Nutrition Videos

Hi! I'm Stelios Pantazis. I'm a doctor and I specialize in medical nutrition and metabolic disorders. Today, we're talking about the most toxic food in the world, salmon, and specifically farmed salmon. Then, I'll tell you what you can do to protect yourselves and your loved ones. I'll present a study published many years ago which made me stop recommending farmed salmon in the two medical nutrition centers that I manage. In 2004, a study was published that measured the toxin levels in 700 fish of a total weight of almost 2 tons bought in big cities in the USA and Europe. Researchers examined farmed salmon and wild salmon and they measured 14 chemicals, including toxic ones, such as PCB, dioxins, dieldrin and toxaphene. These are all lipophilic toxins accumulated in fish fat. Unfortunately, the findings were shocking. The researchers concluded that the toxins accumulated in the fat of farmed salmon were many times more than those in wild fish. These toxins include dioxins and PCB, which both increase the risk of some cancers and are harmful for the developing brains of embryos and infants. The average dioxin level in farmed salmon was 11 times higher than that in wild salmon, while the average PCB level was nine times higher. The study also linked the dioxin levels with the location. Namely, European farmed salmon was more contaminated than the fish from North or South America. The most contaminated samples came from Scotland and North Atlantic. The least contaminated farming samples came from Chile and the USA. However, even the least contaminated farmed salmon still had significantly higher toxin levels than wild salmon. The reason farmed salmon has more toxins is the food given to it. A fish meal consisting of ground fish, and a fish meal consisting of just few types of ocean fish. These types accumulate toxins from contaminated water coming from agriculture and industry and ending up in the ocean. After these scientific findings, researchers recommend that we limit the consumption of farmed salmon to just half to one meal a month, namely 50-100 gr/month. What can consumers do to protect themselves and what are the alternatives? First of all, you'd better stop eating farmed salmon immediately or significantly reduce its consumption. Dioxins stay in our body for almost our whole life, they gradually accumulate in the fat and harm our health virtually forever. The next alternative is wild salmon. This solution will significantly limit your exposure to toxins, but it will harm your pocketbook, because wild salmon is rather expensive. In my opinion, it's not worth the money. The best solution is small and affordable fish that you'll find in fish shops: sardine, anchovy, mackerel, bogue and chub mackerel are very affordable fish that are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, the good fatty acids that we find in fish. This is the fish you should eat systematically. Studies have shown that their toxin levels are very low, like their cost. Of course, they're healthier when eaten grilled or boiled, and not fried. If you thought this was interesting, please give us a thumbs up. Share it with people who you think might find it interesting and subscribe to our channel in order to get notified when we upload a video. You can also suggest subjects in the comment section. Thank you very much!