as easy as a baked potato, a tin of tuna miced half and half with sweetcorn, plenty of butter and a little salad is healthy enough for a pro athlete or bodybuilder, and filling enough for a teenage boy – or a man who’s skipped lunch! And it takes about 5 minutes.

Most fish can be bought as fillets or steaks, reducing the need to gut and clean the fish, which you’ll usually only need to do if you’ve caught them yourself.

But what about mercury?

Mercury is a heavy metal that’s found in industrial run-offs. Most animals can’t excrete mercury because their metabolisms can’t ‘get hold of it’ as a pure metal. It needs to be chelated – made into a non-toxic chemical compound that can safely be excreted. Humans can do this for ourselves, and the use of chelating agents like Calcium EDTA has been approved by the FDA. But animals can’t do it. So it ‘bioaccumulates’ – a predator eats two small fish, each of which has a small amount, and all the mercury that was in those fish ends up in the predator. That predator is eaten in turn – and finally all the mercury accumulates in apex or near-apex predators like big ocean fish like tuna, or like us.

See Also: 2 Healthiest Fish To Eat, And 2 Fish To Avoid

Mercury is a poison that damages the way your brain develops. If you’re pregnant, the FDA says you shouldn’t eat highest mercury fish at all, you should restrict your intake of high mercury fish to three six-ounce servings a month, and you shouldn’t eat more than 12 ounces of low-mercury fish a week. The fish you need to avoid are shark, king mackerel, swordfish and tilefish, together with marlin, orange roughy and bigeye tuna.

Fish can make a major contribution to a healthy diet, and learning to cook with fish isn’t complex. While you can get omega-3 fatty acids elsewhere fish is the best source. If you don’t already eat fish regularly, maybe now is the time to start!

If you do, and you have favourite recipes or tips to share, get in touch in the comments section!