Eating Fish Still Beneficial Despite Chemicals

Posted on October 19, 2006

The BBC reports that experts from the Harvard School of Public Health and the Journal of the American Medical Association have found that eating beneficial is so beneficial that it outweighs the risk from deadly chemicals found in the fish.

The Harvard School of Public Health reviewed existing studies that looked at the health effects of eating fish.
They concluded eating up to two portions of fish a week was beneficial, and eating fish could cut the risk of death from heart disease by a third.
Experts said the Journal of the American Medical Association findings backed UK recommendations.
The evidence across different studies showed that fish consumption lowers the risk of death from heart disease by 36%.
The reduced rated of heart disease comes, researchers say, from eating about three ounces of farmed salmon or six ounces of mackerel each week.

The benefits come from the omega-3 fatty acids that salmon and mackerel contain. The risks from eating fish are because of pollutants in the oceans and specifically the following chemicals: mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dioxins.

HEALTH