ABSTRACT
It takes usually long before we, as individuals and as the humanity, realize that what God has communicated to us in the Holy Scriptures serves our welfare. We should have realized long before that the Œsh are a particular food, as 2000 years ago it was the Œsh and bread that were multiplied by Jesus to feed the hungry. The Œsh are a good, low-energy source of easily digestible proteins; vitamins A, D, and B; calcium; phosphorus; and rare microelements (iodine, selenium, and ºuorine), but it is lipids that make the Œsh a particularly healthy food. Fish lipids contain the long chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC n-3 PUFA): eicosapentaenoic acid 20:5(n-3) (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid 22:6(n-3) (DHA), which are physiologically and psychologically beneŒcial by directly affecting human health, but also by affecting gene activity. They are also necessary for the human fetus to develop. Crawford et al. (1999) are even of the opinion that reduced contribution of those fatty acids in the diet could have been involved in slowing down the civilizational progress of peoples migrating inland. Thus, when talking about functional properties of Œsh lipids, we mean-like in other food lipids discussed in this book-the role of lipids in controlling and shaping desirable and undesirable food properties as well as the functionality as scientiŒcally documented beneŒcial health effect. In addition to the health claim in terms of heart disease, there is a pool of evidence indicating reduced risk of other diseases (immune deŒciencies, allergies, and tumors) as well as beneŒcial effects on mental health (e.g., stress reduction, therapeutic effects in depressions).
