Seafood ChoiCeS

Seafood Choices: Balancing Benefits and Risks
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11762.html
hEALTh BENEFITS ASSOCIATED WITh NUTRIENTS IN SEAFOOD
Part II: Benefits for
Prevention of Adult Chronic Disease
CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE, CARDIOVASCULAR MORTALITY,
AND ALL-CAUSE MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY
Most evidence for benefits of seafood consumption and EPA/DHA
supplementation associated with coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality
is inferred from interventional studies of populations at risk, observational
studies in the general population, and mechanistic studies. Early investigations
of the association between diet and cardiovascular disease led to the
recommendations to restrict dietary fat and cholesterol as a public health
intervention to prevent CHD. However, subsequent observations suggest
a more complex association between dietary fat intake and cardiovascular
pathophysiology (Howard et al., 2006).
Cardiovascular Benefits to Specific Population Groups
Certain populations in the Mediterranean region consuming a diet
relatively high in monounsaturated fat from olive oil enjoyed some of the
lowest cardiovascular disease rates in the world. Another intriguing observation
came from the comparison of Greenland Eskimo populations that had
low mortality rates from CHD compared to the mainland Danish population,
despite having a diet rich in fat (Bang et al., 1971). Bang et al. (1971)
hypothesized that genetics, lifestyle, and the high content of EPA/DHA in
the diet (which consisted primarily of fish, sea birds, seal, and whale) may
account for the low cardiovascular mortality rate observed in this population.
Plasma lipid patterns examined in this study showed that most types
of lipids were decreased compared to a Danish cohort control and Eskimos
living in Denmark (p