Small Fish Diet: New Japanese Study Unlocks Simple Secret To Living Longer

(Photo : Getty Images/RICHARD A. BROOKS)

A new study says Japanese women who eat small fish whole had a lower risk of dying from cancer and other causes.

Small Fish

The study, which was carried out at Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan by Dr. Chinatsu Kasahara, Associate Professor Takashi Tamura, and Professor Kenji Wakai, emphasizes the possible advantages of regularly consuming little fish that may prolong one's life.

Small fish like whitebait, Atlantic capelin, Japanese smelt, and small dried sardines are commonly consumed by the Japanese people. Crucially, it's normal to eat little fish whole, including the bones, organs, and head. These parts are full of micronutrients like calcium and vitamin A.

The primary researcher, Dr. Kasahara, said that consuming fish has been shown to have a protective effect on health outcomes, including mortality risks however she noted that not many studies have particularly examined how eating little fish affects health outcomes.

The research team looked into the relationship between Japanese people's risk of mortality and their consumption of tiny fish. In total, 80,802 people from all around Japan-34,555 men and 46,247 women-between the ages of 35 and 69 were involved in the study.

Cancer Type

A meal frequency questionnaire was used to gauge the participants' intake of tiny fish on a baseline basis. They were monitored by the researchers for nine years on average. 2,482 fatalities of research participants were documented over the follow-up period, with 1,495 (or around 60%) of those deaths being due to cancer.

The study's most startling conclusion was that women who regularly consume tiny fish had a substantially lower risk of cancer and all cause mortality. In comparison to women who rarely eat small fish, those who ate it 1-3 times per month, 1-2 times per week, or 3 times or more per week had 0.68, 0.72, and 0.69 times the risk of all-cause mortality and 0.72, 0.71, and 0.64 times the risk of cancer mortality.

When the researchers adjusted for variables that can impact mortality risk, like age, BMI, smoking and alcohol consumption patterns, and the consumption of different nutrients and foods, they discovered that women in the study who regularly consumed small fish had a lower chance of dying from any cause.

These results imply that a straightforward yet efficient method to lower the risk of death in women may be to include tiny fish in their regular diet.

Though not statistically significant, the trend in men's risk of all-cause and cancer mortality was similar to that of women. Although the reasons for the lack of significance in men are yet unknown, the researchers speculate that other factors, including the portion size of little fish, or the small number of male subjects may have played a role.

The researchers hypothesize that there may be a sex-specific link between the variation in the cancer type that causes cancer mortality in the two sexes.

"Nutrients and physiologically active substances unique to small fish could contribute to maintaining good health. The inverse relationship between the intake of small fish and the mortality risk in women underscores the importance of these nutrient-dense foods in people's diets," said Dr. Kasahara.