I am a big seafood fan. My three kids, my husband, and I would be happy and content to eat little else but fish, shrimp, mussels, clams, oysters, squid…you name it. If it lives in the ocean, chances are we LOVE it. One of my big favorites is salmon but not all salmon is created equal so there is one type of slamon, incidentally the same one you will most likely see in conventional grocery stores, that I will not eat…farmed salmon.
In the book The Healthiest Kid, Dr. Sears talks about why farmed salmon is less healthy than wild caught salmon. He brings to light that farmed salmon has little room to grow and move about like a fish normally would. Farmed salmon are also fed concentrated pellets of food that contain fish and what would be considered fish junkfood. It is not nealry as healthy or as rich in omega3 fatty acid than wild caught salmon is. This is abundantly clear in the color of the fish you see at the fish counter. Farmed salmon is pale and sickly looking despite the fact that it most likely has had articial color added to it to make it look more like the salmon that it is. Read the label carefully and you will see the words “color added”. They have to add dye to the fish food to make their flesh the rosy pink it would be under normal circumstances. Although even with this “dye job” you can see the difference when farmed and wild caught salmon are placed right next to each other. The farmed salmon is still not anywhere close to the color of the wild. The picture above shows a comparison. The salmon fillets on the left side are a pale pink and the Salmon fillet on the right is a deep coral pink. I know which one I would rather eat. How about you?
This morning I was watching a news program on TV and they had several fish inspectors and experts being interviewed about the health benefits of salmon. According to them, farmed salmon should be eaten no more than once or twice a week. Why? Because the the concentrated fish pellets given to farmed salmon have a higher concentration of mercury and dioxins than the normal diet of a wild salmon. This was very surprising to me.
Oh well, just one more reason to buy wild caught salmon only. It is more expensive then farmed slamon and not as widely available (I buy mine in bulk at Costco) but the extra cost is well worth it, specially for hard core seafood lovers like those in my family.
So funny that you mention this, because I just impulsed bought one of those small mags while on line at the grocery store and they had an interview with the owner of Legal Seafoods. He said that if you’re scared of cooking fish – buy canned salmon…it’s always wild. Who knew? And why, I wonder?
Interesting. My Company sells salmon to restaurants. We specialize in sushi grade wild salmon. Our entire product line is wild and mostly Sockeye from the Bearing Straight area. I am encouraged to find that even restaurants are becoming aware of the consumers desire for high quality, healthy food.Our product is called Blu Seafood in Saskatoon, Canada. By the way…we only sell IQ Frozen products because we believe frozen to be much fresher than any other method in a place like Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The flavor is locked in through the process and the fish never smells “fishy” as it were.
Brian,
My husband has a small retail seafood shop and he only sells wild caught IQ Frozen product due to the same things you mention. We are in the midwest and people here don’t know much about the difference until we started making this little town aware. He should give you guys a call for business.
I know that when we’re commercially fishing for salmon, they are only being caught in sizeable amounts for 2 weeks or so. When processors can’t fillet and freeze them at the rate they are caught, they are forced to can the fish or let it go bad.
I don’t know who even eats farmed salmon. I tasted it once and it’s no wonder that some people think they don’t like salmon.
I m looking for the protein in Salmon. I usually buy the wild alaskan in the cans on a weekly basis unless I’m eating out. I just noticed on the can it list everything but protein and I’m sure it has protein as does tuna. Thanks
I must say, I could never stomach frozen “sushi-grade” salmon while I was in the states. Any fish which has been frozen is simply NOT sushi grade. I know it’s done in the US, Canada and most of Europe for health reasons, but the best way to enjoy salmon sashimi is fresh, not frozen. That way it still retains its firm texture. Freezing ruins the flavour and leaves the flesh all sloppy.