Page 125 - How to Be a Conscious Eater - Making Food Choices That Are Good for You

what the farmed salmon are fed, which is a face-scrunching
blend of pellets made from fish oil and fish meal (derived from
larger fish), soy and wheat, and sundry by-products of slaugh-
tered farm animals. Excuse me, but what’s a fish doing eating
a cow!? Talk about Frankenfood.

PCBs. Unfortunately, methylmercury isn’t the only toxic chem-
ical that finds its way into our fish supply. After years of
agricultural and industrial uses, chemicals including poly-
chlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, were banned decades ago
because of suspected ties to cancer and skin and liver harm.
But their waste streams have left residual contamination in
waters that fish inhabit. Though reports vary, several studies
have found that PCB levels are much higher in farm-raised
salmon, which is likely caused by the way PCBs concentrate
in oils and fat, which fish meal is high in. Consuming high
amounts poses risks during pregnancy and early infancy,
and the higher up the food chain a fish is, and the more a fish
eats lots of other fish, the more PCBs it’s likely to have. If this
sounds familiar, it’s the same principle of bioaccumulation
that puts predator fish at the top of the no-no list for mercury.
Unfortunately, fattier fish have more PCBs, and those are the
ones at the top of the yes-yes list for omega-3s. (It’s exhausting,
I know. Believe me!)

Pink dye. Krill are also what give wild salmon its enticing bright
pink color. To mimic that color in farmed salmon, artificial
coloring is added to feed pellets, which the fish flesh absorbs.
Salmon farmers use the dye to get their product to sell, since
consumer research shows that almost no one is psyched about
eating a fish fillet that’s gray. The health effects of the dye are
not yet understood, but in the interest of transparency, many
consumers want to know.

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