Postmenopausal women who consume more broiled or baked fish are less likely to develop heart failure risk than women who consume more fried fish rather than broiled or baked fish, a recent study has claimed. The study findings have shown that postmenopausal women who ate five or more than five servings of broiled or baked fish a week were 30 per cent less likely to develop cardiovascular diseases or heart failure risk than women who ate only one or less serving of broiled or baked fish a month.

Researchers have further suggested that not just the amount of fish consumption or the methods of cooking but also the type of fish influences heart failure risk. According to them dark fishes like mackerel, salmon and bluefish are better for heart (and therefore cut down heart failure risk) than tuna and white fishes like cod, snapper and sole.

The researchers found that consumption of fried fish so harmful to heart that even a single serving a week boosts up 48 per cent more chances of heart failure risk. The senior author of the study, namely Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones has mentioned that it is not always the type of fish we are eating but the method how we are cooking the fish actually matters.  According to him in the process of frying fish we not only lose some of the valuable health benefits of fish but also add some unsafe contents to the food.

In the Women`s Health Initiative Observational Study Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones and his colleagues collected dietary data from 84,493 postmenopausal women. After analyzing the data they made group on the basis of the type and the frequency of consumed fish. The first group was the broiled or baked fish group which contained baked or broiled white fish, baked or broiled dark fish, shellfish, tuna salad, canned tuna and tuna casserole and the second group was the fried fish group which contained fried shellfish, fried fish and fish sandwich.

After the study the researchers found that the participants who ate more broiled or baked fish than fried fish showed a tendency to be healthier and younger than the participants who ate more fried fish. The former reported to have normal blood pressure, normal diabetes and less heart diseases risk.

The study has been published in the journal Circulation: Heart Failure.