How to Pick the Healthiest Salmon: Avoid Toxins and Make Smart Choice

Today we're going to talk about fish, in particular salmon, probably my favorite food of all time. But here's the thing, there's a tremendous amount of fish fraud. What I mean by that is salmon exists in a hierarchy. Some is fantastic for your health and others may even be carcinogenic, swimming around in literal pollutants. We're going to break it all down today, go through the science, give you practical takeaways, and then yes, I will explain why I'm standing out in public with a frozen piece of fish. Let's go!

Sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be—

No, no, no, it's perfect. So in this video, I want to talk to you about fish fraud and how to avoid getting catfished at the seafood counter yourself. You're going to learn why not all salmon are created equal. There's a massive salmon hierarchy. How some salmon are loaded with more brain-boosting omega-3s and powerful antioxidants, while others are literally swimming in synthetic contaminants. Carcinogens, and industrial byproducts. We're going to break down the differences between wild and farmed salmon.

How much of a difference is there? About to find out.

Decode confusing labels, explore the power of astaxanthin, the pigment that makes salmon red and your cells resilient, and rank 6 common types of salmon so you know exactly what to choose next time you're at the store. And for what occasion. You ready? Let's start with the elephant in the room, or the manatee in the pool as it were: farm-raised versus wild salmon. Is wild really better? The answer? Yes. The primary reason I always go for wild over farm-raised salmon is farm-raised salmon tend to have much, much higher levels of chemicals like polychlorinated biphenyls, pesticides, and dioxins. Which largely derives from their feed, and all of which have serious negative consequences on human health—your health. I'm not going to go through the encyclopedia of pollutants in this video, but to take one of these as a representative example, let's talk about dioxins, which are byproducts of various industrial processes such as burning waste, smelting metals, and bleaching. Some dioxins, like the dioxin TCDD, are classified as Group 1 carcinogens, so they're known to cause cancer in humans. And as a quick aside, if you want further evidence of dioxins' potent effect on hormones, a man's exposure to dioxins is associated with a skewed sex ratio of his offspring—more girls than boys. But don't get any ideas. Anyway, back on track to pollution in our salmon. One study found that when eating farm-raised salmon, it would be easy to exceed the tolerable daily intake of dioxins based on thresholds set by the World Health Organization. In some cases, as little as 4 modest servings of farm-raised salmon alone per month would push you past the dioxin safe limit. By comparison, this analysis found that you could eat wild salmon every single day, in some cases twice a day, and remain within the safe levels of dioxin exposure. That is a massive difference. So what you're seeing here in this graph is a representation of what I just told you. The number of meals per month you'd need to eat of farm-raised salmon, the white and the light blue bars, or wild salmon, the the dark blue bars, to breach the safe intake limit of dioxins. So for farm-raised salmon, you can see only a handful of small servings will push you beyond the safe limit of dioxins. But for wild salmon, they actually capped the analysis at, and I'm quoting here, "a practical consumption rate of 60 meals per month." So bottom line, the contamination is much greater in farm-raised salmon. By comparison, wild salmon is safer and healthier, but not just for that reason. Additionally, wild salmon tend to have much better fat profiles. They're richer in omega-3 fats but actually much leaner overall on account of the fact that they tend to be active in the wild. They're swimming upstream, they're getting a serious workout, and they eat a natural diet rich in omega-3 algae, krill, and smaller fish. Farmed salmon, by comparison, are basically couch potatoes, and they're fed an artificial feed usually made of fish pellets that are composed of substances like chicken, chicken fat, soy, corn, and so on.

How much of a difference is there? About to find out. Let's take a look. 15 grams of fat for 4 ounces. And added color with the wild. 5 grams of fat for 4 ounces, no added color. There you have it.

So in 10 summative words, wild salmon have fewer contaminants and a better fat profile. Now let's begin to categorize terms you'll hear, and I'll organize what's to come in terms of 3 varieties of Atlantic salmon first, before moving on to 3 varieties of Pacific, which are my favorite. Most of the salmon you're going to see though in the United States is Atlantic salmon, and most of this is farm-raised. So remember, Atlantic salmon usually farm-raised, and these include Faroe Island, Norwegian, and Scottish varieties, which are named for their geographic origins. Quickly, Faroe Island salmon are often sold at restaurants at a premium price because they tend to be extra fatty and extra tasty, so they can charge you extra much. However, one credit I will give to Faroe Islands salmon is that they're generally raised without antibiotics. So if you order them, you'll pay an extra buck, but at least you know you're not getting antibiotics with the meal. Norwegian salmon, moving on, is very common. About one-fifth of the total salmon in the United States comes from Norway. Luckily, these are also antibiotic-free, at least 99% of the time. And finally, on Scottish salmon, as far as Atlantic salmon go, I honestly don't have much to say, although I have noted some scandals in the media about Scottish salmon. So I suppose all I have to say about Scottish salmon is they're kind of like a kilt. They look traditional, but underneath they might be hiding something questionable. Now, in terms of Pacific salmon, the big three are coho, king, also called Chinook, and sockeye salmon. On the first two, coho and king, there are farm-raised and wild options. The labeling usually makes clear which is which, or you can just ask your fishmonger, they should know. Coho salmon has a moderate fat content and a mild nutty flavor. It's good, but it's sometimes called the newbie salmon or gateway salmon, and you can guess why. King salmon, by comparison, are the largest salmon and the fattiest wild salmon. Their flavor is honestly exquisite, and they usually capture the highest price, so I call king salmon the date night salmon. They don't match Alaskan sockeye salmon, I think, for nutritional bang for the buck, but they do taste great and therefore are a good option if you're cooking to impress. And as a fun fact about king salmon for you, about 6% have a genetic mutation that doesn't allow them to process the red pigment astaxanthin, which we're going to talk about a little bit later, this results in an ivory-colored ghost salmon haunting your dinner plate with high prices and low pigment. And I've saved the best for last: Alaskan sockeye salmon. They're always wild. They're relatively lean but very high in omega-3, and they're the reddest and richest in that pigment that we've mentioned, astaxanthin. Astaxanthin is fascinating. It is why salmon are pink-red. And it also happens to be a potent antioxidant with some exceptional properties. Astaxanthin has incredible free radical scavenging capacity, ranging from 100 to 6,000 times stronger than vitamin C, E, or coenzyme Q. Also, and don't get lost here, astaxanthin is a multitasker of sorts. It uses something called electron dislocation resonance, which is like a chemical force field And using this electron dislocation resonance, it can simultaneously neutralize up to 20 different free radicals at the same time. Most other antioxidants can't do this. So eat your heart out, vitamin C. And practically speaking, if we were to rank the wild Pacific salmon in terms of astaxanthin content, it goes sockeye first, then coho, then king, and then of course ghost king. In general, because astaxanthin is the pink-red pigment, When it comes to wild salmon, the redder the better. It means you're getting more astaxanthin. And in terms of other nutrition, other micronutrients in salmon, as just an example, a modest 6-ounce piece of sockeye salmon has over 300% the RDA of B12, 90% the RDA of selenium and niacin, vitamin B3, 30% the RDA of choline, and as much potassium as 1.7 bananas. On some of these nutrients, a really interesting fact about B12 found in salmon and other animal-based proteins is that it may synergize with the omega-3 DHA. Animal models suggest that B12 and DHA together are more potent than either alone at improving the omega-3 content of the brain's cortex and hippocampus, boosting levels of brain cell growth factors, neuron growth factors like BDNF and NGF, and at improving memory performance. So combining omega-3 and B12 is a really smart idea. And selenium is critical for thyroid function and a healthy metabolism. It's also a core component of important antioxidant proteins called selenoproteins—pretty logically named—and certain forms of natural selenium found in fish might actually help balance out the mercury content in fish as well. If you want more on that, on the selenium to mercury ratio, check out this video. Now, a little bit more on mercury in salmon. Salmon tends to be pretty low in mercury, about 0.022 parts per million. By comparison, and as reference points, Chilean sea bass and ahi tuna are both at 0.354, and swordfish is at 0.995 parts per million. That means you'd need to eat salmon every day for a month and a half 45 days, they get the same serving of mercury as in just one serving of swordfish. Pretty crazy, right? And now, as a quick and cool tangent on ahi tuna, another favorite fish, at least for taste, do you know why some is so freakishly red like a high-protein Swedish fish? Well, to maintain or exaggerate that red color, the flesh is often treated with carbon monoxide. The same that's detected by your carbon monoxide detectors, that poisonous gas. The carbon monoxide reacts with myoglobin in the muscle tissue to produce a bright red color, and this is akin to what happens when people have severe carbon monoxide poisoning, leading to one of the classic signs of carbon monoxide poisoning that you learn about in medical school, the cherry red lips. So this carbon monoxide hack is generally used to deceive customers into believing ahi tuna is fresh. When really it's not. Forgive my digression on poisonous gases and movie theater candy. Now a quick word on smoked salmon, which is absolutely delicious, but it can be freakishly hard to find a good smoked salmon that is wild and isn't treated with dyes or sugar. Go look on the label for yourself and you'll find on almost every ingredient list either dyes or sugar.

"Oh, nice." "Let's see what they have." I'll say most are going to tend to have some color added and sugar. My go-to is Eco Falls sockeye salmon, just smoked salmon and salt.

Who knew lox had a sweet tooth? So I'll just say up front, I buy almost exclusively Eco Falls wild Alaskan smoked salmon in these blue packages. I have no affiliation, but they're the only brand I can reliably find that meets my qualifications. So if you're looking for smoked salmon, this is a good variety. I get it at Star Market. Now we're getting to the end, swimming upstream as it were, but before we end, I wanted to give you some fun salmon fast facts, just for your entertainment. Here's one: salmon are known for their jumping abilities. Some can leap over 12 feet to overcome obstacles like waterfalls in their quest upriver to spawn. That is 50% greater than the men's Olympic high jumping record. That said, not all salmon are the same. Pink salmon, also called humpback salmon or humpies, can only jump 3 feet. Kind of sad. Another fact for you: salmon belong to the genus Oncorhynchus, which derives from the Greek onkos, meaning bent, and rhynchus, meaning snout. You can tell how they got that name. Third, and really cool, salmon have amazing senses of smell, even better than dogs. Some references I found said 1,000 times better than dogs. And what this does is it allows them to navigate to their streams of origin to spawn. Juvenile salmon, when they're young, they learn, they imprint on specific odors associated with their natal streams. And as mature adults, they retain these odor memories, and this guides their home migration. Pretty cool, right? Anyway, wrapping up now, in summary, when it comes to salmon, go wild. Literally. Wild salmon not only has a cleaner nutrition profile, but also avoids chemical baggage of its farm-raised cousins. And among fewer contaminants, certified always wild, more omega-3s, and the highest level of astaxanthin, my top salmon by far is Alaskan sockeye. That said, remember, real health isn't about perfection. It's about informed choices, which you can now make, and making consistent good choices over time. So, I ask, should you pay the extra buck for a delicious fatty king salmon for date night? Or indulge in some Faroe Island salmon at a fancy restaurant now and again? Or even, god forbid, eat lox that has a smidge of sugar? Well, sometimes trying to be perfect isn't worth the cortisol. In my opinion, but now you have information to make the best moment-by-moment choice for yourself. And if you learned something new today, consider sharing this with a friend or just giving that subscribe button a little love because nuance deserves a signal boost. And also, please check out the Stay Curious Metabolism newsletter on this topic and many other topics. That's where you'll find all the references and get early access to more content. And if someone asks a great question in the comments here or on X or on Instagram or in the newsletter comments on anything that I might have missed or overlooked, and I often do, there's a lot of content out there, I am always happy to write amendments in these newsletters. So you can go back and check these periodically for updates. Anyway, stay curious, my friends, and enjoy some delicious salmon.

So yes, I'm walking around Boston with a frozen piece of fish. Why? Well, honestly, I needed to generate a clickbaity thumbnail. Yes, it was clickbaity, but clickbaity with a purpose. The fact of the matter is I have some things that I really want to tell you, and I want to get that message out to more people. So to put things in an engaging package with a good thumbnail and fun title really gets more people to click, and hopefully you got something out of this actual video. It's all about just generating, you know, a social experiment, collecting social data. In order to amplify a voice, amplify a message. And actually, it's a social experiment on people in Boston as well. It's really interesting to see how people react, and it's a decent way to make new friends.

Sorry, I didn't mean to be—

No, no, no, it's perfect.

I was just talking to some people from, uh, Atlanta, and they were telling me about, you know, what they're doing here. They were asking me about why I was holding a fish. We had a great conversation that spiraled into dialogue about, you know, issues in healthcare and medicine today and ways to reach the general public about scientific topics that could be beneficial to their health. So yeah, I'm kind of goofy, sometimes kind of outrageous, but honestly, it's kind of fun. So I guess the question is, was this video valuable to you? And, uh, what would you do if you saw me out in public holding a piece of fish?