Healthy hearts need salmon

from Seafood New Zealand magazine (Feb 2007)

Research is revealing lots more about the fabulous health qualities of fish fat. Liz Light reports.

Dr Melinda Manore, a professor, department of Nutrition & Exercise Sciences, Oregon State University, visited New Zealand in November. Melinda has authored four books and written over 100 scientific publications about the science of nutrition and its relationship to exercise and she is personally interested in the health aspects of seafood.

“Portland, where I live, is a seaside city and the university has numerous research projects concerning nutrition and seafood. It’s an exciting and dynamic area and, before long, a lot more will be revealed about the health benefits of seafood.

“Already we know that essential fatty acids found in seafood help regulate blood pressure, help prevent blood clotting and are beneficial in autoimmune disease and inflammatory diseases such as arthritis. Besides this they keep skin soft, hair healthy and shiny, and at a cellular level, essential fatty acids help make membrane and cell walls pliable. There are lots of things essential fatty acids do for us and most people don’t eat enough of them.

“There is a misunderstanding about fat from seafood, especially with women who are figure conscious and avoid eating all fats. Fear of fat can be too extreme and without essential fatty acids people miss out on elements that are important for their health. Seafood is a valuable protein and, besides, fish fat is good for the body, whereas other animal fats aren’t.”

Melinda explains that there are many different fatty acids. Linolenic fatty acids, omega 6, comes from some vegetable oils and most people get plenty of this, too much sometimes, but alfa-linolenic fatty acids, omega 3, comes from seafood and people just don’t get enough of it.

“Omega 3 is quite widely known as beneficial, in the general public, but there are more fatty acids in fish that are less understood, ones with longer carbon chains – eicosapentaenoic (epa) and docosahexaenoic (dha) – and they are active in human health. They help regulate blood clotting and ease hypertension and inflammatory disease. Current research is fine-tuning how much of these we need in our diet, as a way of preventing health problems, and how much a particular individual needs to ease existing health problems such as alleviating arthritis and preventing second heart attacks.”

Melinda recommends people eat two to three servings of seafood a week, “all fish is good but fatty fish are best; salmon, tuna, crab, lobster, trout, shrimp and sardines to name a few. If people ate salmon twice a week that would be enough, and less fatty fish more often, but the human body also needs omega 6 from vegetables and this is best sourced from canola and flaxseed oils and nuts.

So salmon, bring it on – it’s seldom that something so delicious is so healthy – and limber up your heart and ease your hypertension with regular feasts of prawns and crayfish.