What is Better...Fish or Fish Oil Supplements? Answer is Yes

Fish is so healthy,

For your heart, your brain, and skin,

Eat more fish or die.

I'm just having a little fun with that haiku...but seriously, eating fatty fish is a good thing.  As I mentioned previously, fatty fish and fish oil have been associated with several different health benefits, most notably heart health.  The active ingredients are two compounds with seriously long names.  Most folks just call them EPA and DHA.   

Fishies contain EPA and DHA because they eat microalgae in the ocean that synthesizes both compounds.  Over time, the fishes accumulate more and more of the stuff in their bodies.  It's quite important for the fishes that swim in deep water to have the EPA and DHA because it keeps them from turning into fishsicles when swimming in cold waters. 

Now on to the topic of which is best: whole fish vs. supplements.

My personal philosophy, based on the abundance of research studies on a wide range of topics that compare foods to supplements, is that food is (almost) always better.  I feel the same about fish oil.  Fish contains protein and other stuff that help keep us healthy (see below for the not-so-healthy stuff in fish).

Most experts recommend 1-2 servings of fatty fish a week (a serving is 3 oz or about the size of a deck of cards).  This includes salmon, albacore tuna, herring (blech), mackeral (double blech), sardines (egads, blech), and trout (not so blech, but certainly an acquired taste). If you cannot get your 1-2 servings per week, then a supplement is great.  I'll blog about supplements...the best ones...how much to take...strategies to taking them....next week. 

Now about that fish....there are some challenges with eating whole fish as a source of fish oil...cost, availability, contaminants, and sustainability/ environmental concerns:

1. Atlantic salmon is the highest source of EPA and DHA.  It is also an endangered fish (particularly on the east coast) and therefore availability is low and the price is high.  To meet the demand for Atlantic salmon, a bunch of farms starting raising Atlantic salmon and selling it for far less than wild caught.
2. Unfortunately, farm-raised salmon contain lots of contaminants (PCBs, dioxins and furans, arsenic, mercury, cadmium, lead, copper, zinc, fluorine, PAHs).  This is because these farm fishies are usually fed food pellets made from other fishies.  All fish have these contaminants present (these are all present in our oceans), so when fishies are ground up and turned into food pellets, the bad stuff gets concentrated.  Interestingly, farm-raised salmon have the highest level of EPA and DHA of all other fishies (even wild caught), but also the highest level of contaminants. 
3. Other types of salmon contain EPA and DHA, albeit at lower levels, but many of these types of salmon are also endangered or at risk of becoming over-fished.  The following wild-caught fish are considered "sustainable" and not endangered: Alaskan Coho, Chum, Keta, King, Pink, Red, Silver, Sockeye, Sake.  Sadly, many of these varieties of salmon are not as mild and flakey and delectable as Atlantic.  
4. Bigger, predatory fish (tuna, shark, swordfish) are not farm-raised, but they are contaminated with mercury.  They accumulate mercury over time by eating lots and lots of smaller fishies (mercury is in our oceans and therefore is naturally present in fish).  Mercury can mess with your nervous system and brain...in a bad way.  Shark and swordfish are some of the worst.  Light canned tuna has little mercury.  Yellowfin tuna (the kind seen in a lot of sushi restaurants) has moderate levels. 

So what to do?  If you are pregnant or thinking about getting pregnant or lactating (or a small child)...think twice about eating farm-raised fish or mercury-containing fish (talk to your doctor about this if you're concerned)...definitely eat wild caught salmon, canned light tuna, or take a fish oil supplement (that does not have the contaminants...again, talk to your doctor if you're concerned).  


If you are otherwise healthy, try to find the wild caught salmon (Trader Joe's sells a great frozen Atlantic wild caught salmon for a good price), and enjoy a nice tuna fish sandwich once a week (and the occasional yellowfin tuna sushi). A serving of farm-raised, high EPA and DHA  salmon once a month seems to be okay, according to experts.  It's most likely the kind of salmon that you'd find at a restaurant (unless otherwise noted).   

This is how I like to eat my salmon.  Yummmmm....