A recent study suggests that while eating fish is generally believed to be healthy, the way you prepare it may actually have adverse effects to just how healthy your dish is.

The study, led by Lixin Meng, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Hawaii, says that boiled and baked fish has better health benefits than the salted, fried or dried alternatives. Not only that, but the latter may actually contribute more to your health risks, rather than help.

While it is widely accepted that the intake of Omega-3, a group of fatty acids commonly present in fish, reduces the risk of heart disease, little is known how and why exactly. Meng’s study attempts to shed more light to how Omega-3 interacts with the body, and which of the Omega-3 acids are most helpful.

The study, which consisted of 82,243 men and 103,884 women of mixed descent and ethnicity, confirms the benefits of Omega-3. Eating about 3.3 grams of Omega-3 a day showed an approximately 23% lower risk of cardiac death than those who eat only 0.8 grams a day among men. Amongst women however, while Omega-3 intake is certainly healthy, there was no significant difference in improvement depending on how much of it you actually eat.

Eating fish that was salted or dried is a risk factor for women in the study. Additionally, the study shows that eating fish with soy sauce or teriyaki sauce can be harmful for men, but minimal amounts can actually help lower the chances of heart disease. Women, however, benefit most from soy sauce and teriyaki: the more you eat, the less chances of cardiac death.

“My guess is that, for women, eating Omega-3s from [soy sauce] and tofu that contain other active ingredients such as phytoestrogens, might have a stronger cardioprotective effect than eating just Omega-3s,” says Meng.

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