Andrew Scrivani for The New York TimesBaked Trout With Tomatoes and Olives: A great way to get your omega-3s. In this week’s Recipes for Health, Martha Rose Shulman cooks up new ways to enjoy the health benefits of fish. Fish typically is a good source of healthful omega-3 fatty acids, and studies show that eating fish regularly is associated with better heart health. She writes:
Experts are also researching a possible role for omega-3s in boosting the immune system and protecting against hypertension, depression and other ailments. As the findings continue to roll in, many nutritionists now recommend that we eat fish twice a week.
She offers tips on finding safe and sustainable seafood, along with five delicious and easy ways to prepare omega-3-rich fish like sardines, salmon, mackerel and tuna.
Sardine and Chard Gratin: A simplified version of a traditional Provençal dish that is delicious unbelievably easy to make.
Tuna and Pepper Stew: A fisherman’s dish with simple origins, loosely based on a Basque tuna soup called marmitako.
Potato and Tuna Purée: Comfort food at its finest, similar to a tuna noodle casserole but dressed up and simpler.
Baked Trout With Tomatoes and Olives: A Provençal staple that’s a great way to serve farmed trout.
Salmon Fillets With Tomatillo Salsa: Tomatillos have an acidic flavor — and color — that goes beautifully with salmon.
Healthy living doesn’t happen at the doctor’s office. The road to better health is paved with the small decisions we make every day. It’s about the choices we make when we buy groceries, drive our cars and hang out with our kids. Join columnist Tara Parker-Pope as she sifts through medical research and expert opinions for practical advice to help readers take control of their health and live well every day. 
The easiest and most pleasurable way to eat well is to cook. Recipes for Health offers recipes with an eye towards empowering you to cook healthy meals every day. 
17 Comments
Dear Ms. Shulman:
Farmed or wild salmon? Your preference and comments would be appreciated.
All best,
Thanks.
— NinoPerfect timing! (And not just because it’s Good Friday!) I’m doing a series on Spring Cleaning your insides as well as your outsides, and these recipes are awesome alternatives to the junk food diet of the average single guy.
Just remember to buy wild-caught salmon instead of farm-raised, lest you end up having to beg off work with mercury poisoning, like Jeremy Piven.
http://taoofbachelorhood.com/
— MichaelI love fish not only for its health benefits but especially for the way it tastes. But these recipes seem designed for people who hate the taste of fish. Yuck.
— inframanDon’t forget: more than 1 or 2 eggs a week are unhealthy, don’t eat shell fish they have too much cholesterol, always eat margarine to avoid saturated fats, take your salt tablets, polyunsaturated oils are the best for you. Eat more manufactured cereals, the longer the list of ingredients the better for you.
Tomorrow there will be a new food you must eat.
The more farm raised salmon you eat the better for the environment. Your body needs mercury so the more fish you eat, the better.
Personally, I like Dr. Salisbury’s research and diet plan. (Salisbury steaks)
— RichThere should be an emphasis on wild fish, and even supplements but nice article.
Here are the top ten reasons to eat more fish:
http://www.medpie.com/nutrition/featured-articles/top-ten-eat-fish.html
— Robert Latkany, MDJust bought some rockfish and salmon for an early Easter dinner tomorrow….Salmon is my favorite!
http://foodfitnessfreshair.wordpress.com/
— FoodFitnessFreshairIt would be helpful if you published a rundown of some of the fish and shellfish falling in the mid-range of omega-3 content. Most people are aware of their presence in salmon and tuna, but I was always under the impression that if you had a choice between other fin fish or shellfish, the fin fish would typically have a higher omega-3 content. Yesterday I was in a fishmarket with a large chart of nutritional content posted on the wall, and I learned my thinking was incorrect – shrimp, mussels and oysters contain considerably more omega-3 than many other fin fish, according to that chart. I found this really surprising and I wish I had been aware of it through more of my pregnancy in particular.
— EricaI think lots of people are still intimidated by preparing seafood at home. It really is easy once you get started though, and actually tends to cook quickly compared with other meats, making it a great convenience. Can’t wait to try the trout recipe!
http://www.reconstructingthirty.com
— ChadThis reminds me of a recipe given to me by a Finnish friend – a chunky potato and salmon casserole roasted in the oven, then served with a light sour cream dressing drizzled over it.
— Karen (California):Sustainable” farmed fish? I used to think so. See Jonathan Saffran Foer’s “Eating Animals.”
— David KeppelSorry to be something of a spoil sport here, but someone needs to note that we used to hunt birds and mammals for the dining table, and we’ve put strict limits on that, with hunting for commerce now mostly banned. The sea fisheries of the world remain the last remaining great hunts for wild flesh, one wonders how much longer we will celebrate these so cheerfully. Even the fisheries that conservation groups view as “sustainable” are guilty of killing non-target fish (“by catch”) to some extent, and are taking food supplies away from marine mammals like Orcas and endangered top predator fishes like sharks. A fishery can get on the “sustainable” lists without any serious evaluation of these marine food web effects — such effects are just too hard to study.
I think there is enough harm going on in the sea right now, with hundreds of coastal dead zones forming around the world, and rising levels of CO2 causing the entire world-encircling sea to acidify, we should not be telling the world to eat two meals of fish per week. Its irresponsible without first having a much clearer assessment of global impacts.
Even then, which fish? The note above that shellfish are good for us for the same reasons fin fish are, this is very good to hear, and deserves to be followed up on by further articles like this one please. Shellfish are not fish, of course, they are filter-feeding molluscs and as such 1) grow by “grazing” on plankton, the “pastures” of the sea, so are much lower on the food chain than are tuna or other predators. and 2) are more readily farmed safely and 3) their harvests more readily evaluated for impact — for one thing they don’t enter international waters (they don’t move much at all, even scallops, once they settle from the plankton) so we can truly monitor the level of harvest through permits, etc.
There continues to be a disconnect between people worried about health benefits to people, and those worried about the health of the seas. Let every article like this try to connect these interests please.
Eric Olson
— Eric OlsonBrandeis University
Ahhh….fish and seafood…..the more the better! Thanks for this informative and beneficial info, and menus for fish.
— Cheryl SullivanIts great More People should Eat it The benefits are countless!
— nthackinMyaccntWhat is NEVER mentioned in the media is the fat that is the OPPOSITE of omega-3 but that is EVERYWHERE in processed foods, and in ALL bakery items (except nonfat ones) and that is (drumroll please) … SOYBEAN OIL, or more specifically, omega-6 fatty acids.
Will there ever come a day when the mainstream media puts any focus on the inflammatory, pro-cancer, pro-Alzheimers nature of soybean oil???
Pfizer spent probably billions doing a cancer trial for their drug Celebrex which inhibits only the cox-2 enzyme (unlike the main NSAIDs like aspirin and ibuprofen which inhibit both the troublesome cox-2 enzyme and the beneficial cox-1 enzyme).
What does this have to do with soybean oil and omega-6 fatty acids in general? Well the cox-2 enzyme takes the omega-6 fatty acid and combines it with some other molecules to create new molecules like the prostaglandin, PGE-2, that are highly inflammatory and pro-cancer (causes existing tumors to spread and metastasize).
All we hear about is omega-3 (which is good) but it’s long long long long past time we start hearing about the bad effects of omega-6 fatty acids (with soybean oil being the overwhelmingly used omega-6 fatty acid).
Bill
— BillI do not know where one can find fish that is not so polluted that the benefits are worth it. Forget fish from the oceans, rivers, streams, and ponds. And farmed fish is lethal. It has long been known that Omega-3 is important for many health issues–nothing new here. Tell us how we can get Omega-3 that will not harm us by the toxins all fish now carry in their bodies.
— Richard GustafsonI read this weekend that the last sardine cannery in the US is closing. What a shame! I will not eat any fish from China, where, apparently, we can expect our sardines to come in the future. (Or so said the article I read.)
http://ozarkhomesteader.wordpress.com/
— KimHeavy metal and chemical contamination of high seas plus minimal food inspection standards for fish wholesalers make eating wild seafood to dangerous for me.
— MARK KLEIN, M.D.how about suggesting some good Omega-3 sources other than fish, for those of us who, for ethical/religious reasons, do not eat it? Is ground flaxseed an okay substitute? I don’t use any added oils, but ground flaxseed in the morning oatmeal adds a nice, nutty taste. Am I getting any O-3 benefit?
— talathiel