Saving Seafood

Fish Oil Could Save Around $15 Billion in EU Healthcare Costs, Says New Study

May 17, 2016 — The following is an excerpt from a story published today by Food Ingredients First, which explains how Omega-3 supplements can save EU healthcare providers billions of dollars every year. A similar study by Dr. Doug Bibus, president of Lipid Technologies, was published in the journal Lipid Technology earlier this year. Bibus’s study found that Omega-3 fatty acids from menhaden oil could save billions of dollars in U.S. healthcare costs.

More widespread regular consumption of Omega 3 supplements could save healthcare systems and providers in the EU a total of €12.9 billion ($14.69 billion) a year, according to an independent study commissioned by Food Supplements Europe.

Using existing published literature and official data, researchers at Frost & Sullivan explored the financial benefits of the consumption of Omega 3 EPA+DHA food supplements among people aged 55 and over. This demographic group, representing 157.6 million people or 31% of the total EU population, is considered to be at high risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Overall it is forecast that in the EU, 24% of people aged 55 and over (i.e. 38.4 million people) are in danger of experiencing a CVD-attributed hospital event between 2016 and 2020. This is expected to cost as much as €1.328 trillion ($1.512 trillion) over this five-year period – equivalent to €34,637 ($39,453) per event.

Read the full story at Food Ingredients First

Is Fish Oil Beneficial for the Brain?

April 19, 2016 — One element that distinguishes humans from other primates is the high levels of omega-3 fatty acids within the brain. These long chain polyunsaturated fats play an important role in the cell membranes of neurons and other cells of the body, increasing permeability and controlling some signaling between cells. Deficiencies in omega-3 in both animals and humans has been shown to be correlated with increased mental health problems and even a higher risk of suicide.

Over the years, a lot of research has been done with omega-3s to see if supplements could help with various psychiatric problems from depression to autism to dementia. Anyone following news coverage will see headlines going from boom to bust for omega-3s, “no help” says one study, “strong benefit for depression” says another. How do we make sense of it all?

First a little overview. Omega-3 fatty acids for supplementation come in three major varieties, ALA, EPA, and DHA. It’s a bit of an alphabet soup, but bear with me. ALA is the precursor molecule that can be converted to EPA and DHA in the body, but the rate of conversion is never higher than 20% or so. That means if you take a lot of ALA (found in flax or chia seeds), you end up with a lot of excess omega-3 in your body that may not be particularly useful to the brain. All polyunsaturated fatty acids are delicate, easily made rancid with exposure to oxygen, so having extra omega-3s the body can’t use well may not be the best idea. EPA and DHA, on the other hand, are the fatty acids found in fish oil, and DHA is the major long chain omega-3 fatty acid in the human brain. There is an algae-made vegan DHA supplement that is added to milk and formula that you might have seen in the grocery store.

Read the full story at Psychology Today

SCOTT TESORO: Fish oil benefits

March 28, 2016 — In Dr. Feinsinger’s March 14 column “Ignore the fish oil salesman,” his bias against fish oil focuses on the debate over whether fish oil prevents heart disease and stroke. Because studies in the medical literature are mixed, he suggests that fish oil is useless. He reduces the issue to simple profit motives by the fish oil industry.

Unfortunately, Dr. Feinsinger’s conclusion fails to take into account the basic human health requirement for EPA and DHA, the fatty acids found in fish oil. These omega 3 fats are deemed “essential” to human health, meaning that they are “nutritional substances required for optimal health. These must be in the diet, because they are not formed within the body.” (Farlex Medical Dictionary).

According to the journal “Advances in Nutrition,” the role of EPA and DHA include promoting healthy fetal and retinal development, as well as providing over half the dry weight of the brain. EPA and DHA also help in modulating inflammation and are an important component of healthy cell membranes.

Read the full letter at the Citizen Telegram

Fish Farming In Gulf Poses Questions And Opportunities

February 3, 2016 — Most of the fish we eat in the U.S. comes from other countries. Fishermen in Louisiana have long sought to displace some of those imports but the industry has faced challenges like hurricanes and the 2010 BP oil spill.

Now, a new source of fish in the gulf offers promise — but also raises questions.

For the first time, the Gulf of Mexico is open for fish farming.

Companies can apply for permits through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency. Then they can install floating fish cages — like those already in place in state waters off the coasts of Maine, Washington and Hawaii.

Harlon Pearce owns Harlon’s LA Fish, which sells local fish to restaurants and grocery stores across the south. On a recent afternoon his refrigerated warehouse in Kenner was full of them. He pointed to yellowfin tuna, snapper, black drum and sheep’s head. It doesn’t always look this way.

Pearce, who is on the board of the Gulf Seafood Institute, says he freezes a lot of his fish in order to meet continuous demand, but ultimately always runs out. He wants to sell nationwide and contract with big chains, like Red Lobster, but he says, “We never have enough fish to supply the markets. Never.”

That’s true for a couple of reasons – the seafood industry in the Gulf still hasn’t bounced back from the 2010 BP oil spill, but it’s always fluctuated due to hurricanes and pollution.

Read the full story at New Orleans Public Radio

 

MSC certified Pharma Marine launches sustainably sourced CodMarine Oil in North America

November 18, 2015 — The following was released by the Marine Stewardship Council:

Norway’s Pharma Marine AS, a leader in the production of premium quality fish oils and omega-3 concepts, and Healthy Directions, a direct-to-consumer nutritional supplement retailer and wholly-owned subsidiary of Helen of Troy Limited (NASDAQ: HELE), have launched the sustainably sourced supplement, Dr. Williams CodMarine® Oil, for the first time in North America. The omega-3 sources in the oil product are fully traceable to sustainable and well-managed Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified fisheries. The MSC is the world’s most recognized certification program for sustainable, wild-caught seafood.

Pharma Marine’s CodMarine Omega-3 Fish Oil

MSC certification underscores Pharma Marine’s core values of caring for natural resources and people in a responsible and sustainable manner and supporting healthy oceans. Based on the west coast of Norway near a region where marine oil production dates back more than 130 years, Pharma Marine, an innovator in marine lipids, recently expanded its technologically advanced facility to enable the increased production of premium quality EPA and DHA products from fresh or frozen wild-caught fish. Pharma Marine’s sustainably sourced fish oil product, CodMarine, is traceable to MSC certified fisheries including North East Arctic cod, haddock and saithe.

Leif Kjetil Gjendemsjo, owner of Pharma Marine, said, “We are proud to introduce our sustainably sourced CodMarine product to the U.S. market and help consumers to make a difference and contribute to the health of the world’s oceans. The blue MSC ecolabel on each bottle provides assurance that there is complete traceability of CodMarine fish oil to sustainable and well-managed fisheries.”

Healthy Directions

Pharma Marine’s CodMarine Omega-3 Fish Oil is available in the U.S. through Healthy Directions’ Dr. Williams brand. In line with Healthy Directions’ mission of helping people to lead healthier lives through the core values of responsibility, integrity, and continuous innovation, Dr. Williams has added CodMarine Oil to his product line to offer a sustainable omega-3 fish oil solution to his customers. The expanded line of sustainably sourced supplements offers options to support cardiovascular and other health benefits.

Connie Hallquist, President of Healthy Directions, said, “We are pleased to offer Dr. Williams’ CodMarine Oil to the U.S. market as we work to ensure we are providing innovative and sustainable solutions for consumers. The blue MSC ecolabel enables consumers to make a difference by choosing fish oil that can be traced back to a sustainable fishery.”

MSC certification ensures traceability

The MSC maintains two global standards, one for evaluating the sustainability of fisheries and one for ensuring that seafood products carrying the blue MSC ecolabel are traceable to MSC certified fisheries. To ensure traceability through every step in the chain, Pharma Marine earned MSC Chain of Custody certification, which provides assurance that MSC certified seafood is not mixed with or substituted for non-certified seafood. MSC certification also ensures that seafood products that bear the blue MSC ecolabel can be traced back to a fishery that has been certified as sustainable and well managed against the global, science based MSC Fishery Standard.

“We congratulate Healthy Directions and Pharma Marine on the introduction of the sustainably sourced CodMarine fish oil supplement product to the U.S. market,” said Michael Griff, MSC senior commercial manager, Americas. “By looking for and choosing the blue MSC ecolabel, consumers are able to contribute to the health of the world’s oceans and safeguard seafood supplies for this and future generations.”

House science panel demands more NOAA documents on climate paper

November 5, 2015 — It’s getting hot in here. A dispute between the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) over a climate change paper published this summer is escalating. The latest salvos include a second letter from Representative Lamar Smith (R–TX) to NOAA Administrator Kathryn Sullivan seeking internal communications and documents authored by NOAA employees and a letter from the American Meteorological Society condemning Smith’s demands and warning about its implications for all federally funded research.

The quarrel began with a paper by NOAA scientists published 5 June in Science that revised historical atmosphere and ocean temperature data records found to have been poorly calibrated. In 2013 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had noted that the temperature data seemed to suggest that global warming had slowed down beginning around 1998. But the Science paper showed that apparent slowdown in global warming vanished when the data were corrected to account for various sources of bias.

That paper immediately caught Smith’s attention, triggering multiple committee requests for data and methodologies related to the study. NOAA told the committee that the findings were already publicly available and met twice with committee staff to brief them on the results.

But that response didn’t satisfy Smith. On 13 October, he subpoenaed all of NOAA’s internal emails related to the paper, asking for the information by 27 October. In response, the committee’s Democrats wrote to Smith on 23 October, noting that the subpoena “appears to be furthering a fishing expedition” and saying that it oversteps the committee’s bounds, as the paper is a research study and not a policy decision. House Republican leadership this year had given Smith the authority to issue subpoenas without the consent of the minority party.

Read the full story at Science Insider