May 20, 2017 — The Dietary Guidelines for Americans strongly suggest that adults eat two servings of seafood, or a total of eight ounces, per week. Fish and shellfish are an important source of protein, vitamins and minerals, and they are low in saturated fat. But seafood’s claim to fame is its omega-3 fatty acids, including docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), which are beneficial to health.
Omega-3s are today’s darling of the nutrition world. Many observational studies have indeed shown them to help alleviate a range of conditions including high blood pressure, stroke, certain cancers, asthma, Type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease. However, there isn’t complete scientific agreement on the health benefits of omega-3s, especially when considering the lack of strong evidence from randomized clinical trials, which are the gold standard for research.
So what exactly is the evidence that seafood is good for your health?
The strongest evidence exists for a cardiovascular health benefit, and from consuming seafood (not just fish oil), which is significant because heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States.
One of the things I research is Americans’ meat and protein consumption. Though many of us are concerned about getting enough protein, most Americans actually get more than enough protein.
Rather, the problem is that most of us don’t include enough variety of protein sources in our diet. We eat a lot of poultry and red meat but not as much seafood, nuts, beans, peas and seeds. For seafood in particular, consumption is estimated at about 2.7 ounces of seafood a week per person, well below the recommended eight ounces.
So the solution might seem simple: Increase public-health messaging along the lines of “Seafood is healthy. Eat more of it.” But it’s a bit more complicated than that.