Their feed is not natural — in the wild, tilapia would eat algae and lake plants, but the farms fatten up the fish on GMO corn and soy pellets. The amount of healthful fish oils in these creatures is almost non-existent, negating the main reason why fish is so good for us. Almost all tilapia sold in the U.S. is hormone drug treated. Did you know that the low price of tilapia is achieved by converting the young females to males through the use of the hormone drug 17alpha-methytestosterone? By having all male population allows fish farmers to produce larger fish in a short period of time.
Additionally, Farmed fish consist of more fat and less Omega-3 fatty acids due to the smaller area in which they swim, and the constant availability of food. Unlike many other fish, farm-raised tilapia contains high levels of an unhealthy kind of omega-6. It also contains less than 0.5 grams of omega-3s per 100 grams of fish.
According to one of the studies, Farm-raised tilapia contains significantly higher concentrations of PCBs, dioxin and other cancer-causing contaminants than salmon caught in the wild. Farmed fish contain higher concentrations of contaminants than wild fish largely because they are fed meal that consists of ground-up fish tainted with contaminants. Many researchers are convinced that eating farmed fish leads to an increased cancer risk due to high amounts of PCB’s the low-quality of nutrients.
