Baked or broiled fish best for health

To help your cardiovascular health, eat fish that is broiled or baked, not fried.

In a 12-year study of more than 4,700 people aged 65 or older, researchers at Harvard found eating fried fish or fish sandwiches was associated with a higher risk of stroke.

On the other hand, eating broiled or baked fish reduced incidence of stroke, according to the study in the Jan. 24 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

Unlike earlier research, the study focused on the risk of stroke in adults aged 65 or older.

Besides frying, other lifestyle factors may be at play, too. Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian and his colleagues noted fried-fish burgers tend to come from fast-food restaurants, whose patrons may not keep a healthy lifestyle.

Oily fish such as tuna, salmon, mackerel, herring and anchovies are recommended to help the heart and arteries.

Researchers found a trend of a 14 per cent lower stroke risk in those who ate broiled or baked fish one to three times per month. The protective effect seemed to increase with more frequent consumption, up to 28 per cent lower for ischemic stroke among people eating fish five or more times per week.

But fried fish and fish sandwich consumption was associated with a higher risk of all types of stroke, with each serving per week raising the risk by 10 per cent.

Fat quality, not quantity

A related study in the same issue of the journal concluded the type of fat consumed by middle-aged men may be more important than overall fat intake when it comes to the cardiovascular diseases like stroke.

Polyunsaturated fats and linoleic acids such as those found in flaxseed are recommended to prevent heart disease, rather than saturated fats.

"Dietary fat quality thus seems more important than fat quantity in the reduction of cardiovascular mortality in middle-aged men," the researchers concluded from their study of 1,551 middle-aged men in Finland.

Those with blood levels of fat in the upper third were up to three times more likely to die of cardiovascular disease, compared to men with the lowest levels.

Conversely, total fat intake was not associated with the risk of death.