Arteriosclerosis hardening of the arteries is not associated with the total amount of cholesterol in our blood, but rather with the kind of cholesterol we have.
How is it possible to have a high-cholesterol diet but a low risk of coronary heart disease? The diet of The Power Of Fish Oil.
Most Eskimos can tell us: They eat a lot of cold-water fish. Although that kind of diet is high in cholesterol, the fish contain a fatty acid, eicosapentaenois acid (EPA), that may help prevent the build-up of deposits in artery walls and stop blood platelets from clumping. Cold-water fish obtain EPA by eating the one-cell marine animals that swarm in northern waters.
A team of doctors at the University of Oregon substituted fish oil for saturated vegetable oil in the diets of healthy volunteers. The results were impressive. Unhealthy cholesterol levels dropped and there was reduced clotting in the subjects blood. And they were on the fish-oil diet for only four weeks.
Besides reducing bad cholesterol levels, cold-water fish supply us with essential minerals like zinc, selenium, iron and iodine and are high in protein (a four-ounce serving normally provides about half the protein required each day). Cold-water fish include salmon, mackerel, flounder, halibut, sardines, shad, bluefish, haddock, perch and scallops.
But despite those benefits, there are some cautions about eating fish. In March 2004, the federal Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency issued revised advisories on mercury in fish for pregnant women and young children. Generally, they are advised to eat no more than two meals of low-mercury fish per week - one can of salmon or half a salmon steak is considered one meal. The factors that determine the safest fish to eat are two its size and how far up it is on the food chain. Larger fish that are higher in the food chain feast upon many smaller fish that may have accumulated very small amounts of contaminants like mercury. Over time, these large fish can build up higher amounts of mercury and other impurities from the many small fish they eat. This means you should avoid eating large fish such as shark, walleye, pike, sea bass, swordfish, King mackerel, largemouth bass, tuna, tilefish, marlin, halibut, and Atlantic halibut.As for the toxic substance PCBs in salmon, there are studies showing that farm raised salmon contain a higher level of PCBs than wild salmon. The key to getting the health benefits of salmon safely is to buy only wild-caught Alaskan salmon. It can be hard-to-find fresh, but is readily available in cans at most grocery stores. Read the label carefully to make sure any salmon you buy was caught in the wild. Robin Westen is ThirdAges medical reporter. Check for her daily updates. She is the author of Ten Days to Detox: How to Look and Feel a Decade Younger.See what others have to say about this story or leave a comment of your own.
