The Risk of Eating Farmed Salmon

Study: European Farmed Salmon Pose Cancer Risk

ALBANY, N.Y. — Before rushing to make salmon a staple of a heart-healthy diet, consumers should check the origin of their fish supply, a new study recommends.

It turns out where the salmon comes from — and what they are fed — determine whether the health risks will outweigh the benefits, according to the study recently published in the Journal of Nutrition.

Researchers found that the contaminant levels in farmed salmon from certain regions of the world increased the risk of cancer enough to outweigh the heart health benefits of salmon.

The toxin levels were so high in some farmed salmon from Europe that people should only eat a single serving once every five months, the study found...

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Yikes! This is awful. So much for a healthy alternative...

If you don't know about this, you should...

More research needs to be done into cleaning that industry up and fast! The amount of Methyl-Mercury alone compared to free-range is one red flag too many.

Wow, that is good to know. I've been trying to eat more Salmon to get the omega-3 fatty acids. From now on I will be asking where the fish is from.

A little salmon factoid for everyone:

Wild salmon gets it lovely pink colour from the pigment in the shells of crustaceans that they eat. Because farmed salmon is fed ground-up fish pellets, red dye is added to the feed to give them colour.

Mmmm, yummy!!!!

one way to tell.. wild salmon costs more than farm raised salmon.

I forget which brand, but one of the canned salmon say "wild alaskan salmon" on the can. I'll check the pantry later.

Sometimes I see Salmon marked as "Fresh Atlantic Salmon" do you guys think this is wild salmon from the ocean or just farmed Salmon from the east coast?

Even the farms on the West Coast use Atlantics. They are much hardier than the Pacific.

Umbrax, I would say it's almost a guarantee that any fresh Atlantic salmon being sold in your province is farmed and came from BC.

[edit on 2-12-2005 by Duzey]

Thanks Duzey.
I guess I will have to take supliments. But I guess it will be found that there is something bad in those also

Oh Umbrax, you don't even want to know. :shk:

At this point, I am using fish oil (not cod liver oil) as a omega-3 supplement. I make sure to buy the molecularly distilled kind so that a lot of the contaminants have been removed.

Originally posted by Duzey

At this point, I am using fish oil (not cod liver oil) as a omega-3 supplement. I make sure to buy the molecularly distilled kind so that a lot of the contaminants have been removed.

Knowledge is a terrible thing, isn't it?

The more I learn, the more I learn about how our food and water is TOTALLY contaminated. At this point, we can only hope to adapt - after we string up, gut, and torture a few of the world's multi-trillionaires.

It actually occurred to me to wonder just how safe fish farming methods were. I know cattle are regulated, but they feed the farm raised salmon a certain diet to turn the flesh a "salmon" color. I've been trying to buy more "wild caught" foods for our diet... but this also has its downsides. You're removing diversity from the remaining population.

And fish raised in a small enclosure... well... it did occur to me to wonder about the water pollution in their enclosures as well as downstream from them. Truth is, I don't know anything about the industry... but the report doesn't surprise me.

The report DID say that South American salmon had the least toxicity and North American followed after that.

It's only the European salmon that have risk-inducing levels of contaminants.

This came out about a year ago.

I remember it as a big international ruckus started over who was telling the truth.

The European producers claimed that the report was biased as it was funded by North American producers.

They did have a point as the report labelled some Nordic fish farms as the worst, despite them actually being the cleanest and being in some of the most pollution free areas of the world.

EDIT: Why do you feel the need to take "suppliments" and other garbage? Most of those things are artificial and probably do more harm than good (in fact, studies show that many vitamin supplements are bad for you).

Why not just eat normally and healthily? What about your lifestyle makes you feel the need to "suppliment" it with even more chemicals?

[edit on 2/12/05 by stumason]

I grew up in Granby CO for the most part in the 50s. We fished often and it was on the menu. I loved it then.
The last trout I caught was stocked. It didn't taste like trout at all. If there are going to be fish farms, they should feed the fish what they normally eat.
If I want a good trout, I'll have to go deep into the wilderness areas where they can't stock "modified" trout. That was the only fish I liked and now it isn't available. I'd have to drive more than 100 miles, park and hike in to the high streams. And I'm an old lady. !#@*&%@!

Originally posted by stumason
Why do you feel the need to take "suppliments" and other garbage? Most of those things are artificial and probably do more harm than good (in fact, studies show that many vitamin supplements are bad for you).

With pure, molecularly distilled fish oil capsules you can get more omega-3's in your diet than you probably should through eating fish. The most common recommendation is that you should limit your fish intake to two or three times a week because of the mercury and other contaminants. The supplement doesn't have any of the mercury, lead and PCB's you get eating salmon.

But if we're being honest, I just don't like fish.

Originally posted by Duzey

Originally posted by stumason
Why do you feel the need to take "suppliments" and other garbage? Most of those things are artificial and probably do more harm than good (in fact, studies show that many vitamin supplements are bad for you).

With pure, molecularly distilled fish oil capsules you can get more omega-3's in your diet than you probably should through eating fish. The most common recommendation is that you should limit your fish intake to two or three times a week because of the mercury and other contaminants. The supplement doesn't have any of the mercury, lead and PCB's you get eating salmon.

But if we're being honest, I just don't like fish.

But surely, if you eat a heathy balanced diet then you don't need suppliments? I am fit and healthy and have never touched the things. The only time I have had suppliments in my house is when my partner was pregnant and my little one was draining the life out of her

I put it down to American fad culture (no offence intended) and poor diet. There should be no need for suppliments if you ate properly.

Originally posted by Duzey
But if we're being honest, I just don't like fish.

Me neither, in fact I hate it.

And shellfish like shrimp and lobster just look like big insects, I can't believe anyone eats them

It's the only supplement I take. Sadly, every food that is a good source of omega-3 is one that I don't like. I don't eat foods I don't like, no matter how good they are for me.

If I was perfect, nobody would like me.

I'd just like to know how salmon farmed off Tasmania and fed special supplements can be legally called Atlantic Salmon. True Atlantic salmon is so good for you due to the food it eas. It eats from a rich source of foodstuffs it finds in the Atlantic ocean.

Originally posted by Mayet
I'd just like to know how salmon farmed off Tasmania and fed special supplements can be legally called Atlantic Salmon.

In the same way that we say:

The Environmental Protection Agency protects the people and the environment...

The war in Iraq is a war against terrorism...

And, George Bush is a compassionate conservative...



[edit on 3-12-2005 by loam]

*shrug* I have trouble getting worked up over warnings like this anymore. After finding out that sunlight, overhead lights, computer monitors, television screens, smoking, not smoking driving, not drinving, riding the bus, eating , breathing all cause cancer it's just hard to get worked up anymore when they come out with something new.

[edit on 12/3/2005 by Zaphod58]

[edit on 12/3/2005 by Zaphod58]