Seafood and Women: a Healthy Relationship

To raise awareness among women that prevention of heart disease should be a top priority—and to promote the heart-health benefits of seafood consumption—Seafood Nutrition Partnership is collaborating with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) program The Heart Truth and Sister to Sister: The Women’s Heart Health Foundation on a public service message that launches nationally February 7, 2014. The message, titled “Eat Seafood Twice a Week for Heart Health,” is timed to coincide with American Heart Month in February, and in particular National Wear Red Day on February 7, when people across the United States wear red to call attention to women’s heart health. “With statistics showing that heart disease is the Number one killer of women, and with multiple scientific studies concluding that eating at least two servings per week of a variety of seafood is associated with fewer deaths from heart disease, we believe this message is very timely,” says Linda Cornish, executive director of the nonprofit organization Seafood Nutrition Partnership (SNP). “Together with our heart-health partners we’re looking to raise awareness in local markets about heart disease and help lead women on the path to prevention.” The full-page message will appear within the Heart Health Matters magazine insert from the American Heart Association (AHA), in 10 newspapers representing major metro areas with populations at high risk for heart disease, and a message will also appear on Heart.org and at SeafoodNutrition.org/heart. This initiative from SNP is part of The Heart Truth, a national campaign raising awareness among women about their risk of heart disease. The campaign is sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) at NIH, in partnership with The Office on Women’s Health (OWH) and other organizations committed to the health and well-being of women. “We highly value partners like SNP that help elevate our message of women’s health issues and heart health in particular,” says Ann Taubenheim, chief, Health Campaigns & Consumer Services Office of Communications, for NHLBI. The program is also supported by Sister to Sister: The Women’s Heart Health Foundation (STS), a nonprofit dedicated to women’s heart disease prevention and education. “Our mission is to help women make simple lifestyle changes to improve their heart health, and eating seafood twice a week is certainly a big part of that,” says Susan Gurley, executive director of STS. “We’re thrilled to be working with SNP to get this important message out.”