Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Are You Getting Much Omega 3 In Fish That You've Fried? And If Not What Should You Do?

So you're eating fish tonight. Is there much Omega 3 in fish that might be served up to you tonight? Surely there is because everyone now knows that fish is the best source of those all-important Omega 3 essential fatty acids.
Not necessarily. The amount of Omega 3 in fish varies greatly depending on the type of fish and a number of other factors, including, if it's salmon that you're having, whether it's wild or farmed.
But a new factor that seems to affect the amount of Omega 3 in fish that we are eating has also been uncovered in a recent study. It would seem that how you cook your fish affects how much of those all-important essential fatty acids you'll be eating tonight.
A recent study undertaken and published in Neurology journal seems to be showing that how you cook your fish determines whether or not you're getting the maximum benefit from those Omega 3 fats.
The study was undertaken on residents of what is sometimes called the "stroke belt", a string of southern States which includes Mississippi, Alabama, North and South Carolina, Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia and more. In these States the rate of death from stroke and the rate of stroke in general is much higher than the rest of the country, and in particular much higher amongst African-Americans.
And the study established that people living in these States ate much higher than levels of fried fish than in other states.
In other words there was a correlation between the amount of fried fish consumed by those residents and their rate of stroke. And in particular it was found that African-Americans in those states have extremely high rates of consumption of fried fish.
Now of course this doesn't establish that all these people are getting strokes from eating fried fish, it would require much more study to firmly establish this. However it is certainly worrying and offers a powerful suggestion to those amongst us who understand the health benefits of more Omega 3 fatty acids in the diet that they should be baking or steaming their fish rather than frying it.
Of course there are problems with getting your Omega3 fats by eating fish, regardless of how you cook it. Fish is becoming extremely expensive and we are now warned by our government not to eat too much due to contamination with Mercury and other toxic contaminants.
And for this reason, in my view, the most cost-effective way to get a regular daily intake of the Omega3 fats is through the use of high quality Omega 3 supplements.
However there is no doubt that fish is good to eat, provided you don't eat too much. But if you're eating your fish confident in in the knowledge that you're getting all those good fats in your diet you may be fooling yourself, there may not be so much Omega 3 in fish that youv'e fried.

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