I'm still on a quest for guidance on the whole fish topic. The same few questions keep cycling through my head. How often should I eat fish? What kind of fish should I eat? What are the real health dangers surrounding fish consumption? I keep searching for answers. And now and then, I catch some good advice about the topic.

If you find yourself floundering at times, like me, here are seven tips you might find helpful.

• The National Academy of Sciences, the American Heart Association, and the World Health Organization all encourage regular fish consumption. Sure, there are legitimate concerns about environmental issues, but experts still say the benefits of eating a variety of fish far outweigh the risks. Eating fish protects the heart and reduces the risk for Alzheimer's disease, arthritis, strokes, depression, bipolar disorder, and our favorite topic here at this site: cancer.

However unintentional she says it has all been when it comes to the sultry and seductive persona that oozes sexuality through the television screen during her cooking shows, How to be a Domestic Goddess author Nigella Lawson has made a career out of making food sexy and the act of food consumption sensual. It is part of her not-always-so-subtle coy kitchen charm.

But if we believe her life to be as silky smooth and decadent as warm cream flowing over a morning bowl of juicy plump strawberries, and equally as charmed as she is charming, we would be mistaken. Yes, she is remarried to multi-millionaire, ad man and art dealer Charles Saatchi, but she is also the widow of journalist and writer John Diamond, who died of tongue cancer five years ago, leaving her suddenly mother and father to their two children, Cosima and Bruno.

A decade earlier, Lawson's mother had died of liver cancer. Her sister Thomasina died in her 30s of breast cancer. Cancer changes people. It is unavoidable, and the change can take many forms. For Nigella, who in the public eye has taken criticism for her ample figure and lack of concern for the fat content of food, has an almost unreasonable fear about thinness. After watching three family members waste away and die from cancer, she sees thin as a sign of illness.

"So even though I mind it when I put on weight I have a visual memory of seeing those people become skin and bone, and that gives me a slight reality check," explains Lawson. In watching her cooking show Nigella Bites, she came through as warm, down-to-earth, without a care for pretentious protocol or rules for the sake of rules. It is the way she cooks, and I get the feeling it is the way she lives. Cancer changes every person it touches and shapes perspectives about what is truly important in life. Being comfortable and enjoying yourself, including the food you eat, is a good recipe for life. A recipe Nigella seems to dish up with ease.

Nigella Lawson is Food Network's newest host in Nigella Feasts. On January 7, the theme of the show will be Feel Good Food featuring Smoked Salmon, Avocado and Pumpkin Seed Salad, a Vietnamese Prawn and Glass Noodle Salad, a colorful Antioxidant Fruit Salad, and a Syllabubbed Yogurt. Yum.

Women with advanced breast cancer were found to have lower levels of vitamin D when compared to women with early-stage breast cancer, leading researchers to conclude that vitamin D might play a role in slowing the progression of breast cancer.

Imperial College London researchers are not certain if the lower level of vitamin D found in women with advanced breast cancer is the result of the cancer, or one of the factors promoting the progression of the breast cancer, only that there appears to be a connection.

This adds to the body of knowledge that women living in northern climates, where there is less year-round sun exposure, are more prone to developing breast cancer.

One of the natural ways to get vitamin D is from exposure to sunlight. Also, women can get vitamin D from fortified milk and dairy products, cod liver oil and fatty fish, such as salmon. Previous research has indicated that vitamin D might play a role in the prevention in a number of cancers. For related information into research conclusions regarding vitamin D:

• Fatty fish offers women cancer prevention
• Vitamin D: supplement aids in reducing risk of cancer
• Vitamin D: lack of summer sun increases risk for 16 cancers

Women who include fatty fish -- salmon; herring; mackerel; lake trout; sardines; albacore tuna and seafood such as prawns, lobster, crayfish -- more than once a week into their diet significantly decrease the risk of developing kidney cancer, according to Karolinska Institutet researchers.

This is the conclusion of a 15 year study of 61,433 women who reported their eating habits of including fatty fish versus leaner fish. Fish classified as leaner fish are cod; haddock; hake; pollock; sole; turbot; dogfish and shark.

Lean fish does not appear to offer any cancer prevention benefit. However, fatty fish offers high levels of omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin D, which are considered important in functional food cancer prevention.

While this study focused on women partipants, it makes common sense that including fatty fish in more than one meal a week would benefit men and children as well. The study will be published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The abstract, Long-term Fatty Fish Consumption and Renal Cell Carcinoma Incidence in Women, is available now.

University of South Australia researchers have good news for people trying to lose weight, or maintain a healthy weight, in improving their health and reducing their risks for diseases like cancer. With no other lifestyle changes, taking omega-3 fish oil supplements and engaging in moderate exercise helped people struggling with weight issues -- who are overweight or obese -- effectively burn off extra pounds.

The researchers used tuna oil and sunflower oil in the study, and compared the effects of the two oils with exercise to weight loss results. The participants engaged in exercise that is considered moderate exercise -- walking or running for 45 minutes -- three times a week for three months and were given either tuna fish oil or sunflower oil. The participants who were given tuna fish oil lost weight faster.

The researchers believe that fish oil, which is rich in omega-3, helps the body burn fat, and estimates that most people do not get enough omega-3 in their daily diet. Omega-3 is also found in wild salmon, flaxseed, and certain nuts and seeds.

In the second part of the two-part exclusive interview with ABC's Good Morning America Diane Sawyer, Sheryl Crow shares she is cancer-free and feeling great as a breast cancer survivor. The diagnosis of breast cancer came as a surprise as she is not a smoker and has no family history of the disease. She received enormous support from her family and friends during treatment, whom she refers to as "this incredible tribe of women." Before Dana Reeve died of lung cancer, she gave Crow advice on dealing with the emotional aspects of being a newly-diagnosed cancer patient and dealing with the recent separation from Lance Armstrong by telling her that the only way to go through grief was to grieve.

Crow talked about meditating and changing her diet. "I kind of went into a full-on Eskimo diet, where I ate a lot of salmon. In fact, I'm salmoned out of my brains ... and really green vegetables, just eating really clean, organic food. Listen, I haven't had a doughnut in I can't remember when."

Breast cancer forced Crow into an introspective place of self-realization in facing and overcoming fears -- and the wisdom that comes with that when she said she tried to at least address her fears and not be overcome by them. "The fear of things not always working out. You come to a point in your life where you realize it's not my job to prove to my parents or to my record label or to the world or to my lover that I matter. The fact is that you matter."

"It's not a good place to be concerned with always being right with everybody, always pleasing people, because ultimately you wind up betraying yourself a lot."

Crow shared that she sees her breast cancer diagnosis and being a cancer survivor as part of life's deepening experiences where obstacles are removed and opportunities come in.

Last Friday night, Crow joined the Dave Matthews Band in a concert at Fenway Park. But before she went onstage -- in part of giving back as a cancer survivor --  she made an unannounced surprise visit to Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to visit children with cancer at the Jimmy Fund Clinic.

The term Omega-3 has become well known in recent years with studies that this healthy fat found in fish and most other seafood can reduce the risk of cancer, and particularly prostate and breast cancer. Consumption of fish has been shown to have cardiovascular health benefits like reducing triglycerides and reducing the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Vicki's Broiled Lime Cilantro Salmon
1 whole side Salmon fillet, 3/4" thick 
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lime juice
1/4 cup fresh chopped cilantro
2 garlic cloves minced
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 lime sliced thinly

Combine cilantro, garlic, lime juice, and salt in bowl and mix well. Place fish on a plate or platter skin side down if the skin is still on, and pour mixture over fish. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator for 1 hour. Spray non-stick cooking oil on broiler pan and place fish on pan. Place lime slices around on top of the fish. Place in oven about 12 inches from the heat and broil for about 6 minutes. Keep an eye on it as it broils because all ovens heat differently. Take fish out of oven and let stand for 3 to 4 minutes as fish will continue to cook on its own with the heat already in it.  Slice and serve.

Another option is you can grill the salmon with this same recipe but grill covered for about 4 to 5 minutes.

Consumer Reports has completed a review of the FDA testing on mercury levels found in canned tuna and issued new safety concerns. While the focus is on a clear alert for pregnant women and the damage mercury-contaminated tuna can cause to a developing fetus, mercury is also known to have an adverse effect on the immune system of adults. For anyone interested in cancer prevention, a healthy immune system is a vital first-line defense to keeping cancer from developing in the first place. Mercury, once consumed, can stay in the body for years.

Because of the new information provided by Consumer Reports regarding the dangers of canned tuna, and because fish is an excellent cancer prevention food, here is a list of fish that have shown consistently low-levels of mercury during testing and are safe to eat daily. Wild salmon and tilapia can be safely eaten every day. Flounder, sole, mullet, Atlantic mackerel and crab can be safely eaten once a week. In addition, Consumer Reports found fish-oil supplements to be a safe, reliable way to get omega-3 fatty acids. You can check state agencies and the Environmental Protection Agency advisories for contaminant levels of fish caught where you live here.

Over the last two decades, the growing awareness about nutrition and the fact that all foods are not the same when it comes to good health, has spurred the trend of consumers demanding more food value for money spent. Companies vying for those dollars have been paying attention, according to a top ten list of functional foods published in an issue of Food Technology magazine. According to the Institute of Food Technologists, a nonprofit group that promotes sound science in the discussion of food issues, functional foods are foods or food components that provide a health benefit beyond basic nutrition.

Five of the ten functional food trends are:

• Food for kids that are lower in fat, calories, sodium and sugar and higher the nutrients.
• Organic foods that are grown without pesticides or cancer-causing toxic chemicals.
• Phytochemicals that provide the antioxidants known to lower the risks of cancer.
• Good fats in the way of healthier oils, like olive oil, that provide cancer prevention benefit. Foods that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, like salmon.
• Small portions of food such as the 100-calorie snack.
  

Basically, the trends in what consumers want, and what the market is beginning to offer to meet that demand, are foods that provide good nutrition, taste good and are fun. To read more about functional food trends, go here.

Celebrity Naked Chef Jamie Oliver, on a quest to transform the eating habits of school children, appeared on NBC's Today Show with Katie Couric this morning to share fun healthy recipes and tips on how to encourage children to eat healthy. Oliver suggested involving your children in meal preparation, from planning the menu -- to visiting the fishmonger in selecting fish for dinner -- to preparing the meal. In the spring cooking school episode, Fake out your family with these healthy dishes, showed Oliver preparing Summer Pan-Baked Salmon that children would not turn down. NBC features the salmon recipe, as well as several others, for viewers online.

In addition, Oliver hosts Jamie's School Lunch Project, which airs on The Learning Channel. This television series covers a range of issues, from diet and obesity, behavior, nutritional standards, food education -- to the need for a clear government policy on school meals and children's diets. I cannot imagine a better long-term cancer prevention plan than teaching children how to eat healthy when they are young. Oliver makes it easy and fun. TLC hosts an online feature of Oliver's show, with tips, recipes and advice. To learn more about Oliver's projects, programs and where to find his blog, go here.