Fatty fish offers women cancer prevention

Women who include fatty fish -- salmon; herring; mackerel; lake trout; sardines; albacore tuna and seafood such as prawns, lobster, crayfish -- more than once a week into their diet significantly decrease the risk of developing kidney cancer, according to Karolinska Institutet researchers.

This is the conclusion of a 15 year study of 61,433 women who reported their eating habits of including fatty fish versus leaner fish. Fish classified as leaner fish are cod; haddock; hake; pollock; sole; turbot; dogfish and shark.

Lean fish does not appear to offer any cancer prevention benefit. However, fatty fish offers high levels of omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin D, which are considered important in functional food cancer prevention.

While this study focused on women partipants, it makes common sense that including fatty fish in more than one meal a week would benefit men and children as well. The study will be published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The abstract, Long-term Fatty Fish Consumption and Renal Cell Carcinoma Incidence in Women, is available now.