Could your body be swimming in toxins thanks to a “healthy” meal?
It may well be, if you believe the old adage “you are what you eat”! Especially when it comes to the fish you buy.
So, do you know where your fish comes from?
There are two kinds of fish you should know about: farmed and wild. Farmed fish is just as it sounds: raised in an aquatic farm setting with unnatural conditions. And wild fish is, well, wild fish caught in open waters.
Unless you know precisely where the fish in your salmon fillet, tuna melt, or even your fish sticks comes from, you might be eating farmed fish. And that’s a bad thing.
Why? Because of the following four health dangers of farmed fish:
- Antibiotic Resistance. Farmed fish are fed antibiotics to help them survive their confined compounds. The antibiotics are meant to fend off the bacteria crawling in these spaces. And regardless of the amount, researchers say even low antibiotic levels in food can create drug-resistant bacteria in humans — which is never a good thing!
- Pesticide Exposure. Fish farmers also feed their fish pesticides to kill off sea lice. One study showed that cancer-causing PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) from pesticides are 16x more common in farmed salmon than wild salmon! What does this mean for you? Well, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency, it wouldn’t be safe to eat fish more than once a month at the PCB levels found in this study!
- Harmful to the Environment. Traditionally, farmed fish have been fed other wild fish. This practice is unsustainable for ocean ecosystems and contributes to overfishing. That’s why the aquaculture industry is shifting to crop-based feed ingredients, like soy, to replace wild fish as a feed source. But this shift comes with its own set of issues! Now, the environmental impact of farmed fish may include nutrient and pesticide runoff from industrial crop production.
- Highly Inflammatory. Farmed fish are fattier than wild-caught fish, with higher omega 6 concentrations. Omega 6 fatty acids aren’t bad in and of themselves. You do need them, but when you get far more omega 6s than omega 3s, it can trigger dangerous inflammation. And as you may know, inflammation is the starting point for countless diseases and disorders (including osteoporosis).
So you’ve read the case against farmed fish. But what about wild fish? Why do I strongly recommend you eat wild fish? Well, quite simply because wild fish is the opposite of farmed fish. The four health dangers I mentioned above don’t apply to it!
Wild fish aren’t raised in artificial conditions like farmed fish. They aren’t harmful to the environment, and they’re rich in nutrients your body needs to survive.
In fact, many wild caught-fish are rich in one of nature’s greatest anti-inflammatory agents: omega 3 fatty acids.
They’re also high in protein, plus bone-friendly vitamins and minerals like vitamins D and B12, selenium, phosphorus, and more.
So next time you’re craving fish for dinner, consider going with wild-caught instead of farmed. That way, you’ll skip all the downsides of farmed fish, and get the most health benefits out of your meal!
By Dean Neuls
Dean Neuls is the Co-Founder and CEO of AlgaeCal. He is a natural health author and student of bone health science who is passionate about helping people & bettering lives.
