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What’s so healthy about seafood?
A guide for seafood marketers
Second edition
Seafood’s changing place in health
Water and what is found in it to eat have always been an important part of the human experience. Waterways, rivers, lakes, estuaries and oceans have generally provided an abundance of creatures and plants for humans to eat. The edible creatures have been diverse and have included finfish, crustaceans and molluscs — and the mark of ancient human settlements has been the midden, with its remains of aquatic food. It is difficult to imagine our species without such food, except where it is in short supply or where belief systems preclude its use.
However, communities remote from the sea and in which other animal-derived foods are abundant have tended to eat little seafood, especially when storage, transport and safety have been issues. In recent times, seafood has become more accessible and very safe for the majority of the population in Australia and in the countries to which Australia exports. The increased availability of seafood, further enhanced by that most popular of pastimes and sports, fishing, has been matched with an increased interest in its health properties.
It was only a few years ago that the essentiality of certain so-called omega-3 fatty acids in the human diet became clear. In their most beneficial form they are “long-chain” — the not-so-long ones (like alpha-linolenic acid) coming from plants in the sea and, to a lesser extent, on the land, on which sea creatures and some land animals feed and turn them into the “long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids” (LCn-3PUFA). The best source of these LCn-3-PUFA is seafood, especially finfish (the fatty tissue of finfish) but also crustaceans and shellfish.
 Having insufficient omega-3 fatty acids in the diet amounts to a deficiency, and is associated with a wide range of health problems which include cardiovascular disease, diabetes, certain cancers, osteoporosis and disorders of the central nervous system, including depression in some instances, and impaired cognition (leading to dementia).
One of the most interesting findings is that, even though some seafood contains a significant amount of cholesterol, its effects on the blood cholesterol (in its various forms) may not be unfavourable — depending on the way in which the fish is prepared and cooked, and what it is eaten with. Moreover, other favourable more direct effects in the arteries and the heart itself actually protect against cardiovascular disease. Studies, especially in Australia, of the effects of finfish on the health of arteries and on the likelihood of fatal abnormal heart rhythms show it to be a protective food.
As major shifts in seafood science and health began to take place, Shawn Somerset and Martin Bowerman, in a project funded by the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, began to assemble this material for industry and the community. Their thorough analysis and interpretation of current nutritional research is the foundation on which this book is based. Following their work, and as the field of enquiry became more active and clearer, the best current evidence was critiqued and interpreted for the present publication, to assist those responsible for the seafood chain and how it might promote health.
The evidence is now largely unequivocal that, provided a person has no individual sensitivity, some fish each week is an advantage to health and longevity. This is not to say that added health value may not be achieved where it is combined together with a varied plant-based diet. Indeed, variety amongst sea-foods is also likely to confer health benefit.
Above all, if most of the world’s population is to benefit from seafood intake, the resource has to be valued and protected and its sustainability ensured. Available evidence indicates that small amounts of fish — up to about three or four servings of about 100 grams of finfish a week — are enough to optimise health. The corollary is that small changes in seafood consumption by most of the world’s population will make major changes in health outcomes.
Mark L. Wahlqvist
Professor Mark Wahlqvist AO, BMedSc, MD BS (Adelaide), MD (Uppsala), FRACP, FAIFST, FACN, FAFPHM, FTSE, is an Honorary Professor of Medicine, Monash University, and also in Health and Behavioural Sciences at Deakin University. He is regarded as one of the world’s leading nutrition scientists. Professor Wahlqvist took up his first professorial appointment in 1978 as the Foundation Professor of Human Nutrition at Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria. Since then he has held a number of senior academic and clinical appointments including Professor and Head of Medicine at Monash University; Chairman, Division of Medicine and Director of the Professorial General Medical Unit at Prince Henry’s Hospital and subsequently the Monash Medical Centre, Melbourne; and Associate Dean, International Health and Development, Faculty of Medicine, Monash University.
Professor Wahlqvist has written and edited numerous publications, both books and papers, on nutritional science and has been a member and Chair of a number of eminent nutritional science and advisory committees. He is currently the President of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences; Chair of the National Nutrition Committee, Australian Academy of Science; Editor-in-Chief, Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition; the recent Chair of Food Safety Council of Victoria; and has also served as a board member of the Australia New Zealand Food Authority.
In 2000, Professor Wahlqvist was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for his contributions to the fields of nutritional science and public health.
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