- FRIDAY, July 11 (HealthDay News) — The wildly popular
farm-raised fish known as tilapia may actually harm your heart, thanks to
low levels of healthy omega-3 fatty acids and high levels of unhealthy
omega-6 fatty acids.

New research suggests the combination could be particularly bad for
patients with heart disease, arthritis, asthma and other diseases
involving overactive inflammatory responses.

“If you're in a vulnerable population such as a heart disease patient,
you need to be very careful with what you're eating, and that includes
everything,” said senior study author Dr. Floyd H. Chilton, director of
Wake Forest Center for Botanical Lipids, in Winston-Salem, N.C. “But when
it comes to fish, there's not a more important thing you can do for heart
disease than eat the right type of fish or take dietary fish oil. There is
evidence that you may harm yourself by eating the wrong kind of fish, and
[farmed] tilapia and catfish are the two that fall into that
category.”

“I don't think that this is an issue for everyone, any more than eating
a hamburger is an issue for everyone,” Chilton added.

The study was published in the July issue of the Journal of the
American Dietetic Association.

As for suppliers, “the industry needs to improve ways of farming fish,”
said Katherine Tallmadge, a national spokeswoman for the American Dietetic
Association. “The whole idea of farming is a great one, but they're
feeding the fish food that's inexpensive, so they can keep the price down,
and it's having an adverse effect on the nutritional quality of the
fish.”

Several health groups, including the American Heart Association,
recommend eating two servings of fish a week, preferably fatty fish such
as salmon. The reason: primarily to increase omega-3 fatty acids.

But no one has really looked at the nutritional effect of an explosion
in farmed fish (increasing at an annual rate of 9.2 percent, compared with
1.4 percent for wild fish). In particular, inexpensive tilapia is
exploding in popularity.

This study used gas chromatography to analyze the fatty acid
composition of 30 widely consumed farmed and wild fish.

Farmed trout and Atlantic salmon had relatively good concentrations of
“good” omega-3 fatty acids compared with “bad” omega-6 fatty acids.

Farm-raised tilapia and catfish, on the other hand, had troubling
ratios.

Tallmadge recommends looking for wild fish. Wild salmon, even canned
wild salmon, has high levels of omega-3s and is an excellent source of
protein. “It can be fairly economical,” she said. “I buy frozen salmon at
Trader Joe's for about $7 a pound, that's $2 a serving.”

Concentrate on cold-water fish such as salmon, rainbow trout, sardines,
tuna and anchovies, all of which have healthy fats, added Marianne Grant,
a health educator with Texas A&M Health Science Centers Coastal Bend
Health Education Center, in Corpus Christi.

“In the 1970s, we lost the ability to feed the planet with fish we
catch,” Chilton said. “Farm-raised fish has to be part of our future, but
we must do it correctly. We must feed animals the correct foods. Animals
become what we feed them, and we become what we eat as well. The food
chain is fairly consistent.”

More information

Visit the American Heart Association for more on fish and fatty
acids.