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.