A new study examining the dioxin content of wild and farm-raised salmon indicates that people should avoid eating farm-raised salmon.

After analyzing the dioxin content of farm-raised and wild salmon captured in different regions, a g roup of North American researchers found that farm-raised types contain between 3 and 10 times more dioxin than wild salmon.

Using guidelines from the World Health Organization, the researchers calculate that consumers should eat fewer than 10 meals of farm-raised salmon per month, and limit fish that’s raised on northern European farms to 4 times per month.

In addition to dioxin, Farm raised salmon also contained more “polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), toxaphene and dieldrin.”

Ideally, a person requires the omega-3 fatty acids contained in several servings of fish a day, which is the diet that our pre-human ancestors evolved on, and the Japanese continue to eat to this day. Only being permitted 10 servings of salmon (and many other fish) a month severely limits a person’s ability to get adequate omega-3s, so I believe a fish oil supplement is absolutely essential to everyone’s health. The only question then becomes:

Are fish oil supplements subject to the same shortcomings as fish have become?

The answer is absolutely. If you do consider taking a fish oil supplement — and you should — you should make sure that it’s a highly refined pharmaceutical grade fish oil that’s been tested by the International Fish Oil Standards organization. Very few brands pass these standards, but you can contact me if you would like information on which ones to buy.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 16th, 2005 at 5:48 pm and is filed under Toxins in Fish. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.