Salmon has long been touted as a nutritional powerhouse, an Omega-3-wielding superfood packed with heart-healthy fatty nutrients. Dieticians even went so far as to call it one of the most nutritious foods on the planet . That was, at least, until groups lobbying against salmon farms raised their concerns.
While wild salmon still reigned supreme, its much more affordable farm-raised brother began to amass a questionable reputation. Recently, Time Magazine summed up the cons of farmed salmon with a scathing review, calling farmed fish an industrialized imposter that risks our health and damages our planet. The writers point out farmed fish are bred to grow rapidly in cramped cages, and the pens are rife with parasites and diseases — controlled only with a heavy-handed use of pesticides and antibiotics.
The food pellets were similarly excoriated, referred to as an amalgamation of fish meal, vegetables, and animal byproducts. Superfood or Species of Concern? Wild salmon are a “species of concern” in certain places worldwide, and farmed salmon get mixed reviews. So why do doctors still call salmon a superfood ? In the Time interview, medical experts spoke about ambiguous salmon practices and what to consume.
“It is confusing, and I suspect there is wilful confusion out there,” Dr. Leonardo Trasande, a professor of environmental medicine at New York University, told Time reporters. “We know that every fish is a trade-off between omega-3 content and toxic content like PC.