Salmon, To Eat Or Not To Eat?

Salmon, To Eat Or Not To Eat?

 

22 Oct 2009

Will the hazards ever end? Mad Cow Disease has made consumers cast an anxious eye at meat. Trans fats are everywhere in our food and harming us all. Now, a report warns us that farm-raised salmon contain excessive amounts of hazardous PCBs. So how polluted are the salmon and how dangerous?

PCBs were used in the 1950s in plastics and several other substances. They were banned in 1977 due to the fear that they might cause cancer. But PCBs linger in water supplies, soil and food long after being used.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a U.S. organization, reports that 70 per cent of the salmon examined were contaminated with PCBs.

But how contaminated? The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the U.S. says that average level of PCBs in salmon should be no greater than 2,000 parts per billion (PPB). The average level found in farmed salmon was only 27 PPB.

This has led to a bureaucratic squabble. The EPA argues that the FDA standards are out of date and that fish containing between 24 and 48 PPB are dangerous. It cautions consumers to eat no more than 8 ounce of salmon a month.

So how hazardous is it to eat farmed salmon? A report from Tufts University in Boston, claims that "Even if the EPA guidelines were known to be the right ones, they are based on the amount of PCBs that are thought to be capable of causing one additional cancer in 100,000 people over a 70 year lifetime!"

So the EPA report shouldn’t send anyone scurrying to the beef or poultry counter. Besides, according to Tufts Nutrition Department, eight ounces of salmon a month amounts to almost three servings and few people are eating even that amount.

The Tufts report adds that last year Americans averaged 4.1 pounds each of fillets and steaks from all fish species, salmon included. So consumers are eating only 5 ounces of salmon a month, less than what is considered safe by the EPA.

So let’s not lose our heads while others are losing theirs. Fish, including salmon, are part of a healthy diet. Like the Naturegg brand of eggs that contain healthy Omega-3 fatty acids, salmon are also rich in Omega-3 fatty acids. These help to protect against heart disease, the nation’s number one killer. How ironic if bombshell headlines scare people away from salmon and directly into coronary attack.

I’m not defending the presence of PCBs in our environment and salmon. But I am defending common sense. It would be great if our world was as pure environmentally as it was years ago. But it isn’t, and remember that PCBs are also in other fish, wild salmon and other foods.

Too much of anything is dangerous. While researching this column I became blurry-eyed, poured a cup of Earl Grey tea for resuscitation and came across an interesting report from The Harvard Medical School.

A 44 year old man complained of muscle cramps. All tests were normal. Later, he admitted to doctors that he drank four liters (about a gallon) of tea a day. But after developing stomach aches he switched to the famous Earl Grey blend. A week later the muscle cramps began, but disappeared when he stopped drinking this blend of tea. He finally limited consumption of Earl Grey tea to one liter and remained well.

It seems a chemical in Earl Grey tea interferes with the flow of potassium ions through nerves and triggers muscle twitching. The moral? "Dose makes the poison".

I’ll continue to drink Earl Grey tea and buy salmon. Moderation in eating salmon, as in other foods, is what smart consumers do. And to decrease the risk of PCBs, I’ll trim fat from fish before cooking. It’s also better to broil, bake or grill fish rather than frying. This allows any PCB-laden fat to separate from the fish.

My advice is to keep an open mind about risks in life, but not so open that your brains fall out. Remember that the risk of eating salmon is a million times safer than the odds in Las Vegas or the risk of inhaling the thousands of cancer-causing chemicals in cigarettes. So continue to enjoy salmon moderately.