Trading Up Downtown

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a wonderful event called “For the Health of It,” which included a lecture, cooking demonstration, and Yukon River Salmon tasting. I wrote about the event in detail on my personal blog, but here are some highlights from it:

The main event kicked-off with a fascinating lecture from Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, DrPH about what consumers need to know about seafood, omega-3’s, and health. Dr. Mozaffarian said a lot of interesting things, including:

• Eating 1-2 servings of fish per week significantly reduces your risk of coronary heart disease
• Salmon has the highest omega-3 content of seafoods; it has 5.2 g compared to 0.3 g in canned tuna (per 100g serving)
• Omega-3’s are extremely beneficial to the brain development of infants
• One should avoid shark, swordfish, tile fish, and king mackerel since they have high levels of mercury

During the live cooking demonstration, we learned how to prepare two salmon recipes: Brown Bag Salmon and Salmon Ceviche–  each of which looked so simple to make. I can’t wait to try cooking them myself!

Even since the “For the Health of It” event, I have been obsessed with eating salmon. It’s just so good for you! Atlantic salmon, for instance, scores an 87 on the NuVal scale. But, when I dug deeper into the NuVal scores for salmon, I got a little confused.

There were so many different varieties of salmon (i.e. King, Chum, Pink) and ways to eat it (i.e. fresh, frozen, canned), no wonder I was confused! So, I asked Rachel Rodek, Registered Dietitian and NuVal’s Nutrition Communications Manager, to help me make sense of some of the salmon scores. Here’s what she said:

Because each type of fresh salmon contains a different amount of omega-3 fatty acids, this becomes the score’s primary driver.  One reason for varying omega-3 quantities is the fish’s diet, which differs depending on its origin.

For example Atlantic Salmon (NuVal score 87) which are primarily farm-raised, have a tightly controlled diet and can be fed to increase their omega-3 content.  On the other hand, Pacific Salmon are primarily caught wild and include King/Chinook (Score 56), Chum/keta (Score 69), Coho and Pink (Score 72), and Sockeye (Score 82).

When salmon is then smoked or canned, sodium is added in processing which drives the score down dramatically.  However, canned salmon does contain omega-3s and if minimal salt is added, can be an example of high nutrition quality for low cost per ounce.  Demings canned Wild Pink Salmon scores an 81!

Category: Uncategorized by Tina