Growing up in Sardinia, fish on a Friday had nothing to do with a diet or religion. It was because the fisherman had been out that night, and what he brought in was fresh. That was the whole plan.
Nobody in my family talked about omega-3. We ate what was fresh, simply cooked, and we ate it together.
Now that I work in nutrition, I can tell you the science mostly agrees with my mother’s kitchen. Oily fish such as sardines, mackerel and salmon are a good source of the omega-3 fats EPA and DHA. UK guidance is two portions of fish a week, with one of them oily. A portion is about 140g cooked, roughly the size of your hand. People who eat fish regularly tend to have lower rates of heart disease, though I should be honest that this comes from observational studies, so it shows a link rather than proof.
I also want to correct something you may have seen. Headlines in 2025 said a large trial had found that supplements slowed biological ageing. When I looked into it, the benefit was linked to vitamin D, and omega-3 did not show the same effect. So I won’t tell you that fish “slows ageing”. It is a good food for your heart and brain, and I’d leave it at that.
It is also food more than capsules. The research on fish oil supplements for the heart is much less convincing than the research on eating fish. I would always spend that money on a good tin of sardines instead.
Here is what I would do:
- Aim for one oily fish meal a week and one other fish meal, as the guidance says.
- Buy tinned sardines or mackerel in brine and add olive oil. They are cheap, last for months, and are very good on sourdough with some wild greens.
- If you can, buy fish the way we did, fresh and local, and cook it simply with olive oil, lemon and herbs.
- Eat it with other people. In my experience the table matters as much as the plate.
- Not sure how much fish you are really eating, or how to fit it into a week? Get in touch and we’ll look at your plate together and build a plan that works for you.
Prevention rather than cure.
Milvia Pili
Functional Nutritional Therapist
