SubscribeI have just returned from a vacation in BC, Canada, where I read this article in the local Globe and Mail newspaper.
This is another example of how people play with nature, in this case feeding animals what they are not supposed to eat. The result is a food product that is not as healthy for you as you might think.
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail, by CARLY WEEKS, August 6, 2008
“... eating farmed tilapia, a widely consumed fish that has been steadily growing in popularity, may be no better than dining on bacon, hamburgers or doughnuts.
New U.S. research has found that farmed tilapia have low levels of omega-3 fatty acids - and surprisingly high levels of potentially detrimental omega-6 fatty acids.
Omega-6 fatty acids are considered to be essential and must be obtained through diet because they can't be produced by the body... But consuming too much omega-6 can contribute to cancer, asthma, depression and heart disease, among other ailments.
Farmed tilapia contains more omega-6 fatty acid than is found in doughnuts, pork bacon or hamburgers made with 80-per-cent lean ground beef, according to a new study.
Tilapia, a lean white fish with a mild taste, is the second-most cultivated fish in the world, after carp, according to Fisheries and Oceans Canada. While China is the world's leading producer of tilapia, British Columbia and Nova Scotia also produce it on a commercial scale.”
And the reason is...” "This is a serious problem because they tend to feed [the fish] vegetable oils for growth and that's not quite what the tilapia is accustomed to getting in its native state," he said.”
You can read more here.
This article reminded me of the mad cow disease. The cows, which are vegetarian animals, are being fed with animal by-products, than they go mad and get cuckoo in the head and people who eat them get sick. Not to mention the poor animals suffering.
Why do those farmers feed animals with food they don't naturally eat?
1 comment:
This is interesting! It's sort of like cows eating corn, which is cheap, when they're meant to eat grass. Altough wild fish has in the past been the safer choice, it now depends on where in the world that wild fish is coming from. There are now lots of farms that "sustainably farm" fish, taking native diet and ideal living conditions into consideration. They try to mimic the natural environment as much as possible. This fish has been shown to be cleaner than many wild fish.
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