Is canned fish good for the heart?

January 21st, 2008 | by the health blogger |

I get asked many times whether eating canned fish is bad for the health. Well in all honesty, it is not that bad at all. In fact, it is on par with fresh fish.

The amount of omega-3 fatty acids in canned fish is more, if not the same as fresh fish.

I’m not going to start blabbering about the health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids in this post as we have all heard them too many times - if you haven’t….well then you need to pay more attention!

An Italian study (published 2001) found that people who ate fresh OR canned fish at least twice a week were 30% less likely to have heart attacks as those who ate fish less than once a week.

It is better to choose fish packed in water as opposed to oil as water and oil don’t mix, hence the omega-3 fats remain in the fish. When packed in oil, the omega-3 fatty acids can mix with the packing oil and are lost when the oil is drained.

I guess the only downside of eatig canned fish is the extra salt (i.e. sodium) it contains.

Source: Harvard Heart Letter

canned fish