News Coverage
Salmon from the wild may be best
More fat, fewer benefits, possible contaminants in farm-raised variety
Published April 13, 2004
News reports sometimes contain conflicting information about the health benefits and drawbacks of certain foods.
Unless the information is put into perspective, it may leave you utterly confused.
Recent news about farmed salmon is a case in point.
Salmon contains omega-3 fatty acids, a heart-healthy fat found in oily fish and some plant products such as walnuts.
For that reason, salmon consumption has risen dramatically. Due to the limited supply and relatively high cost of wild salmon, most salmon eaten in the United States is now raised on farms.
And therein lies the problem.
A major study published in January in the journal Nature backed up earlier small studies showing farmed salmon worldwide contains significantly higher concentrations of environmental contaminants, particularly cancer-causing PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, compared to wild salmon. The levels are high enough to call into question whether the risks of farmed salmon outweigh the benefits.
Industry advocates and government officials point out that PCB levels found in farmed salmon, while much higher than those found in wild salmon, are still below the tolerance levels set by the Food and Drug Administration.
However, PCB standards for commercial seafood regulated by the FDA have not been updated since they were set in 1984 and should be tightened in light of research during the past 20 years underscoring the harmful effects of PCBs.
In fact, PCB standards for fish caught by recreational fishermen have been tightened in recent years by the agency that regulates those fish, the Environmental Protection Agency.
The result is this odd situation: If a weekend fisherman were to go out and catch a salmon from a salmon farm pond, EPA standards would dictate that he or she eat no more than one serving of that fish per month because of its elevated PCB levels.
Farmed and wild salmon look similar in stores, though farmed salmon has nearly twice the fat, more than twice the saturated fat, and less omega-3 fatty acids than wild salmon.
How can you reconcile the pros and cons of eating salmon? Here is my advice for people who want to eat salmon: