Meta-Analysis Concludes Fish Consumption Tied to Lower Mortality

Published May 13, 2015
Water Quality

On May 13, 2015, the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a report titled “Fish Consumption and All-cause Mortality: A Meta-analysis of Cohort Studies” which concludes that, overall, consuming fish is better for your health. The meta-analysis looked at a dozen studies, with a combined 672,389 participants, and came to the conclusion that the overall benefit of eating fish was a decline in mortality compared to subjects who did not eat fish. The highest category of fish intake was associated with about a 6% lower risk of all-cause mortality.

According to the report, eating at least 60 grams per day of fish should be recommended: “A growing body of evidence indicates that high consumption of fish may decrease the risk of chronic disease like coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain cancers, and consequently, also for all-cause mortality.” The authors state that some caution should be taken in differentiating types of fish by fatty acid content (n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, or PUFAs).

The authors noted that their results conformed with previous studies which showed that fish consumption had significantly beneficial effects on the prevention of CHD mortality and that the relationship between higher intake of fish and lower risk of all-cause mortality was statistically significant. Additionally, they cited a number of studies with findings that fish consumption decreased the mortality of specific cancers, such as colorectal, lung and prostate cancers.

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