Fish and Your Health

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Furthermore, a Harvard study about the health benefits of eating fish recently published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine weighed the benefits of eliminating fish from our diets against eating low-mercury species high in omega-3s. The study concluded that eliminating all fish from our diets would have a negative impact on health, because of the evidence that omega-3s reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke, and improve cognitive function.

While the FDA, as well as the previously mentioned studies, emphasize the need for caution about eating fish that contain high levels of mercury, eating other species of fish can offer substantial health benefits.

REELING IN THE RIGHT ONE

Fish and shellfish deserve a spot on our dinner plates, but the sobering fact is that if everyone made them a regular part of their diet, the planet’s wild stocks would be rapidly depleted. To meet the entire world’s demand, the fish of the future will have to be farm-raised.

Aquaculture is not without its own controversy. Some commercial fish farms are a source of water pollution, are constructed in sensitive marine environments, or raise non-native fish species that wreak havoc when they escape into the surrounding body of water. There are also some concerns about the amounts of antibiotics used to keep these fish healthy in such close quarters.

But many aquaculturists operate responsibly, and you can eat the fish from these farms without sacrificing your health or that of the planet. When buying farmed fish, choose domestically farmed whenever possible. Fish farms in the United States typically are better regulated than farms in many other countries, and the fish are likely to contain fewer antibiotic residues. Species such as striped bass, tilapia, sturgeon, catfish and trout are all safe choices when buying farmed fish. (See the Sustainable Seafood Shopping Guide for more suggestions. You can also try raising fish yourself. See Fish Farming, April/May 2006.)

When choosing a wild species, it’s a good idea to check where the fish was caught. Some bodies of water are more polluted than others, and you can learn a lot about the pollutants that might be present in a species of fish by knowing where it was caught or raised. Information about which species are overharvested also is widely available, as is information on what species are caught with destructive harvesting methods, such as dredging the ocean floor.

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