Tilapia, the wildly popular farm-raised fish might be a threat for your heart because it contains high levels of unhealthy omega-6 fatty acids and low levels of healthy omega-3 fatty acids.

New research suggests that tilapia is more harmful for heart disease patients, patients who suffer from arthritis, asthma and other diseases involving overactive inflammatory responses.

“If you’re in a vulnerable population such as a heart disease patient, you need to be very careful with what you're eating, and that includes everything,” said senior study author Dr. Floyd H. Chilton, director of Wake Forest Center for Botanical Lipids, in Winston-Salem, N.C. “But when it comes to fish, there’s not a more important thing you can do for heart disease than eat the right type of fish or take dietary fish oil. There is evidence that you may harm yourself by eating the wrong kind of fish, and [farmed] tilapia and catfish are the two that fall into that category.”

The study, published in the July issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, used gas chromatography to analyze the fatty acid composition of 30 widely consumed farmed and wild fish. The analysis showed that farm-raised Tilapia and Catfish had relatively poor concentrations of “good” omega-3 fatty acids compared to the “bad” omega-6 fatty acids.

For people with heart disease, it is recommended that they eat cold-water fish such as salmon, rainbow trout, sardines, tuna and anchovies, all of which have healthy fats.

The American Heart Association recommends eating two servings of fish a week, preferably wild salmon, which has high levels of omega-3s and is an excellent source of protein.