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[coastangler]

I was always under the impression that farmed salmon had most of the toxic stuff for you while wild fish consumption was relatively safe. The other day talking to a friend he mentioned about this not being entirely true and so given that I eat a lot of wild salmon at home I did a bit of "Google" research.

Just wanted to share my findings, along with some guidelines on weekly consumption for each species of wild salmon:

tl;dr is that in rough numbers, you should probably not have more than:
- one serving of BC Wild Chinook per week (or)
- two servings of Coho/Sockeye (or)
- 2-3 servings of Pink and Chum which seem to be the fish with the least amount of pollutants on them (PCBs, etc)

Of course, not eating any Omega-3 rich fish like salmon is also bad for you and increases your chances of heart disease and so on, so really you have to figure out the risk for yourself. In my case and since these pollutants seem to be more harmful for children than adults, I will keep a closer eye on my family consumption from now on.

Sources:

https://thereitis.org/toxic-contaminant-levels-in-farmed-and-wild-caught-salmon-species/

https://eatandbeatcancer.com/2012/04/16/salmon-says-an-anti-cancer-investigation-what-kind-is-healthiest-part-5-conclusions-alas/

Of course there is a lot of info about this on the internet with much disparity in the opinions (as usual). The above articles were somewhat based on evidence and I liked that they looked into BC Wild Salmon in particular. Hope you find this useful and will be good to hear other thoughts, especially since this is not a new issue by the looks of it.

[psd1179]

what about toxic contaminates in chicken beef and pork compared with salmon

[coastangler]

what about toxic contaminates in chicken beef and pork compared with salmon

Yeah animal meats can also carry PCBs, Dioxins, etc but humans are able to influence this a bit more as we can control what the animals eat. Of course things like pollution, quality of water and  questionable agricultural practices all have an impact but in the case of wild salmon is a lot harder to control as some chemical compounds that were banned long time ago are still present in the marine food chain.

My point is more around weekly limits. I personally used to feast on salmon I brought home for several days so I just wanted to share this data in case there are others like me that.

[Lunk Louie]

Yeah animal meats can also carry PCBs, Dioxins, etc but humans are able to influence this a bit more as we can control what the animals eat. Of course things like pollution, quality of water and  questionable agricultural practices all have an impact but in the case of wild salmon is a lot harder to control as some chemical compounds that were banned long time ago are still present in the marine food chain.

My point is more around weekly limits. I personally used to feast on salmon I brought home for several days so I just wanted to share this data in case there are others like me that.

THANKS

[milo]

Thanks for your concern, and yes, weekly limits are definitely something to keep in mind.
However, any way you slice it, fish is still the top protein in terms of healthiness. Anyone concerned about their protein should read this article and draw their own conclusions:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/from-fish-to-bacon-a-ranking-of-meats-in-order-of-healthiness/2019/07/02/2de2dce0-9435-11e9-aadb-74e6b2b46f6a_story.html%3foutputType=amp

[psd1179]

Thanks for your concern, and yes, weekly limits are definitely something to keep in mind.
However, any way you slice it, fish is still the top protein in terms of healthiness. Anyone concerned about their protein should read this article and draw their own conclusions:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/from-fish-to-bacon-a-ranking-of-meats-in-order-of-healthiness/2019/07/02/2de2dce0-9435-11e9-aadb-74e6b2b46f6a_story.html%3foutputType=amp

I heard cricket has better protein than salmon.  Insect protein has less toxic pollutant

[Knnn]

I heard cricket has better protein than salmon.  Insect protein has less toxic pollutant

Can you reference a paper for that? 

Regarding salmon, the build up a contaminants of potential concern (note the word potential) is far less significant than many other sea fish due to their relatively short lifespans.  This is why COPC concentrations in pink salmon are less than say Chinook, which are way below what accumulated in big tuna.

If you look hard enough, you will always find COPCs such as metals, PCB's, PCDD/PDF, PBB's, etc, in all forms of food.  However, as the old saying goes the "Dose makes the poison" and is highly applicable inthis circumstance.  Factors such as PCOC concentration, fat/oil/aqueous solubility, valent form, type of compound (for metals) multiplied by the frequency of exposure (i.e.consumption) and other contributing sources, such as drinking water and other food sources an individual may consume, will al factor into toxicity.  In addition, many of these papers are highly conservative and do not factor in the impact of eating less fish, which will have a larger negative impact on human health due to a reduction in very beneficial DHA, omega 3 etc.

In a conversation with a human health risk assessor, he indicated that the negative health affect of reducing in fish consumption far outweighed the potential risk posed by accumulated contaminants, except under unusual circumstances and that salmon were no where close to representing a real world risk compared to fish like tuna.

[milo]

Can you reference a paper for that? 

It seems to be true for crickets, but not for all insects.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4781901/

Cricket smoothie, anyone?

https://www.amazon.ca/Organic-Cricket-Powder-Crickets-American/dp/B01CDYYBTQ/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_sspa?crid=1U4YIE1W7CE8C&dchild=1&keywords=cricket+powder+organic&qid=1634957175&sprefix=cricket+powder%2Caps%2C175&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzRUNUMlFPQVAwWkg5JmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNTk0NTAwMko4SFVFV0ExRVBaNSZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNTczNDY3UzlTNjJCN1BIMkkmd2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9zZWFyY2hfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==