is one fish that I recommend staying away from. It seems to cause symptoms in patients for different reasons than sometimes salmon can. Salmon, can cause some frequency in those that are prone to frequency because of the high amount of essential fatty acids in it, whereas, tilapia does not contain high amounts of EFAs.

Even though EFAs are important to good health, often they can cause frequency. I do often use EFAs in patients, but, they need to be used in the right person at the right time as well as derived from the proper source.

There is much more to the story behind Tilapia however. Tilapia is a fish that is growing in popularity due to its tastiness. Over time, I have found this fish to cause a lot of symptoms in patients and have not understood why.

Recently, I came across an article that brought many potential issues with this fish to the surface for me. This article by Bruce Einhorn brings attention to the fact that tilapia is fed soy and corn as its primary food. This is a big problem for those having IC who are consuming it, as these are two foods, especially the soy that are problematic. If people having IC are consuming an animal having been fed high amounts of such food, it may in turn, cause many symptoms in that person. Eggs that are high in omegas for example create the same problem owing to high amounts of flax seeds fed to those chickens. What is more troubling is in part of this article, it suggests that when the tilapia grown in China are young, they are fed animal manure! And complicating matters further, tilapia coming from China (I am unaware of Tilapia coming from other origins) is packaged with carbon monoxide to retain its natural color. 

These may all be reasons why Tilapia causes a host of problems in patients consuming them.

So, when thinking of fish-don't choose tilapia. 

Dr.B