Health benefits of salmon

Feb 11, 2012 by Madhvi recipes    Comments Off    Posted under: Anti ageing nutrition

The health benefits of salmon are mostly due to their high content of ‘good fats’ – omega 3 fatty acids – which have been shown to prevent a host of conditions – heart attacks, stroke and Alzheimer’s disease; also they minimise arthritis symptoms, reduce hypertension and control blood glucose levels.

In addition to all these benefits, people with sufficient levels of omega 3 fatty acids appear to have lower levels of depression, a lower suicide risk and are less aggressive. Salmon is also a good source of vitamin D, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, vitamin B3 (niacin), selenium and magnesium.

I don’t really want to go into the whole controversy about PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and mercury in salmon. If possible, buy organic ocean farmed fish as they have low levels of PCBs and mercury. (Ocean farmed salmon has levels similar to those found in wild salmon; I guess one shouldn’t buy wild salmon because of the worry about declining fish stocks globally, but you can check on www.fishonline.org whether the fish is from an environmentally responsible fishery or not. Alaskan wild salmon apparently is MSC certified – i.e. the Marine Stewardship Council has deemed it an environmentally responsible fishery.)

Fresh versus frozen fish

The other issue that is worth bringing up is that frozen fish is a good option; nowadays a rapid freezing process is used at sea immediately after the fish is caught, so the fresh flavour is retained. When defrosting fish, this should be done slowly (24 hours) in a fridge; this minimises the risk of bacterial contamination.  (Defrosting in water causes the flavour to be lost and diluted. Unless you know a good fishmonger who can guarantee the freshness of the fish, it may be worth buying frozen fish.

Nutrition Information