It’s World Heart Day – here’s how seafood can help you heart

World Heart Day is celebrated every year on 29 September and every year has a different focus, but the key message is always the same: look after your heart to help drive down cardiovascular disease, which remains the number one cause of death around the world.

This year’s campaign focuses on finding new and innovative ways to connect people to heart health and ensure everyone, no matter who or where they are, has the information they need about how best to look after their heart. We couldn’t agree more that this is important, which is why we always use this important day as an opportunity to remind people of the many health benefits of regularly eating seafood.

The American Heart Association (AHA) has found that coronary heart disease is 90% preventable with proper diet and exercise. This is why AHA is one of many organisations that specifically recommend the regular eating of fish and shellfish – ideally at least twice a week. Another benefit of seafood is that it can be a useful replacement for red meat. If you want to cut down on your red meat intake but are struggling, replacing it with fish could be a way of still getting your protein fix while also giving your heart a helping hand.

We understand cooking seafood can be a little intimidating and many people only treat themselves to fish when they’re at a restaurant. But there’s no reason to deny yourself the enjoyment and benefits of seafood – if you’re stuck for inspiration, why not take a look at our recipe pages for some ideas?

Good for my heart, good for the environment?

But there’s another aspect to eating more seafood that’s equally as important and can also seem daunting to navigate – how do you know where your seafood came from and whether it was produced responsibly?

Eating more seafood for your long-term health is a fantastic idea, but not if it’s going to cost the long-term health of the planet’s ecosystems and biodiversity, or the wellbeing of the workers and communities producing the seafood. That’s why at ASC we make it easy for conscientious consumers to know what they’re eating.

Only farms that minimise their environmental and social impacts can become ASC certified – and to demonstrate this they must undergo extensive audits, which reoccur on an annual basis. Farms don’t just have to make sure environmental issues like water quality, medicine use, and biodiversity, are managed responsibly – they also have to pay and treat their workers fairly, and be conscientious neighbours to local communities.

So this World Heart Day, treat yourself, and your heart, to some healthy seafood – and look for the ASC logo to make sure you’re rewarding responsible farmers and encouraging other farmers to follow suit.