Submitted by: cmom | View Member Profile | View Other Posts
Created: 1/31/2005
Editor's Note: We allow our members to post articles expressing their beliefs and opinions.The views expressed in articles on this website may, or may not be, shared by us. -- The management.
Farm-raised salmon have enough dioxins and other cancer-causing pollutants to not eat salmon more than once/month. The dioxin level in farmed-raised salmon was 11 times higher than wild (1.88 parts/billion comp w/0.17 ppb). PCB average was 36.6 ppb in farm-raised, and 4.75 in wild.
Eating farm-raised salmon more than once a month could slightly increase risk of cancer later in life. Salmon farmed in Northern Europe had the most contaminants, followed by North America and Chile. More than half of salmon is farmed.
Farmed salmon from Chile is least contaminated of all. The level was not much higher than some wild-caught salmon.
Contaminants are coming from feed, made of fish oil from a few species of ocean fish, and meal. This concentrates the contaminants to which farm-raised salmon are exposed. Wild salmon eat a greater variety. The pollutants are stored as fat and not secreted. When eaten by a human, the contaminants are then stored in the human fat.
Many salmon farmers are changing the feed. It is a slow process. They will switch from fish oil in the feed, to soybean and canola oil, which don't have pollutants. Until then, you should buy wild salmon, about triple the cost of farmed.
Eating farm-raised salmon, remove the skin, and grill the salmon. This removes a significant amount of PCBs, dioxins, and other pollutants stored in fish fat.
[Editor's Note: I dislike approving an article that contains any promotion of eating meat or fish products, but I hope you focus on the portion that includes the fact that it is NOT healthy for you and that you limit your salmon intake to NO SALMON at all! One can have a very healthy life without eating any fish or meat. - Nannette]
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