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Fishing out some answers.

Article Excerpt
Fishing out some answers

Fish and omega-3 fats are good for you * that much we know. But it gets complicated after that.

If you're looking to improve your diet, getting hooked on fish is one of the best ways to start. The American Diabetes Association, the American Heart Association, and the federal government's dietary guidelines all recommend that we eat fish twice a week. Our hearts perhaps stand to benefit the most: by combining the results of several studies, Harvard researchers calculated that, on average, a diet with a serving or two of fish per week reduces the chances of dying from heart disease by a third. As an added bonus, there's the distinct possibility that such a diet makes stroke, depression, and Alzheimer's disease less likely.

What is it about fish? It's a good source of protein. Some varieties slip some much-needed vitamin D into our diets. It can be a source of the mineral selenium.

But the chief reason for health benefits is the fat content, specifically two hard-to-pronounce, difficult-to-spell omega-3 fats: docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). DHA plays an important role in brain and visual development in infants, and it's now an ingredient in popular brands of infant formula. And for adults, DHA and EPA are a versatile tag-team of cardiovascular do-gooders, doing everything from lowering triglycerides and blood pressure to quelling inflammatory processes to having a direct effect on the heart, calming excitable muscle cells so the heartbeat stays nice and steady.

Is that it * fish is good for us, end of story? Afraid not. The fish-as-health-food tale has hatched several complicating subplots. For example, some studies...

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