As my budget with regards to living is scraping the barrel, when it comes to consuming fish in my meals, am I cheating myself by going with farmed salmon as opposed to wild salmon?
Or would be better for me to reduce my total fish consumption, so that I can afford the better quality fish, but have it less often?
Currently I’m having the farmed atlantic stuff; basically, one of the cheapest options available to me. I’d be grateful for any advice with regards to the price/quality balance.
As a quick example, the cheap option works out at $5.30 per lb, where as the wild stuff is around twice the price.
Anybody care to share what they go for with their fish? I’d appreciate it.
[quote]Omca wrote:
your stressing too much, worry about getting good foods first. Honestly it doesn’t matter that much. [/quote]
Cheers,
I suppose that what with using search terms like “farmed fish bad,” I may end up reading biased or agenda-driven “science.” Not having much in the way of knowledge regarding the more intricate matters about nutrition, my brain just broke-down so I thought I’d ask.
I’m cleaning up my diet (given that being south asian and having had diabetic family, family suffering form high blood pressure, cholesterol, and having strokes left right and center, I became a bit too scared!)
You are not cheating yourself but some things you might want to know about farm raised salmon versus wild caught:
farm raised flesh is dyed to have that bright appealing hue.
farm raised has a lower omega 3 content than wild caught due to the diet of farm raised being little food pellets which are also high in dioxin and PCB’s.
wild caught salmon is only available from may to october- otherwise it should be frozen if you are buying it outside that time frame or you are getting ripped off.
It is not going to kill you right away but it might be something you want to be aware of especially when we are talking bang for your buck type of stuff and you are still spending 7 or 8 dollars a pound for farm raised salmon because it is “high in omega three’s”
[quote]D Day wrote:
You are not cheating yourself but some things you might want to know about farm raised salmon versus wild caught:
farm raised flesh is dyed to have that bright appealing hue.
farm raised has a lower omega 3 content than wild caught due to the diet of farm raised being little food pellets which are also high in dioxin and PCB’s.
wild caught salmon is only available from may to october- otherwise it should be frozen if you are buying it outside that time frame or you are getting ripped off.
It is not going to kill you right away but it might be something you want to be aware of especially when we are talking bang for your buck type of stuff and you are still spending 7 or 8 dollars a pound for farm raised salmon because it is “high in omega three’s”[/quote]
Helpful response, thanks a lot mate! And I just bought some “wild alaskan” here in england and its … march! hmmm, better go ask them what their definition of wild is.
I have actually read that most farmed raised fish are inferior to their wild counter parts, EXCEPT Salmon and I think another. I’ve seen reports that suggested that farmed raised Salmon actually had more DHA & EPA per serving. Something to do with the fact that farmed raised Salmon won’t grow to full size if given a high Omega 6 diet (like other fish on the farm), so they’re pumped full of Omega 3’s.
[quote]elusive wrote:
I have actually read that most farmed raised fish are inferior to their wild counter parts, EXCEPT Salmon and I think another. I’ve seen reports that suggested that farmed raised Salmon actually had more DHA & EPA per serving. Something to do with the fact that farmed raised Salmon won’t grow to full size if given a high Omega 6 diet (like other fish on the farm), so they’re pumped full of Omega 3’s.[/quote]
you read wrong.
wild salmon is better than farm raised.
Higher omega-3 content, less PCBs (toxin levels)
do you have a Trader Joe’s around? their wild is about the same price as farm raised, for about $5 you’ll have enough for 2-3 meals.
[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:
elusive wrote:
I have actually read that most farmed raised fish are inferior to their wild counter parts, EXCEPT Salmon and I think another. I’ve seen reports that suggested that farmed raised Salmon actually had more DHA & EPA per serving. Something to do with the fact that farmed raised Salmon won’t grow to full size if given a high Omega 6 diet (like other fish on the farm), so they’re pumped full of Omega 3’s.
you read wrong.
wild salmon is better than farm raised.
Higher omega-3 content, less PCBs (toxin levels)
do you have a Trader Joe’s around? their wild is about the same price as farm raised, for about $5 you’ll have enough for 2-3 meals.[/quote]
[quote]elusive wrote:
jehovasfitness wrote:
elusive wrote:
I have actually read that most farmed raised fish are inferior to their wild counter parts, EXCEPT Salmon and I think another. I’ve seen reports that suggested that farmed raised Salmon actually had more DHA & EPA per serving. Something to do with the fact that farmed raised Salmon won’t grow to full size if given a high Omega 6 diet (like other fish on the farm), so they’re pumped full of Omega 3’s.
you read wrong.
wild salmon is better than farm raised.
Higher omega-3 content, less PCBs (toxin levels)
do you have a Trader Joe’s around? their wild is about the same price as farm raised, for about $5 you’ll have enough for 2-3 meals.
1st link not working, but I can’t see how a fish from nature wowould not be superior to something that is over packed, fed a non-natural diet, and exposed to higher toxin levels.
Hmm. The link is working for me. You need adobe reader to access it, i guess. Well, it has a list of fish and their epa/dha content. With farmed Salmon having 2.1 grams of combined epa/dha and wild having 1.8 grams.
I can’t find what I had original read (the reading I referred to in my initial post) but it explained why as well. Claiming how most fish are fed high plant oils and grain diets. It then went on to explain how Salmon don’t mature with high Omega 6 diets and won’t fully flurish. Anyway. w.e. I don’t think its really that important to fuss over. People have much worse things to worry about.
From most of what I’ve read, Wild is better…BUT…that doesn’t make farm raised “bad”
Sure you’ll read some sites that state just how god awful farm raised is…and…like I said above that if you can afford Wild… that would be ideal, but think some of those sites go a little overboard.
In the end, farm raised is still about elevnty billion times better than the crap most people eat.
It looked to me like the articles implied farmed raised salmon is better only if they are fed omega-3’s. Since the farms typically don’t tell you what the salmon are fed, you might as well stick with wild salmon if you want the best omega-3s.
OTOH, if you’re just after protein, farmed fish is probably fine.
[quote]yorik wrote:
It looked to me like the articles implied farmed raised salmon is better only if they are fed omega-3’s. Since the farms typically don’t tell you what the salmon are fed, you might as well stick with wild salmon if you want the best omega-3s.
OTOH, if you’re just after protein, farmed fish is probably fine.[/quote]
Thank you,
Yeah, I was only after the protein to be honest + I like the taste. There seemed to be a fair amount of information out there suggesting that various toxins kept contaminating meat, and that food standards agencies were allowing for a lot of “crap” to be fed to the salmon.