This is a great article but it is quite long. As a result, I have broken into two parts. Here is the first part: If you are going to eat fish then make sure you cook it correctly. “Increased baked/broiled fish intake may lower [heart failure] risk, whereas increased fried fish intake may increase [heart failure] risk in postmenopausal women.” Omega-3 fat versus trans fat is a no brainer – choose omega-3 fats! Read on…

Banish These “Healthy Oils” to Guard Your Heart

A recent study published in the journal Circulation, Heart Failure, sought to ascertain whether fish or the fatty acids they contain are independently associated with risk for incident of heart failure among postmenopausal women.

The study looked at the diet of close to 85,000 women.

Their consumption of baked and broiled fish, fried fish, omega-3 fats and trans fats were determined from a questionnaire.

The study found that the manner in which the fish was cooked was crucially important.

The authors concluded that:

“Increased baked/broiled fish intake may lower [heart failure] risk, whereas increased fried fish intake may increase [heart failure] risk in postmenopausal women.”

What’s interesting about this is that while fish is generally considered a healthful food due to its heart-healthy omega-3 fat content, the addition of harmful trans-fat (which you get when you deep-fry the fish in vegetable oil) effectively cancels out any health benefits of the fish you might otherwise have received.

So carefully choosing your cooking methods, and your cooking oils, can make or break your meal from a nutritional standpoint. Aside from that, I’ll also address other safety concerns that apply to virtually all fish today, and how to help circumvent these dangers.

The Importance of Animal-Based Omega-3 Fat for Heart Health

The relationship between animal-based omega-3 fat and heart-health has been well established, with deficiency equating to an increased risk of heart disease. These effects have been shown in hundreds of experiments in animals, humans, tissue culture studies, and clinical trials. But that’s not all. The overall health benefits of omega-3 fats go far beyond heart health.

In fact, if you go to the omega-3 fat page on GreenMedInfo.com, you will see a list of scientific studies demonstrating the benefits of omega-3s for more than 250 different diseases, which is powerful confirmation of their broad-reaching scope. One reason omega-3s are so good for you is their anti-inflammatory properties, especially the omega-3s from animal sources—EPA and DHA—found primarily in fish, shellfish and krill. These animal-based omega-3 fats act to prevent heart disease in a number of different ways.

The Link Between Trans Fat and Heart Disease

For decades, you’ve been advised to consume vegetable oils instead of saturated fat in order to prevent heart disease. Unfortunately, the medical establishment chose to banish the wrong fat to improve health…

Human trials have conclusively demonstrated that vegetable oils DO NOT decrease atherosclerosis or decrease your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. On the contrary, studies have revealed that vegetable oils may increase your risk of heart disease, and might also increase your risk of cancer after a period of about five years!

In light of previous research into the harmful effects of trans fats on heart health, the results from the featured study do not come as a great surprise. It only strengthens the link between trans fats and heart disease, and indicates that this harmful effect is potent enough to cancel out the otherwise beneficial omega-3 content of the fish consumed. Previous research has also found that trans fats can interfere with your body’s use of omega-3 fats, which may also help explain why deep-fried fish resulted in greater harm.

So what’s the bottom line? Simple.

Avoid commercially deep-fried fish (and avoid deep frying in vegetable oil if you’re cooking it from scratch), because you’re likely not going to derive any benefit from the omega-3 in the fish. Meanwhile, baked or broiled fish, using good-old-fashioned butter—which is a healthful saturated fat—is a wiser choice, if you’re going to eat fish (and I’ll discuss the reasons why you may want to limit your fish consumption, despite it being such a rich source of omega-3).

How Trans Fats Harm Your Heart

Last year, scientists claimed to have finally discovered one of the mechanisms by which dietary trans-fats cause hardening of the arteries, also known as atherosclerosis. It appears these damaged fats suppress the responsiveness of TGF-beta, a key protein that controls growth and differentiation in your cells. In a nutshell, trans fats cause dysfunction and chaos in your body on a cellular level, and the ramifications are significant. One 2009 study revealed that among women with underlying coronary heart disease, eating trans-fats increased the risk of sudden cardiac arrest three-fold!

Besides heart disease, other studies have linked trans-fats to:

• Cancer: They interfere with enzymes your body uses to fight cancer.
• Diabetes: They interfere with the insulin receptors in your cell membranes.
• Decreased immune function: They reduce your immune response.
• Problems with reproduction: They interfere with enzymes needed to produce sex hormones.
• Obesity

Dr. Mercola