A friendly food for healthy life

Fish has long been considered as healthy food. Fish and other seafood are the major sources of healthful long-chain omega-3 fats and are also rich in other nutrients such as vitamin D and selenium, high in protein, and low in saturated fat. Omega-3 fatty acids are polyunsaturated fatty acids that may protect against heart attacks and stroke, help control blood clotting and build cell membranes in the brain. They are also important to an infant’s visual and neurological development.

Omega-3s may also help ameliorate a variety of conditions, such as cancer, depression, inflammatory bowel disease and autoimmune disorders like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

Nearly three decades ago, Dutch researchers published a groundbreaking study in The New England Journal of Medicine. Intrigued by the extremely low death rate from coronary heart disease among Greenland Eskimos, the Dutch team found that those who ate as little as one or two fish meals a week had a 50 percent lower death rate from heart attacks than those who did not eat fish.

Other studies linked fish consumption to a reduced risk of strokes, although later research concluded that the lifesaving benefit was limited to people at high risk of cardiovascular disease. The strong and consistent evidence for benefits is such that the American Heart Association, and others suggest that everyone eat fish twice a week.

Recent study appears in The American Journal of Preventive Medicine reveals that eating fish is associated with an increase in brain volume. The researchers found that weekly consumption of baked or broiled fish, but not fried fish, was associated with larger gray matter volumes in areas of the brain responsible for memory and cognition, including areas where amyloid plaques, a sign of Alzheimer’s disease, first appear. The association persisted after controlling for age, sex, race, education, physical activity, body mass index and any tissue damage found on the initial magnetic resonance imaging scan of the brain.

There is a common saying that fish and rice make a Bengali. Now a days, many factors inhibit consumption of our favorite food- fish. Thus, we need to address those factors and make sure people get it in order to stay hale and hearty.

Source: The New York Times