Tilapia Worse For You Than A Doughnut?
Last weekend, my sister came into town out of the blue, and we went out to dinner to celebrate. She glanced at the menu and then put it down, saying, “I gotta eat healthy when I’m with you. I’ll have the tilapia.”
Most people are shocked when they hear the truth about tilapia. After all, it’s fish. It’s supposed to be good for you. The power of the omega-3s in fish is all over the news. Salmon is still the most popular, but tilapia is gaining on it because it has a mild taste and it’s inexpensive.
But here’s the thing: Eat tilapia and you get the same amount of “bad fats” as a typical doughnut!
The tilapia served as the “catch of the day” in restaurants across the country is usually farm-raised. And researchers Wake Forest University found that farm-raised tilapia has more omega-6s than bacon, doughnuts and hamburger.1
Instead of being good for your heart, it’s flooding your body with inflammation – the main culprit behind heart disease! And on top of that, it’s pumped full of gender-bending hormones!
The Real Dark Side of Fat
It’s not that omega-6s are necessarily bad for you. They are essential fatty acids that your body needs. But we get so much of them that our bodies often have an unhealthy ratio of omega-6s to omega-3s.
In fact, the average American has an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of 20:1. Your ideal ratio should be just 2:1. So, you need to eat foods that are high in omega-3s to balance out the omega-6s.
Unfortunately, farm-raised tilapia isn’t a great source.
The omega-6 to omega-3 ratio in farm-raised tilapia is a whopping 11:1. Keep eating it, and it will do nothing to balance out the high levels of omega-6s in your body. It’ll do just the opposite.
Those high levels of omega-6s can lead to obesity, diabetes, fatigue, and memory loss. They also cause dangerous inflammation in your body that leads to many health problems, including joint pain and heart disease.
You see, farm-raised tilapia has less than half a gram of omega-3s per 3.5 ounces of fish.2 That’s probably the lowest you’ll find in any fish… even farm-raised salmon has 12 times more omega-3s and farm-raised trout has 4 times more. In contrast, wild-caught salmon has 22 times more omega-3s than tilapia.
What makes tilapia so bad for you? It’s the corn diet the fish are fed. Most wild caught fish eat greens—or other fish that eat greens—which supplies them with omega-3s.
Corn, however, is loaded with omega-6s. When the fish eat the corn, they convert the omega-6s into arachidonic acid, the main cause of dangerous inflammation in the body.
Fish Undergoing Sex Changes
The fact that tilapia has too much omega-6 and not enough omega-3 fatty acids is reason enough not to waste your time eating it. But, did you also know that young tilapia are pumped full of hormones that turn them all into males?
You see, farm-raised tilapia are kept in enclosed ponds and breed like crazy. It takes them just two to three months to mature and then they breed once a month. You might think this overabundance of fish would be good, but it causes overcrowding in the ponds and ends up stunting the growth of the fish.
So, the producers get an uneven harvest – some small, deformed fish and some larger fish (generally the male ones). In order to get a uniform “catch” of larger tilapia, fish farmers feed the stock the hormone 17 alpha-methyltestosterone, which turn all the fish into males.
This lets the fish farmers produce bigger fish in a shorter period for higher profits. No wonder this fish is becoming more popular every day. It’s inexpensive. And its mild, white meat appeals to many consumers.
The hormone treatment is the chosen method used by tilapia farmers worldwide.3That means that just about all tilapia sold in supermarkets here in the U.S. are fed methyltestosterone.
There aren’t any long-term studies to tell if this hormone is safe in humans eating tilapia. But the hormone itself is toxic to the liver and has been taken off the market in Germany.
This steady diet of corn and hormones just isn’t the diet nature intended.
The Healthy Side of Omega-3s
Before the days of modern industry, your fish had abundant supplies of omega-3s. They dined on seaweed or algae and other fish below them in the food chain that ate these plants.
But these days, even some salmon has little to none of these essential fats. Farm-raised fish are fed corn, soy, those fish flakes that you feed the fish in your aquarium, and other unnatural foods.
Since your body can’t make omega-3s on its own, it’s critical that you find ways to get a steady supply through the proper food sources and supplements.
The benefits are practically endless when your body gets enough omega-3s. Many of my own patients have not only reversed disease but improved their mental and emotional lives as well. Omega-3s have been shown to:
- Prevent heart disease, cancer – even strokes
- Lower blood pressure
- Wipe out arthritis pain
- Relieve depression
- Lower triglycerides (blood fat)
- Raise HDL (good cholesterol)
- Boost memory and brain power
- Lower your risk of macular degeneration
- Protect blood vessels and nerves
- Calm irregular heart rhythms, which can lead to sudden cardiac death
Find the Best Fish for Your Omega-3s
Don’t abandon fish altogether. They are still a great source of omega-3s.
I’ve put together a chart of the fish with the best ratios of omega-3s to omega-6s.
Omega-3 to Omega-6 Ratio of Wild-Caught and Farm-Raised Fish | ||
| Wild Sockeye Salmon | 19:1 | |
| Wild Coho Salmon | 10:1 | |
| Wild Trout | 7:1 | |
| Wild Eel | 5:1 | |
| Cod | 5:1 | |
| Farmed Trout | 4:1 | |
| Halibut | 4:1 | |
| Swordfish | 3:1 | |
| Flounder | 3:1 | |
| Farmed Eel | 2:1 | |
| Farmed Salmon | 2:1 | |
| Black Bass | 2:1 | |
| Farmed Catfish | 1:11 | |
| Farmed Tilapia | 1:11 | |
| Source: Journal of Diet Assoc (July 2008); American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1990) |
As you can see, there are a number of fish varieties which to choose that will give you the heart-healthy omega-3s you need.
Here are my general rules when shopping for fish:
Avoid Apex-Predator Fish. While tuna (albacore and bluefin) have good amounts of omega-3s, you should avoid them because they tend to contain high levels of toxins like mercury. Overall, stay away top-of-the-food-chain fish like tuna, shark, swordfish, tilefish, and king mackerel because of their mercury levels.
Choose Smaller Fish. Try to stick to smaller fish that are lower down on the food chain. They don’t typically eat other fish and fewer toxins get stored in their flesh. Good choices are herring, salmon, sardines, anchovies, trout, halibut, and haddock.
Always Buy Wild-Caught Fish. Farm-raised fish are simply fed an unnatural diet and become diseased and inflamed. The potential health risks could cost your body in the long run.
Because farm-raised fish don’t have lots of room to swim and are prone to disease, they are often given antibiotics as well as preservatives and commercial dyes to give them a healthy color.4
For example, farm-raised salmon is not the nice pink color that you would see with wild salmon, so it is injected with dye. At your supermarket you will often see “color-enhanced” in small print under the farm-raised salmon sign.
Wild salmon, on the other hand, get their pink color eating little sea creatures like krill. I prefer wild-caught salmon f the Pacific Ocean.
You can find good quality wild-caught fish at specialty markets such as Whole Foods or Fresh Market. I often order mine online Grassland Beef (www.grasslandbeef.com) or Alaskan Harvest Seafood (www.alaskanharvest.com). It comes right to your door, fresh, packed in dry ice.
Make up for the Critical Nutrients You’re Missing
Since your body doesn’t make enough omega-3 fatty acids on its own, choosing species of fish that have the highest levels of omega-3s is one way to get your daily supply.
But this is not always possible, so supplementing with a good quality fish oil that is purified of contaminants is a sensible way to make sure you get enough to reap the health benefits.
There are two supplements I recommend.
Fish Oil. I recommend taking an 1100 mg fish oil supplement every day. I’ve developed a new fish oil capsule that comes the pristine, non-industrial waters off the coast of Peru. It’s safe, pure and provides a huge, healthy dose of omega-3s.
Cod liver oil. Cod liver oil is another great source of omega-3s. One teaspoon a day will give you the omega-3s you need. And I’ve developed an oil without the awful taste.
- Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, “Wake Forest Researchers Say Popular Fish Contains Potentially Dangerous Fatty Acid Combination,” 7/8/2008
- “Farmed Fish & Omegas,” Acres USA, September 2008
- Barbara Minton. “Drug-Induced Fish: Hormone Causes Tilapia to Undergo Sex Change”. NaturalNews.com. 4/6/09
- “Wild vs. Farm or Ocean Raised Fish”, DeliciousOrganics.com. viewed 5/27/09