Popular Tilapia Might Not Help Heart

Tag : Frozen Tilapia

New research suggests the combination could be particularly bad forpatients with heart disease, arthritis, asthma and other diseasesinvolving overactive inflammatory responses.
"If you're in a vulnerable population such as a heart diseasepatient, you need to be very careful with what you're eating, andthat includes everything," said senior study author Dr. Floyd H.Chilton, director of Wake Forest Center for Botanical Lipids, inWinston-Salem, N.C. "But when it comes to fish, there's not a moreimportant thing you can do for heart disease than eat the righttype of fish or take dietary fish oil. There is evidence that youmay harm yourself by eating the wrong kind of fish, and [farmed]tilapia and catfish are the two that fall into that category."
"I don't think that this is an issue for everyone, any more thaneating a hamburger is an issue for everyone," Chilton added.
The study was published in the July issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association .
As for suppliers, "the industry needs to improve ways of farmingfish," said Katherine Tallmadge, a national spokeswoman for theAmerican Dietetic Association. "The whole idea of farming is agreat one, but they're feeding the fish food that's inexpensive, sothey can keep the price down, and it's having an adverse effect onthe nutritional quality of the fish."
Several health groups, including the American Heart Association,recommend eating two servings of fish a week, preferably fatty fishsuch as salmon. The reason: primarily to increase omega-3 fattyacids.
But no one has really looked at the nutritional effect of anexplosion in farmed fish (increasing at an annual rate of 9.2percent, compared with 1.4 percent for wild fish). In particular,inexpensive tilapia is exploding in popularity.
This study used gas chromatography to analyze the fatty acidcomposition of 30 widely consumed farmed and wild fish.
Farmed trout and Atlantic salmon had relatively good concentrationsof "good" omega-3 fatty acids compared with "bad" omega-6 fattyacids.
Farm-raised tilapia and catfish, on the other hand, had troublingratios.
Tallmadge recommends looking for wild fish. Wild salmon, evencanned wild salmon, has high levels of omega-3s and is an excellentsource of protein. "It can be fairly economical," she said. "I buyfrozen salmon at Trader Joe's for about $7 a pound, that's $2 aserving."
Concentrate on cold-water fish such as salmon, rainbow trout,sardines, tuna and anchovies, all of which have healthy fats, addedMarianne Grant, a health educator with Texas A&M HealthScience Centers Coastal Bend Health Education Center, in CorpusChristi.
"In the 1970s, we lost the ability to feed the planet with fish wecatch," Chilton said. "Farm-raised fish has to be part of ourfuture, but we must do it correctly. We must feed animals thecorrect foods. Animals become what we feed them, and we become whatwe eat as well. The food chain is fairly consistent."
More information
Visit the American Heart Association for more on fish and fatty acids.