We’ve previously recommended fish as a food that’s particularly good for your brain – in large part because it’s high in omega-3 fatty acids. 
While this holds true for many fish, one of the most popular, Tilapia, actually contains very little of the beneficial fatty acids according to new research from Wake Forest School of Medicine.
Instead, Tilapia is loaded with omega-6, which can cause inflammation that is bad for the heart. In fact, one of the authors of the study said, “the inflammatory potential of hamburger and pork bacon is lower than the average serving of farmed tilapia.”
So make sure your fish provides the right kind of fish fats! Some good options are Salmon, Mackerel, Trout, Whitefish, and Bluefin Tuna.
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I think the key phrase in the study is “Chilton said tilapia is easily farmed using inexpensive corn-based feeds, which contain short chain omega-6s.” Corn-fed fish is the problem.
Research has already shown that grass-fed beef has a higher omega-3 content (with less omega-6) than corn-fed beef; so it stands to corn-fed fish will have the same high omege-6 content. I’d be interested in seeing how naturally raised tilapia rates.
Hi Lumosity, don’t leave us hanging on this one. Is it just corn-fed that are not good for us?
Perhaps “kelp fed” fish might be better.
Sardines are a bit smaller and so perhaps lower in the food chain and so might have less of the accumulated toxins that can effect brain health.
Tilapia I don’t eat as it is a bottom feeder. In Our Zoo they are put in the hippo pond to keep it clean. They are poo eaters. yuk
I wonder if Phips eat Cat Fish because they too are bottom feeders, in the wild! He didn’t read the part about farm raised fish. I can’t believe that he didn’t realize that farm feed means that they are not in the wild, therefore they do not feed on Poop.
They use them at the his Zoo for cleaning the hippo pond not for human consumption! Did he really mean that the thought of what they can be used for makes eating them undesirable?
I asked an expert on the subject to clarify the feed issue. Here is what he said:
“Omega’ 3’s are not made by a fish, only concentrated from the food they eat. Salmon get fed fish as fish meal, (Predominantly), and accumulate Omega 3 from those smaller fish,..which got it from eating smaller plant forms,… which synthesized the omega 3s in the first place (plants are the primary source of all Omega-3s)
This is why so many agriculturists are working on adding Omega 3 to the predominantly grain based Tilapia diets. Some reports I have seen can get levels up to between 1/2 & 3/4 that of a Salmon or other carnivorous species. This same work has been also done in boosting Omega three in Eggs by feeding omega 3 rich diets to Chickens.
One caveat with ‘naturally’ high Omega 3 species is that they are ‘bioaccumulating’ it, and as a result concentrating all the other trace ‘items’ in the fish they are eating, hence the higher metal’s and other toxins found in carnivorous species.
However Tilapia fed a diet of Omega 3 enriched feed, are a more controlled process so the ‘hitchhiking” toxins are (Most of the time) excluded /screened from the additives.
So even if one isn’t getting their Omega 3 from a Tilapia, one is getting less of all the other undesirables. I’m not sure of the efficiencies of just taking an omega 3 supplement vs feeding an omega 3 rich diet to a fish, and eating the fish. But either way, I think that generally, Tilapia is more healthy on the grounds of what it does not have in it.”
Brain Food Alert: Beware Tilapia!Please! There are two sides to every story.
From: SeaFood Business
August 6, 2008 – Tropical Aquaculture Products of Rutland, Vt., this week launched http://www.abouttilapia.com, a Web site supporting tilapia producers by providing information about the species to buyers and consumers.
The impetus for the site was a recent study published in the July edition of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association that claimed farmed tilapia contains a potentially hazardous balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids for patients vulnerable to inflammation. The study was led by Floyd “Ski” Chilton, Ph.D., professor of physiology and pharmacology and director of the Wake Forest Center for Botanical Lipids. He is author of the 2005 book “Inflammation Nation,” which pegs inflammation as the underlying cause of heart disease, allergies and asthma.
Chilton’s study concluded tilapia’s ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids is 11:1. However, an independent lab analysis shows Tropical Aquaculture’s tilapia, which is sourced from farms in South America, has an average omega-6/omega-3 ratio of 4:1, far less than the ratio quoted in Chilton’s study, says John Schramm, Tropical Aquaculture’s president. Other farms should have similar ratios, depending upon feeds, he adds.
“The risk is assumed if the ratio is 11:1. But if you have that disorder, your doctor is advising you how to shape your diet and treat that disorder. Tilapia is still a healthy part of a diet. No diet is made up of only one product,” says Schramm. “There are no accepted findings about [the ratio]. This is just [Chilton's] theory.”
The Web site has links to articles supporting tilapia consumption, including a coalition of 14 dietary specialists who decried Chilton’s findings.
Schramm notes the study has not affected his company’s tilapia sales, but he is concerned that continued media coverage could hurt future sales.
“I don’t think there is any more [to slow tilapia sales] than the normal summer blahs of trying to sell tilapia against steak fish. We normally see a 10 to 15 percent decrease in sales now. Once kids go back to school, that’s our audience. When they go back, and families eat at home more, we don’t want consumers to fear they’re not doing the right thing by eating tilapia,” says Schramm.
Other tilapia producers, including Aquamericas, support the Web site.
“The comments made by [Chilton] mislead the public, apparently in the sole hope of generating self-serving controversy with the sad result that human nutrition is negatively impacted by the confusion,” says David Griffith, general manager of Aquamericas.
Tropical will continue to update the site through the remainder of the year and may include a recipe blog, says Schramm.
Wow. I just read Chilton’s caveats about Tilapia. Is it my imagination or are the number of crackpots with PhD’s increasing? Next we’ll be reading headlines like “Solar Power not all Cracked up to be” — which will cite some “study” done by a PhD on Solar Energy during winter in the Arctic circle (when it’s dark 24/7). You get the general idea of where I’m going with this. It seems like quacks love sensational headlines, but when you get into the meat (pun) of the story – there are always parameters involved in the “testing” that generally don’t fit the practices of the industry. Just last week I read another “sensational headline” about Sucralose. The “warning” was based on 1 study done by a “PhD” that suggested that Sucralose MIGHT POSSIBLY (there’s solid language) interfere with the digestive processes in people having chemotherapy. Yeah – now that’s a large cross section of society, eh! The thought that comes to mind is: If the beef industry can sue Oprah for defammatory speech, then why can’t the tilapia industry class action that quack into a court-room, -or the media for slanted journalism. Good day.
As I understand it, Tilapia just happens to be “very good” at making arachidonic acid, a particularly bad Omega 6. It isn’t a question, I think, of making tilapia good for you by changing feed, but of making it less bad by changing from corn based feed.
The reality of the matter is that tilapia is easy to farm, cheap even, and that makes it a cash crop in the grocery stores… people seek value… or in some cases, they seek to eat in the first place.
Reality is a pain.
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