Bake or Boil for Heart-Healthy Fish

If you're looking after your heart health, baking or boiling fish is the way to go, new research shows.
If you want the heart-healthy benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, baked or boiled fish is beter than fried, dried or salted, a new study reveals. And for a more flavorful and healthy dish, throw in a little low-sodium soy sauce or tofu.
"It appears that boiling or baking fish with low-sodium soy sauce (shoyu) and tofu is beneficial, while eating fried, salted or dried fish is not," Lixin Meng, M.S., lead researcher, and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in Honolulu, was quoted as saying. "In fact, these methods of preparation may contribute to your risk."
For their study, researchers looked at a group of 82,243 men and 103,884 women of varying ethnicities. The group that consumed the most fish had a median intake of 3.3 grams of omega-3 fatty acids per day. Those that consumed the lowest amount had a median amount of 0.8 grams per day.
Men in the highest intake group were found to have a 23 percent lower risk of cardiac death compared to those in the lowest consumption group. For women, eating omega-3 was found to be cardio-protective at each level of consumption, but not consistently significant.
In addition, adding less than 1.1 grams/day of shoyu and teriyaki sauce to fish was found to be protective for men. Meng points out, however, that shoyu is high in sodium, which can raise blood pressure. She stressed using low-sodium versions. Shoyu and tofu were also found to be cardio-protective in women.
"My guess is that, for women, eating omega-3s from shoyu and tofu that contain other active ingredients such as phytoestrogens, might have a stronger cardio-protective effect than eating just omega-3s," Meng hypothesized.
"Our findings can help educate people on how much fish to eat and how to cook it to prevent heart disease," Meng added. "Alternately, if it is verified that the interactions between fish consumption, risk factors and ethnicity are due to genetic susceptibility, the heart-disease prevention message can be personalized to ethnic groups, and future studies could identify susceptibility at the genetic level."

Source: American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2009, November 14-18, 2009