White and Pink Fish and Allergy Risks

Featuring Andy De Santis, RD, MPH, Registered Dietician

Duration: 1 minute, 03 seconds

Allergies to finned fish like tuna, halibut and salmon are among the top 9 most common food allergies.

Fish allergy is more likely to occur in adults than children and involves an immune response to specific proteins found in finned fish.

Symptoms can vary in severity from nausea, hives and headaches to anaphylaxis which is not necessarily common with this type of allergy.

From the nutrition perspective there are two families of widely available fish – fatty fish and white fish.

White fish refers to things like cod, tilapia and haddock whereas fatty fish refers to salmon, trout, sardines, mackerel and herring.

While white fish are leaner and lower in calories, fatty fish tend to contain larger amounts of vitamin D3 and the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA.

In fact, fatty fish are pretty much the only food that contains meaningful amounts of these important nutrients which most people in North America do not get enough of.

Presenter: Andy De Santis, Registered Dietitian, Toronto, ON

Local Practitioners: Registered Dietitian