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Educate Your Customers: Seafood Fights Hypertension More Efficiently than Diet and Exercise

As a business that sells or serves seafood, you certainly have no shortage of qualities to boast about to your clients. They can choose from a myriad of fish and shellfish options that are both nutritious and delicious. Seafood is packed with omega-3 fatty acids, that good fat that has gathered quite a lot of attention over the last few years for it’s tremendous health benefits. Research is continuously unraveling the benefits of omega-3s and exciting results are being found all the time.

The newest bit of news to reach our knowledge is that omega-3s may be even better for our circulatory system that previously thought. For years, we’ve been telling our clients that seafood is good for the heart. They lower triglycerides, reduce blood clotting, and lower the risk of heart failure. A new study funded by the Organization for EPA and DHA Omega-3s tells us that increasing consumption of omega-3 fatty acids from seafood may decrease our risk for hypertension even more than regular exercise or other dieting.

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Eating seafood may be more effective at combating hypertension than diet and exercise.
Image courtesy of Flickr user Larry Hoffman.

Now this is not saying that the average American should simply stop exercising and eating healthy, and just eat loads of fish – even though we might be tempted to do so! Rather it gives those of us with high blood pressure or risk for hypertension incentive to increase our seafood consumption. An increase in natural omega-3 sources along with a healthy diet and exercise would have an even greater effect than any of these three things alone. If the seafood industry increases consumer awareness of this new research, more people would probably seek out healthy fish and shellfish options. We encourage you to educate your clients on the omega-3 facts of seafood.

Quick and dirty facts

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cite that 67 million adults in the United States have high blood pressure – that’s one in every three Americans. Health care services, medications, and missed workdays wrack up nearly $50 billion per year. One thousand deaths each day can be attributed at least partly to hypertension. It increases the risk for heart attacks, heart failure, stroke, and kidney disease. The sad part is that hypertension is (in many cases) entirely preventable.

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Millions of Americans could lower their blood pressure simply by eating more seafood.
Image courtesy of Flickr user Chiara Mattirolo, USAG Livorno Public Affairs.

As we grow older, it’s a fact of life that our diet and activity levels will catch up with us. If we don’t want to spend our later years taking hypertension pills, doctors tell us that diet and exercise are key. Now this new research has discovered that consuming EPA and DHA can reduce our blood pressure twice as much as reducing sodium, more than twice as much as increasing physical activity, and more than four times as much as reducing consumption of alcohol. These are amazing numbers – simply by including more fish and shellfish into a diet, we can efficiently combat hypertension!

Seafood fights high blood pressure

Fish oil supplements offer a host of benefits for consumers. But consuming fresh seafood is the best option to allow our bodies to fully absorb EPA and DHA omega-3 fatty acids. Fish and shellfish contain a perfect blend of vitamins, minerals, and oils that facilitate the passage of omega-3s into our system. Supplements lack these extra pieces of the puzzle and our bodies don’t absorb the omega-3s quite as efficiently.

We can reduce our high blood pressure simply by eating a delicious, omega-3 rich dinner of salmon, herring, or other fatty fish 2-3 times per week. For those of us who are in a prehypertension stage, we can perhaps avoid ever having to take medication for hypertension. For people who are already taking hypertension meds, this is maybe the opportunity to ease their way off of them. We no longer have to suffer from side effects of high blood pressure medication, and our overall quality of life improves.

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Be sure to educate your clients on the health benefits of delicious seafood!
Image courtesy of Flickr user Dennis Wong.

It doesn’t have to be a chore!

When we receive the news that we have hypertension, the initial emotion is fear. Suddenly we begin to think that a heart attack or stroke might be just around the corner. We are all too eager to sign up for medication and hope it works. But the road back to having normal blood pressure doesn’t have to be a stressful struggle. Rather, it is an opportunity to reevaluate our lifestyle. We now have an even better excuse to purchase and consume fresh seafood from our favorite markets and restaurants. Every single seafood-based meal helps fight hypertension and brings us one step closer to living without medication. Educate your diners on the benefits of seafood, and they will gladly come back time and again for delicious and healthy meals.

Happy and healthy

With regular consultation from a doctor, consumers can work to eliminate hypertension altogether and lead a longer, happier life. It’s an excellent selling point for seafood, don’t you think? Encourage your clients to buy seafood for health and happiness, not just because it tastes good. Buy your omega-3 rich seafood from a trusted distributor such as Pucci Foods.

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