Baked or boiled fish is 'best' for heart
Wednesday November 18th, 2009
By Jane Collingwood
The method by which fish is cooked has a direct effect on its benefits
for heart health, researchers say.
Baking or boiling fish is better at providing omega-3 fatty acids than eating fried, salted or dried fish, according to Lixin Meng and colleagues at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA.
Consuming
omega-3 fatty acids is believed to reduce the risk of heart disease, so
the researchers looked at the source of omega-3s in different ethnic groups.
They used figures from 82,243 men and 103,884 women of African-American, Caucasian, Japanese, Native Hawaiian and Latino descent, aged 45 to 75 years with no history of heart disease.
Japanese and Hawaiians ate more fish than whites, blacks and Latinos. Overall, omega-3 intake was inversely linked with risk of death due to heart disease in men. Those who ate 3.3 grams per day of omega-3 fatty acids had a 23 percent lower risk of cardiac death than those who ate 0.8 grams per day.
A similar pattern was seen in women, but it was not "consistently significant". However, among women there was a stronger protective effect from eating soy products that contain plant omega-3s (soy, tofu and shoyu).
"It appears that boiling or baking fish with low-sodium soy sauce (shoyu) and tofu is beneficial, while eating fried, salted or dried fish is not," Meng said.
"In fact, these methods of preparation may contribute to your risk. We did not directly compare boiled or baked fish versus fried fish, but one can tell from the (risk) ratios, boiled or baked fish is in the protective direction but not fried fish."
Results were presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2009.
Tags: Australia | Diet & Food | Heart Health | North America
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