May 23, 2014 — In a recent poll carried out in the U.K., half of the people questioned said they were not buying fish or seafood because it was too expensive. Meanwhile Public Health England has reported that children in the U.K. are eating a mere 11 grams of oily fish each per week. This means they could be at serious risk of contracting rickets because of Vitamin D deficiency.
It was thought that rickets, which causes a softening of developing bones leading to serious deformities, had been eradicated in the U.K., but it is now making a comeback. A recent report from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said there are a growing number of cases of rickets in children and babies that can be directly linked to the lack of Vitamin D in their diets.
It’s not just children who are failing to eat enough oily fish in the U.K. According to Public Health England, no one age group in the country meets the government’s recommended weekly intake of 140 grams.
Not surprisingly, although this is a danger sign for the future of the seafood industry, it is people above the age of 65 years who are eating the most oily fish at 103 grams for men and 81 grams for women. In the next age group down, 19-64 years, men are consuming 52 grams of oily fish per week and women are eating 54 grams.
It is disappointing that more is not being done to encourage people, particularly the younger generation, to eat seafood. It’s not just rickets in children that can be caused by not eating sufficient oily fish. Species such as salmon, tuna and mackerel are rich in omega-3 fatty acids which have been proven to help prevent the onset of coronary heart disease which kills one in three adults in the U.K.
Individual seafood processors such as Young’s Seafood promote their own products, particularly when they launch new lines. Pete Ward, Young’s deputy chief executive, has said he hoped Young’s Funky Fish Kitchen line of prepared retail fish products “can inspire people to change their eating habits, and improve the numbers.”
Read the full story at SeafoodSource.com