Before tucking in to your next dish of yabbies, oysters, orange roughy or salmon, you might like to ponder their relative health benefits. And in terms of oil content and composition, not all seafoods are equal. In seafood, oils are the second largest component after protein. The most important oils are triglycerides, which serve as an energy store, and polar oils and cholesterol which are structural components of cell membranes.
Cholesterol is a factor in heart disease and other disorders when in dietary excess.
The main components of the oils are saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. These fatty acids are essential in the diet, as our bodies can only make them in small amounts. Omega-3 oils are active against coronary heart disease, high blood pressure and rheumatoid arthritis. The Marine Research study found levels of oil components in seafood to vary with species and location. Fishes from warmer waters and with specific diets generally have higher AA levels than those in temperate waters, most Australian fishes have higher relative levels of DHA than fishes in northern hemisphere waters, and prawns have lower levels of omega-3 and higher levels of cholesterol compared with fishes.