There’s a reason why willpower alone doesn’t result in weight loss, at least not for most people. Fat cells may look like they’re just sitting there, taking up extra space, but they’re really busy little structures, continually working away at preserving and multiplying their numbers. It’s a vicious cycle, but it can be stopped and reversed with a particular type of fat found in fish: omega-3.
This healthy type of fat is sadly lacking in the American diet. Research led by the Harvard School of Public Health shows that insufficient amounts of omega-3 fats are responsible for up to 96,000 premature deaths per year.
Fish isn’t the only food source of these healthy fats but unless you’re a vegetarian, eating fish is the easiest way to get enough omega-3s to tip the bathroom scale in your favor. At the University of Oxford in England, a study of more than 37,000 people between the ages of 20 and 97 found that those who habitually ate fish were thinner than meat eaters.
How Fish Reduces Fat Storage
Fat cells are stubborn because they generate inflammation, triggering a mechanism that provokes weight gain. In simple terms, inflammation creates a continual detour of calories, like a never-ending construction project that forces you to take an alternate route to work every morning. With inflammation, instead of being burned to produce energy, calories are stored as fat. To make matters worse, this same phenomenon can cause continual hunger, because food isn’t being used properly to generate energy, prompting overeating and more weight gain.
The omega-3 fats in fish stop and reverse this vicious cycle by subduing the inflammation. In other words, the fish fats remove the detour, enabling calories to be burned to produce energy and to repair and maintain healthy muscles, bones, and organs. The net result is a leaner body.
The same healthy fats are highly skilled at multitasking. In addition to enabling weight loss, they inhibit artery-clogging plaque and blood clots, keeping the heart in good shape. They also improve mood and mental function, reduce hostility, delay wrinkles, relieve PMS and menopausal symptoms, and possibly prevent cancer.
The Best Fish
All fish are not created equal. Some contain more omega-3 fats than others and mercury content also varies. The top contenders, with ample healthy fats and minimal mercury (safe to eat every day) are fresh, frozen, or canned salmon, sardines, and herring. Eating a 3-oz serving (about the size of a deck of cards) on most days of the week will significantly enhance your ability to burn fat. Oysters and anchovies are also rich sources of omega-3 fats with negligible amounts of mercury.
Pitfalls to Avoid
• As a rule of thumb, small fish don’t accumulate significant amounts of mercury because they don’t live as long as big fish. If you’re eating fish on a regular basis, choose small varieties as staples. However, small fish can also be highly contaminated in some waters. Whether you buy fish or catch your own, for safe options, check out the Consumer Guide to Mercury in Fish.
• Skip fast-food fish, which is generally cod. It contains relatively little healthy fat. To get a similar amount of omega-3 fats as in 3 ounces of salmon, you would need to eat well over a pound of cod. Given that fast-food fish is typically breaded, fried, and served on a bun with a sauce that’s astronomically high in calories, it’s going to do more harm than good. And, according to estimates from the American Heart Association, ounce for ounce, cod contains 11 times the mercury of salmon.
• When buying any canned fish, check for other ingredients. For example, some sardines are canned in partially hydrogenated oil, which is an artery-clogging transfat; olive oil tastes much better and does your body good.
• When buying fresh fish, follow your nose. If it smells fishy, it isn’t fresh and won’t taste good.
• Deep-fried fish is never healthy. Try baking it, wrapped in tin foil with a small dab of butter, some lemon or lime juice and seasoning.
The First Easy Step
Most people eat a significant amount of canned tuna, so much so that it’s America’s chief source of mercury exposure. Switching to canned salmon and eating it often is a very simple way to consume significantly more healthy fats without peril and get lean.
If you’re skeptical of the virtues of canned salmon, take a tip from Nicholas Perricone, M.D., the renowned dermatologist who popularized fish to lose fat, reduce wrinkles, and stay young. Perricone, who spends a lot of time traveling, once told me that he never leaves home without cans of Alaskan salmon and a can opener in his suitcase.
Editor's Note: Read Dr. Blaylock's surprising report on Omega-3 -- Go Here Now.
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