Today’s consumer is more concerned about the benefits of the different options available to fulfill its dietary needs. It is true that there is huge amounts of information available on the internet to help us understand what those options are, but is it also true that a lot of this information comes from sources of shaky reputation, or simply from cutting and pasting what someone read in another web site, without verifying its validity.
A typical example is a study published by the University of Wake Forest in 2008. Despite having looked for it, I haven’t been able to find the original study, only a press release by the University where they mention the study
(http://www.wakehealth.edu/News-Releases/2008/Wake_Forest_Researchers_Say_Popular_Fish_Contains_Potentially_Dangerous_Fatty_Acid_Combination.htm). Unfortunately, the sensationalist tone of this press release has caused it to be mentioned in several articles on newspapers, TV programs and, of course, blogs on the internet. If you perform a Google search for “wake forest tilapia worse than bacon”, you should get about 3,750 hits, including the press release mentioned above.
If you read that press release, it indicates that the study it refers to concludes that eating tilapia is worse than eating bacon. The basis for this conclusion is that a portion of tilapia has a high content of omega-6 (nu-6) and a low content of omega-3 (nu-3) fatty acids. It is interesting that the press release reaches this conclusion and then proceeds to compare the content of omega-3 and omega-6 in tilapia with that of other seafood products, like salmon and trout, but never with that of bacon. Remember that what makes this press release stand out is its assertion that eating tilapia is worse than eating bacon!
If you take the time to investigate the nutritional properties of these products, for instance, by visiting web sites like www.nutritiondata.self.com, you would conclude that a 4 oz portion of tilapia contains 270 milligrams of omega-3 and 336 milligrams of omega-6. Also, the same 4 oz portion of bacon contains 238 milligrams of omega-3 and 5,036 milligrams of omega-6. Nevertheless, if we take the Wake Forest press release at face value, it is the high content of omega-6 in tilapia that makes it worse than bacon, but on a portion of the same size, bacon has 15 times more omega-6 than tilapia! Definitively the Wake Forest press release is sensationalist and full of contradictions.
Now, if we want to have a more balanced view on this topic, we need to do more research. Despite some controversy, it is recommended to have a diet with a nu-6/nu-3 of 6, or to consume 6 times more omega-6 than omega-3. Also, we need to take into consideration that this target should be achieved over a certain period of time, say a week, and not in each individual meal that we eat, since later would be close to impossible. Studies show that in the diet of the occidental world the average consumption of nu-6/nu-3 is between 10 and 20, well above the recommended ratio of 6. This means that if the ratio of nu-6/nu-3 of our average diet is between 10 and 20, we need to eat food with a ratio of nu-6/nu-3 of less than 6, so that we can lower our current ratio and bring it closer to the recommended 6.
What is the nu-6/nu-3 ration of tilapia? 1.25. What is the nu-6/nu-3 ratio of bacon? 21. This means that every time we eat tilapia we help ourselves brining our consumption of nu-6/nu-3 closer to the recommended ratio of 6, whereas each time we eat bacon our average gets closer to the high end of the current average of our population of 20. Does this mean we should eat more tilapia? Definetively. Does this mean we need to stop eating bacon? Not necessarily, if we are willing to stick to a balanced diet over a period of several days.
In addition to all this, if we go back to comparing the nutritional quality of tilapia and bacon, beyond the nu-6/nu-3 issue, which we now know is baseless, we can look at other parameters. For instance, for the same 4 oz portion, tilapia offers us 143 calories and bacon 512, tilapia offers us 2.8 grams of total fat and bacon 50, and tilapia has 1,2 grams of saturated fat, versus 16.8 of bacon.
If after reading this you still believe that eating bacon is healthier than eating tilapia, be my guest. After all, each one of us is responsible for our own nutritional options.
(Follow this link for the spanish version of this article:Tilapia peor que tocineta? Por favor!!)
