Our wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon offers special appeal to those—like many of us here at Vital Choice—who like their wild salmon firm and flavorful.

These sustainably harvested fish are a super-healthy source of protein, rich in long-chain omega-3 essential fatty acids, and potent natural antioxidants.

And sockeye is a nearly unrivalled food source of bone-saving, cancer-curbing vitamin D, with a whopping 1,100 IU per 6-oz serving, or nearly triple the US RDA.

Our flash-frozen portions come vacuum-sealed for superior quality and convenience. Certified Kosher by EarthK

Vital Choice fresh-frozen organic blueberries, strawberries and red raspberries are rich in anti-aging antioxidants, and draw customer comments like this:
“OH MY GOODNESS! I cannot believe the flavor ... the taste reminds me of something from my childhood. Thanks for a great product!

Berries are incredibly healthful foods, and it's smart to seek out organic berries, grown without synthetic pesticides.

Our organic berries come in convenient one pound bags, each yielding about 3-1/2 cups. They freeze well, so you can keep plenty on hand!

If you haven't tried our Wild Red Sockeye Salmon you're in for a treat, because it tastes much fresher and firmer than standard supermarket brands.

The rich, red color of the meat and oil is unlike any you're likely to have had before. And minimal processing ensures that you'll get the maximum amount of nutrients naturally abundant in Sockeye Salmon: omega-3s, vitamin D, and astaxanthin (a potent orange-red antioxidant pigment).

Choose Skinless-Boneless Wild Red, or Traditional Style with skin and soft edible bones for extra flavor and ample calcium.

Both kinds are available with or without added salt ... and several varieties come in EZ-Open pull-tab tops.

“You are providing a wonderful health-giving service to the planet with your business. And it is a pleasure to bring this information to my audience. It is also a pleasure to snap open these little cans of salmon and have an instant healthy meal!”

-- Dr. Christiane Northrup

Michael Pollan is the journalism professor at the University of California Berkeley who’s become a bestselling author, regular New York Times Magazine contributor, and major voice on food issues.

He’s published three provocative but persuasive books on food and culture: The Botany of Desire, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and now, In Defense of Food.

We enjoyed meeting and speaking with Michael at Dr. Andrew Weil's 2007 Nutrition & Health conference, finding him as thoughtful and engaging in person as he is in print.

His In Defense of Food answers some of the questions posed in the bestselling The Omnivore's Dilemma, making it a somewhat more prescriptive, but still very engaging work.

Pollan attacks the current cultural paradigm for food and health – called “nutritionism” by a fast-growing army of critics – which he says turns food into mere delivery vehicles for a collection of chemicals that promote or prevent disease.

As he points out, the nutritionist approach provides fodder for food marketers and media outlets, jobs for journalists, and funding for academic research.

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This dominant, reality-distorting perspective constitutes a serious case of reducto ad absurdum: one that warps public discourse about food and health.

Of course, food is much more than the sum of its parts: a point argued persuasively by two university researchers, as we reported last issue. (See “Whole Foods Seen Superior to Supplements”.)

Michael Pollan describes his central theses in his own words, in the form of the Introduction offered on his web site. The following excerpts come from “An Eater’s Manifesto”, Pollan’s introduction to In Defense of Food:

Red wine, green tea, raw cocoa, and most berries are high in polyphenol antioxidants called flavanols, which have been shown to exert anti-inflammatory effects that help optimize the performance of artery linings (Sacanella E et al 2007).

This effect is one key to the links between all four foods and increased cardiovascular health, as seen in many studies and in preliminary clinical trials.

However, as the authors of a new study on red wine wrote, “Current evidence supports a contribution of [wine and tea] polyphenols to the prevention of cardiovascular disease, but their mechanisms of action are not understood.”

Late last year, these researchers tested the effects of red wine in 10 women, to look for impacts that would help explain its apparent heart benefits.

Red wine protects dietary fats from oxidation

Israeli scientists at the Volcani Center in Bet Dagan conducted a randomized, crossover study, designed to examine the effects of red wine consumption on dietary fat.

One undesirable byproduct of fat digestion – called malondialdehyde (MDA) – is known to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and other conditions.

MDA is created when dietary fats get oxidized by free radicals, and it goes on to damage cells in the arteries and elsewhere.

So, the Israelis decided to look for the effects of red wine on creation of MDA after eating a fatty food.

They served 10 female volunteers dark (fatty) turkey meat, in three different contexts:

A)      Dark turkey meat (nine ounces) plus water to drink (control meal).

B)      Dark turkey meat soaked in red wine after heating, plus a 200 ml (6.7 oz) glass of red wine.

C)      Dark turkey meat soaked in red wine prior to heating plus a 200 ml (6.7 oz) glass of red wine

Each of 10 healthy volunteers sampled each of the meals at different times, and their urine was tested for levels of MDA before and after every meal.

After the “control” meal of plain turkey cutlets plus drinking water, the volunteers’ MDA levels increased.

In stark contrast, meal B produced a 75 reduction in the blood levels of MDA.

Best of all, meal C – turkey soaked in red wine before heating, plus a glass of red wine – totally prevented any rise in blood levels of MDA.

Similar results were seen in ...

The good news about vitamin D just keeps on rolling in.

In the case of a new look at US health survey data, the good news relates to America’s biggest killers, by far.

US study links low vitamin D levels to heart risk factors

It looks like vitamin D could reduce the risk of America's big, mutually reinforcing trio: diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.

Researchers at the Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles examined diet and blood sample data on 15,088 Americans, acquired by the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

Key Points US researchers find dramatically higher rates of diabetes and key heart risk factors among Americans with low vitamin D blood levels. European study finds that 7% fewer people taking vitamin D died over a 5-year period, compared with people not taking vitamin D. Harvard expert reviews the evidence for "D" and is impressed.

The compared the 25 percent of people with the lowest blood levels of vitamin-D levels with the 25 percent of people with the highest vitamin D levels.

While this kind of analysis cannot produce cause-effect proof, it yielded strong, striking results that should prompt more clinical research testing the benefits of optimal vitamin D levels, from sun, supplements, and seafood.

The people with the lowest blood vitamin D levels showed dramatically higher rates of four key heart-risk factors:

• 30 percent more likely to have high blood pressure
• 47 percent more apt to have high triglycerides
• 98 percent more likely to be diabetic
• 129 percent more likely to be obese.

The researchers also correlated low vitamin D with higher rates of fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

 
Women, the elderly, black Americans, and Hispanic Americans tended to have lower vitamin D blood levels.

 

Fish fit the vitamin D bill; Sockeye salmon stand out Certain fish rank among the very few substantial food sources of vitamin D. Among fish, wild sockeye salmon may be the richest source of all, with a single 3.5 ounce serving surpassing the US RDA of 400 IU by about 70 percent:   Vitamin D per 3.5 ounce serving* Sockeye Salmon  687 IU Albacore Tuna  544 IU Silver Salmon  430 IU King Salmon  236 IU Sardines  222 IU Sablefish  169 IU Halibut  162 IU   *For our full test results, click here.

And, more than half of almost all the subgroups surveyed had vitamin D levels that are considered insufficient even under the current standards – less than 30 nano grams per milliliter (ng/mL) – which most experts believe understate the need for vitamin D.

Normal adult vitamin D blood levels range from 20-56 ng/mL, but experts say that adequate blood levels start at 45 ng/ml, and that 80 ng/mL is optimal.

Official US recommendations for vitamin D intake range from 400 to 800 IU in healthy adults to 1,200 IU in women with osteoporosis. These guidelines relate entirely to bone health, and are based on the relationship between vitamin D and calcium.

But we now know that vitamin D affects many other systems in the body, and it appears we need even higher levels to ensure optimal function of all bodily ...