Your Healthy Fish Might Just Be Killing You

Written by Thomas Corriher Saturday, 19 December 2009 16:00

One of our strong suspicions about farmed fish was confirmed this summer by researchers at The Wake Forest Baptist University Medical Center.  They proved that farm-raised fish are unhealthy, and dangerous with long term consumption.  While we are not fans of the establishment, or its medical schools, we nonetheless have to applaud Wake Forest for this. Through a press release, the university summarized its findings of:

"Farm-raised tilapia, one of the most highly consumed fish in America, has very low levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids and, perhaps worse, very high levels of omega-6 fatty acids, according to new research from Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

"The researchers say the combination could be a potentially dangerous food source for some patients with heart disease, arthritis, asthma and other allergic and auto-immune diseases that are particularly vulnerable to an 'exaggerated inflammatory response.'  Inflammation is known to cause damage to blood vessels, the heart, lung and joint tissues, skin, and the digestive tract.

"They say their research revealed that farm-raised tilapia, as well as farmed catfish, 'have several fatty acid characteristics that would generally be considered by the scientific community as detrimental.' [farm-raised] Tilapia has higher levels of potentially detrimental long-chain omega-6 fatty acids than 80-percent-lean hamburger, doughnuts and even pork bacon, the article says.

“'For individuals who are eating fish as a method to control inflammatory diseases such as heart disease, it is clear from these numbers that tilapia is not a good choice,' the article says. 'All other nutritional content aside, the inflammatory potential of hamburger and pork bacon is lower than the average serving of farmed tilapia.'

"For their study, the authors obtained a variety of fish from several sources, including seafood distributors that supply restaurants and supermarkets, two South American companies, fish farms in several countries, and supermarkets in four states.  All samples were snap-frozen for preservation pending analysis, which was performed with gas chromatography.

"Tilapia is easily farmed using inexpensive [unnatural G.M.O.] corn-based feeds, which contain short chain omega-6s that the fish very efficiently convert to AA [a type of omega-6] and place in their tissues.  This ability to feed the fish inexpensive foods, together with their capacity to grow under almost any condition, keeps the market price for the fish so low that it is rapidly becoming a staple in low-income diets."

That last part about the fish's capacity to grow under almost any condition" is telling.  Allow me to translate.  This means that the fish will survive despite malnutrition, G.M.O. foods, pesticides, chemicals in the water, and being given massive amounts of antibiotics, so that they are the cheapest and safest investment for factory farmers.  It warms your heart, doesn't it?  We also wonder what percentage of these fish are themselves genetically engineered, since after all, Americans are not allowed to know.

Even More Reason To Use Flax Seed Oil

This is yet another reason why we recommend flax seed oil, instead of fish oil, to supplement omega-3.  Fish oils are much more likely to be tainted, toxic, and ineffective.  Flax seed oil should always be purchased in capsules that protect it from heat, air, and light.  It too can become dangerous if it is not handled properly.  For more information about this topic, see our article, A Precautionary Notice About Consuming Foods Containing Polyunsaturated Vegetable Oils; Even The Most Righteous Of Them All: Flax Seeds.

Our Omega Findings

Contrary to what is believed by the researchers at Wake Forest University, our research indicates that the ideal ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 is 2:1 (respectively).  This ratio is nearly impossible to obtain through a typical Western diet, which is usually 15:1 in favor of omega-6.  Thus, it should not be surprising that our Western societies tend to be so sickly, and that peaceful, 'natural deaths' have become a thing of the past.

Other Cautions Concerning Kelp, Seaweed, and Bladderwrack

Readers should be aware that the kelp, seaweed, and bladderwrack that is sold in supplement form may be from factory farms too.  Unless you know the origin of such supplements, it cannot be assumed that these supplements are from the wild, or that they are in their natural pristine form.  They too could be contaminated, or counter-effective.  They could be poisoning you, in fact.  Kelp and seaweed are true bottom-feeders, so they'll contaminate the most easily, and therefore, bladderwrack should be the safest of the three.  In general, all of them should be avoided, unless there is a compelling condition requiring their use.