Former Scottish Olympian advocates eating salmon for health benefits

Former Scottish Olympian Liz McColgan advocates eating salmon for its health benefits in The Daily Record yesterday.

In a two-page spread in a healthy eating supplement, eat4life, in Scotland's largest selling tabloid newspaper, Liz McColgan explains how eating oil-rich fish such as salmon twice a week helped her overcome asthma, suggesting: “high doses of omega oils practically cured it.”

Diagnosed with asthma during the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, the article explains: “After four months of eating oily fish twice a week, Liz’s asthmatic symptoms – the tight chest and wheezing – had disappeared. Twelve years on, she still sticks to her seafood regime and has never felt better…”.

Liz McColgan also makes sure that her four kids eat oil-rich fish at least once a week. “I try and give the children as varied a diet as possible. Kids being kids, it can sometimes be difficult to persuade them to eat healthy food. But it’s not hard to make a nice piece of fresh fish into something tasty for the whole family.”

She added: “I prefer salmon, which I tend to poach, steam or microwave… I wasn’t brought up on good food but those were the days when people weren’t as aware as they are now. So I want to make sure my children benefit from what we now know about food.”

The Food Standards Agency recommends that men, boys and women past child-bearing age can eat up to four portions of oil-rich fish a week; women not intending to have children can eat up to four portions a week; girls and women who may become pregnant at some point in their lives can eat up to two portions a week, and; pregnant and breast-feeding women can eat up to two portions a week.

Notes to Editors:

1. Researchers in Australia recently claimed that an increased intake of omega-3 fatty acids might help prevent allergies and asthma in children (in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology). The researchers examined the effect of dietary supplementation with omega-3 fatty acids and avoidance of house dust mite allergen in 526 children with a family history of asthma. The subjects were registered before birth and were followed to three years of age.

2. Scottish Quality Salmon is dedicated to improving the quality and sustainability of salmon farming in Scotland – from feed companies through to salmon smokers and processors – the whole production chain. Membership now represents 65% of the tonnage produced by the Scottish salmon farming industry.

3. Scottish Quality Salmon was the first fish and first non-French product to obtain the prestigious Label Rouge back in 1992. Twelve years later it remains the only non-French food to meet the quality scheme’s rigorous standards.

END 10th November 2004

For further information contact either:
Ken Hughes, Communications Executive, Scottish Quality Salmon, +44 (0)1738 587000 or 07974 173739
Julie Edgar, Communications Director, Scottish Quality Salmon, +44 (0)1738 587000 or 07899 875151

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