Abstract
The American Heart Association (AHA) recently confirmed common recommendations of one to two fish dishes per week in order to prevent cardiovascular disease (CVD). Nevertheless, the natural fluctuations of lipids and fatty acids (FA) in processed seafood caught little public attention. Moreover, consumers of unprocessed seafood in general do not know how much omega-3 fatty acids (omega-3 FA) within servings they actually ingest. The few studies published until today considering this aspect have been re-evaluated in today’s context. They included four observational studies with canned fatty coldwater fish (mackerel and herring from the same region, season, producer and research group). Their outcomes were similar to those conducted in the following years using supplements. Cans containing seafood (especially fatty coldwater fish) with declared content of omega-3 FA are ready-to-use products. Human studies have shown a higher bioavailability of omega-3 FA by joint uptake of fat. Canned fatty coldwater fish contain omega-3 FA plus plenty of fat in one and the same foodstuff. That suggests a new dietary paradigm with mixed concepts including several sources with declared content of omega-3 FA for reducing the cardiovascular risk and other acknowledged indications.
Highlights
In a pooled analysis of four large cohort studies from 58 countries based on questionnaires [9], fish consumption of at least 175 g reduced cardiovascular disease (CVD) in high-risk individuals but not in individuals with no signs of CVD
The herring diet with a lower intake of 2.6 g/day of omega-3 fatty acids (FA) showed similar but insignificant changes of all those parameters, indicating a dose-dependent effectiveness. These data of healthy volunteers were the reason for investigating patients with risk factors of CVD as well
The herring diet with the lower intake of omega3 FA resulted in minor changes
Summary
Role and Feature of Seafood as Sources of Long-Chain Omega-3 FA. Previous studies investigating fish consumption as a source of omega-3 FA have inconsistently shown beneficial effects on cardiovascular risk factors, CVD incidence and mortality [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. The authors focused their review on seafood which represents the primary source of long-chain omega-3 FA. They confirmed that one to two seafood meals per week are suitable to reduce the risk of CVD, ischemic stroke, and sudden cardiac death
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