Hook, Line and Sinker

[Guest guest]

" HSI - Jenny Thompson " <hsiresearch

HSI e-Alert - Hook, Line and Sinker

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 06:50:00 -0400

 

 

Dear Reader,

 

How do you like your salmon? Wild or domesticated?

 

Faced with the choice between wild salmon and farm-raised salmon, you

might let your budget decide (farmed salmon costs quite a bit less

than wild), or you might let nutrition and safety decide (wild salmon

tends to have a higher omega-3 fatty acid content and fewer toxins).

 

Simple enough. One problem, though: That wild salmon you paid a

premium price for just might have spent its entire life on a salmon farm.

 

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Buyer beware

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In several e-Alerts I've ranted about dubious nutrition and dietary

supplement advice published in Consumer Reports magazine. But when CR

editors and reporters stick to what they do best, then I'm a fan. And

in the August 2006 issue they provide salmon customers with an

eye-opening and valuable investigation.

 

Summer is salmon season, and that's when CR shoppers started their

investigation last year. Both farmed and wild salmon samples were

purchased in stores located in several states. Each sample was then

tested for synthetic food coloring, which is fed to farm-raised salmon

to give the meat that familiar, pink salmon color. Without food

coloring added, farmed salmon meat is gray, and customers won't buy

it. (The color of wild salmon meat develops naturally from crustaceans

the fish eat.)

 

The verdict: All the samples (nearly 30) were correctly labeled.

 

But things changed dramatically in the off-season.

 

In November, December and March, CR investigators found that 10 out of

23 salmon samples labeled " wild " were actually farm-raised. And

inexplicably, the phony wild salmon was generally priced higher than

genuine wild salmon.

 

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Fish gone wild

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So other than getting bilked out of your grocery dollars, why would

you prefer wild salmon to farm-raised?

 

The CR article cites a study I told you about in the e-Alert " Down on

the Farm " (1/20/04), in which University of Indiana (UI) researchers

collected two metric tons of wild and farm-raised salmon from seafood

stores in North America, South America and Europe. The fish samples

were examined for traces of cancer-causing toxins such as

polychlorinated biphenols (PCBs), and dioxins. The UI team found

" significantly higher " traces of dioxins in farm-raised salmon

compared to wild. They also detected an average PCB content of 36

parts per billion (ppb) in farm salmon as opposed to 3 ppb in wild salmon.

 

In a follow up to that e-Alert, " Fish Out of Water " (2/25/04), several

HSI members weighed in on the farming issue. A member named Gail

wrote: " Farmed salmon are kept in large, overcrowded, netted pens

overflowing with feces, antibiotics, artificial colorants and pesticides. "

 

And a member named Madeson added: " These penned up farmed Salmon breed

so rapaciously while confined so closely together which necessitates

the use of huge quantities of antibiotics and drugs to keep them healthy. "

 

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Fishing tips

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If you don't want to give up your wild salmon, CR offers three tips

for insuring you get the real deal.

 

1. Enjoy the summer

As the CR test clearly shows, your chance of buying and actually

getting wild salmon is much better during salmon season.

 

2. Avoid European salmon

CR reports that farm-raised salmon from the U.S., Canada and Chile is

more likely to have lower dioxin and PCB levels than salmon raised in

Europe.

 

3. Look for Alaska

Salmon farming is outlawed in Alaska, so your chances of getting true

wild salmon is better if it's caught in Alaskan waters. Nevertheless,

CR shoppers did find some farm-raised " Alaska " salmon.

 

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...and another thing

 

Want to live longer? You don't have to join a gym or buy treadmill,

but you do need to stay active.

 

A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association

confirms a little exercise secret we've examined in many e-Alerts and

HSI Members Alerts: Strenuous exercise is not a prerequisite of good

health. Just get moving and keep moving.

 

Researchers at the National Institute of Aging recruited about 300

" high-functioning " subjects over the age of 70. Resting metabolic rate

and carbon dioxide elimination were measured over the course of two

weeks and again five years later.

 

After adjusting for various health risk factors, results showed that

subjects who had the highest energy expenditure were far less likely

to die during the study period when compared to subjects with the

lowest energy expenditure.

 

In their conclusion, the authors wrote: " Simply expending energy

through any activity may influence survival in older adults. "

 

To Your Good Health,

 

Jenny Thompson

 

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Sources:

" The Salmon Scam " Consumer Reports, August 2006, consumerreports.org

" Global Assessment of Organic Contaminants in Farmed Salmon " Science,

Vol. 303, No. 5655, 1/9/04, sciencemag.com " Daily Activity Energy

Expenditure and Mortality Among Older Adults " Journal of the American

Medical Association, Vol. 296, No. 2, 7/12/06, jama.ama-assn.org