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Go Fish
The American Heart Association recommends that people eat fish, especially fatty fish, at least twice a week to lower their risk of coronary heart disease. That's consistent with other recommendations to get about 1,000 mg a day of omega-3 fats. To minimize the risk from contamination, it's best to eat a variety of fish.
Wild Salmon
Source: ocean and rivers
Environmental impact: low
Contamination levels: low
Omega-3 levels: very high (about 3,000 mg in 6oz. cooked)
Cost: around $15 a pound
Comments: There isn't enough affordable wild salmon to satisfy the world's appetite. Chum is the least contaminated species of wild salmon. (It has one-eighth the level of pollutants of farmed salmon from Chile or Washington state.) Chinook from Alaska is the most contaminated. (It's no cleaner than Chilean or Washington state farmed salmon.) All salmon from Alaska is wild. You can buy frozen wild salmon year-round for about $15 a pound at markets like Trader Joe's or Whole Foods or via the Internet.
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Farmed Salmon
Source: ocean pens
Environmental impact: high
Contamination levels: high
Omega-3 levels: very high (about 4,500mg in 6 oz. cooked)
Cost: around $6 a pound
Comments: Almost all farmed salmon are the Atlantic salmon species, wherever they're raised. Most salmon sushi comes from farmed fish. Beginning this fall, all labels will have to say where the seafood was caught, where it was processed, and whether it's wild or farmed.
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Canned Salmon
Source: wild salmon
Environmental impact: low
Contamination levels: low
Omega-3 levels: very high (about 3,000 mg in 6 oz.)
Cost: $2 to $8 a pound
Comments: Most canned salmon is from Alaska- either sockeye (red) or milder, less expensive pink. Canned salmon is higher in sodium than wild or farmed, but it usually contains (edible) bones, so every six ounces provide about 400 mg of calcium.
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Smoked Salmon
Source: usually farmed salmon
Environmental impact: low (if wild) or high (if farmed)
Contamination levels: No data available. While smoking and heating destroy some contaminants, smoking creates others.
Omega-3 levels: very high (about 2,700 mg in 6 oz.)
Cost: $10-$40 a pound
Comments: According to analysis conducted by the industry group Salmon of the Americas for Nutrition Action Healthletter, smoked salmon is an excellent source of omega-3 fats. The 10 products tested ranged from 270 mg to 740 mg per ounce. Government numbers suggesting that smoked salmon has lower levels of omage-3s are based on two samples that were tested several decades ago.
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Farmed Organic Salmon
Source: ocean pens
Environmental impact: medium
Contamination levels: no data available
Omega-3 levels: no data available
Cost: around $12 a pound
Comments: Most "organic" salmon comes from farms in the North Atlantic that comply with one or more European definitions of organic (the U.S. doesn't set standards for organic seafood). The term often means that the fish are raised in less-crowded pens, fed trimmings of fish fit for human consumption, and exposed less often to pesticides.
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Farmed Catfish
Source: inland ponds
Environmental impact: low
Contamination levels: low
Omega-3 levels: medium (about 300 mg in 6 oz cooked)
Cost: around $6 a pound
Comments: Catfish account for more than 60% of the U.S. aquaculture production. The fish are fed mostly plant meal made from soybean, corn, wheat, and cottonseed meal, supplemented with a small amount of dried fish.
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Farmed Trout
Source: inland "raceways" that simulate flowing streams
Environmental impact: medium
Contaminations levels: low
Omega-3 levels: high (about 1,300 mg in 6 oz. cooked)
Cost: around $10 a pound
Comments: Farmed trout are high in omega-3s and they're less contaminated than salmon.
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Source: Nutrition Action Healthletter (June 2004) |
