Eating seafood regularly can help lower blood lipids and prevent cardiovascular disease.

It's beneficial to eat seafood regularly: Fish is easily digestible, flavorful, and tender. It's high in protein and significantly lower in fat than meat, making fish dishes very popular. Besides its taste, fish, whether freshwater or saltwater, generally has low cholesterol content. Furthermore, the fatty acid composition of fish oil is unique, with longer carbon chains than vegetable oils, and more double bonds. Two special fatty acids have been found in fish oil: eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which have anticoagulant and anti-thrombotic effects. Their cholesterol-lowering effect is much stronger than that of vegetable oils. These special fatty acids are found in higher amounts in saltwater fish than freshwater fish, such as mackerel, sardines, and saury.

Medical research has shown that regularly eating fish, especially saltwater fish, can help prevent hyperlipidemia and coronary heart disease. The incidence of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease is highest among residents of Europe and the Americas, lowest among Japanese people in Asia, and virtually nonexistent among the Inuit people of the Arctic. The biggest difference compared to residents of Europe and America is their diet, which emphasizes seafood. Europeans and Americans consume an average of 20 grams of fish daily, Japanese 100 grams, and Inuit 400 grams. The Inuit people living in the Arctic, whose ancestors relied on fishing and hunting, regularly consumed large quantities of raw seafood. They have significantly higher levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) in their blood, which are known to combat atherosclerosis. Their incidence of hyperlipidemia, coronary heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes is also relatively low.

Coincidentally, domestic data reports that a coronary heart disease survey in my country also shows that the prevalence of coronary heart disease among fishermen in the Zhoushan Islands is the lowest in the country. Therefore, people with hyperlipidemia should eat fish regularly, especially various kinds of sea fish—this can indeed reduce and prevent the occurrence of coronary heart disease.