Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Salmon, farm raised or wild caught?

Is that salmon you are eating farm raised or wild caught? Why should you care? Well, there are some serious concerns about the farm raised salmon.

 Dr. Anne-Lise Birch Monsen of the University of Bergen, Norway, has raised some serious concerns about the high levels of contaminants in farm raised salmon. Wild caught salmon have some of the contaminants as well, thanks to environmental contaminants. But, due to the confinement of the farm raised fish, and the diet they are fed, complete with anti-biotics to keep down disease,  they have even more concentrated levels of these contaminants.

Dr. Monsen states: "I do not recommend pregnant women, children or young people eat farmed salmon. It is uncertain in both the amount of toxins salmon contain, and how these drugs affect children, adolescents and pregnant women. The type of contaminants that have been detected in farmed salmon have a negative effect on brain development and is associated with autism, ADD/ADHD and reduced IQ. We also know that they can affect other organ systems in the body's immune system and metabolism." Some pretty strong words indeed.

But I eat salmon for the omega-3  oils, you say! Another Norwegian article reveals that levels of critically important omega-3 reduced by 50% in farmed salmon, compared to wild caught salmon due to the amount of grain, mostly corn, they are fed. Some have even referred to farmed salmon as "swimming corncobs". Yep, that is what they feed the fish, corn products, and mostly GMO corn at that.

And, Norway just lobbied the EU to raise the permissible levels of toxins in the salmon chow, and they got the okay. Wow. Even Russia has banned Norwegian salmon in 2006 due to excessive levels of lead and cadmium.

Make mine Alaskan, please. You see, if your salmon is labeled as Alaskan, it can't be farm raised. The Alaskans are very protective of their salmon and I, for one, am very glad. It is worth the effort to find out where the food that we eat is produced. Your health could depend on it.