Fish consumption among young overweight European adults and compliance to varying seafood content in four weight loss intervention diets

Background: Fish is considered an important part of a healthy diet and is frequently recommended as a main course at least twice a week. Objective: To study the frequency of fish consumption among young overweight European adults and their compliance to varying seafood consumption in weight loss intervention diets. Design: After meeting the inclusion criteria, the subject's seafood intake was evaluated. Subjects were randomly assigned into four groups and were advised energy-restricted diets for 8 weeks, including no seafood (control), cod, salmon or fish oil. A validated FFQ was used to evaluate the consumption of seafood at baseline, midpoint and endpoint, and long-chain n-3 fatty acids in blood erythrocytes were measured. Setting: Iceland, Ireland and Spain. Subjects: The sample (n 324); 20-40-year-olds with BMI = 27.5-32.5 kg/m²; 85% participated. Results: At baseline, 34% of the participants reported eating fish at least twice a week as the main course. During the intervention, six participants reported that they did not finish their fish portions, 15% of the participants consumed small amount of fish additional to the study protocol in weeks 1-4 and 23% in weeks 5-8 (P = 0.010). Changes in erythrocyte long-chain n-3 fatty acids confirmed good compliance, with increases in the salmon (P < 0.001) and fish oil (P < 0.001) groups, smaller increase in the cod group (P = 0.037) and decrease in the control group (P = 0.030). Conclusion: Frequency of fish consumption among 66% of young European overweight adults is lower than frequently recommended. Compliance to varying seafood consumption was good. Therefore, including more fish in the diet of this group should be encouraged.