If fish isn’t already a regular part of your diet, do your heart a favor and try a serving once a week, preferably twice. The benefits come from omega-3 fatty acids. While fish oil supplements are popular, the American Heart Association does not consider them a sufficient replacement for eating fish. The full benefits of a fish-friendly diet are difficult to quantify, but there is plenty of evidence that people who eat fish regularly are less likely to have cardiovascular disease. “When we talk about the advantages of eating fish, we’re talking about over the long term – which comes from eating it twice a week," said Alice Lichtenstein, D.Sc., former chair of the American Heart Association's Nutrition Committee and Gershoff professor of nutrition science and policy at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, at Tufts University in Boston. Plus, Dr. Lichtenstein said, there’s also the simple fact that whenever you eat fish, you are cutting something else from your diet, particularly other protein sources that may be less healthy and higher in saturated fats.