It would appear that Dr. Oz is at it again… and so are we. Have a look at our latest letter:

August 18, 2010

Mr. Glenn Mott

Managing Editor and Director of Publishing

King Features

300 West 57th Street 15th Floor

New York, NY 10019-5238

Dear Mr. Mott,

I am writing you again to request corrections to two errors concerning fish and nutrition that were made in a recent column written by Drs. Oz and Roizen. You can read our original letter to you by clicking here.

The National Fisheries Institute is not the only organization questioning Drs. Oz and Roizen’s nutrition advice. TheTufts University Health & Nutrition Letter in a recent article “Nutrition in the news: time for a reality check” pointed out the same inaccuracies in a larger story about frequently misreported food facts:

• Drs. Oz and Roizen wrote that flaxseed, walnuts and even hemp are good sources of omega-3 fatty acids. But the Tufts article points out that the type of omega-3s found in those plants is not the same as the more powerfully beneficial kind found in fish. The human body cannot efficiently convert omega-3s found in plants to the kind from fish.

• According to Tufts, the same article also said that people concerned with toxins in fish should consider algae. Tufts correctly points out that an Institute of Medicine expert panel has already concluded that the benefits of fish outweigh the risks, which means there is no nutrition reason for consumers to opt for algae to get their omega-3s. Says Tufts: “Besides, you’re unlikely to make dinner from a plateful of algae; one of the many advantages of eating more fish is that it takes the place of less-healthy protein sources in your diet.”

While you might dismiss an appeal from the seafood community as parochial, can you dismiss errors pointed out by one of the preeminent nutrition schools in the country? In both of the above cases, your readers would be better served if you shared this information with them in a correction appended to a future column.

Until the record is corrected, the National Fisheries Institute intends to share evidence of these errors with the public and the press as we have in the past.

Sincerely,

Gavin Gibbons

National Fisheries Institute