More Benefits Than Risks in Eating Fish

• Thursday October 19, 2006 in: Diet and Exercise Tag(s):

  Technorati Tags: diet, health, heart disease

  They stink, and eating them puts us at risk for contaminants like mercury and dioxins. And they reduce our overall risk for developing heart disease. Take your pick.

  Two new government-sponsored reports released Tuesday said these things about fish, and then concluded that the benefits of eating more fish outweigh the risks.

  ESPN tells us more:

  "Overall, for major health outcomes among adults, the benefits of eating fish greatly outweigh the risks. Somehow, this evidence has been lost on the public," said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, an instructor in epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health and lead author of a review published Wednesday in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

  The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute sponsored that study.

  A second study, produced by the Institute of Medicine, was slightly more cautious. It supports government dietary advice that fish should be part of a healthy diet, but said that given the potential risks from exposure to contaminants, some limits are in order, particularly for women who are or may become pregnant or who are breastfeeding.

  The Harvard researchers found that a 36% reduction in the risk of heart for disease can take place when you eat just 3 ounces of farmed salmon or 6 ounces of mackerel a week. The Institute report, on the other hand, recommend 3-ounce servings a week.

  Great. Now we have to pinch our collective noses and get more pieces of these relatives of The Little Mermaid down our throats so we can live longer. But before doing so, check out why you should eat fish, and when you shouldn't.