Oily fish ‘helps reduce heart disease risk’

People can reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease by adopting a healthy diet that includes lots of oily fish, Heart UK has claimed.

Linda Main, dietetic advisor for the charity, said that high blood cholesterol is the greatest risk factor for coronary heart disease and that this can be influenced by both exercise and diet.

“Regular physical activity is essential for maintaining cardiovascular fitness and for achieving and maintaining a healthy weight,” she said.

Ms Main went on to recommend people eat a diet that is low in saturated fat and salt but rich in whole grains, fruit, vegetables, beans, peas, pulses, nuts and fish.

Her comments follow the recent publication of research partly funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, which discovered a large set of genes that can cause high cholesterol and triglyceride.

The study involved scanning the genomes of more than 100,000 people from all over the world.

Have you had your cholesterol checked recently?