Vital Choice smoked Salmon is far superior to the notably greasy stuff made with farmed fish.  

After curing in natural alder wood smoke, our Smoked Sockeye Portions and silky, cold-smoked Sliced Nova Lox are immediately vacuum-packed and flash-frozen.  Thawed and served, they taste as though they came fresh out of the smoker.
 

Don't overlook our Smoked Salmon Sampler, which is our best smoked value by far. It has just one drawback: you'll get hooked on every part, and especially on our addictive Yukon King Salmon and Yukon King Salmon "Candy"!
 

Earn rewards with our popular HealthWise “frequent shopper” rewards program … the more you spend, the more you get back!

Now, you can enroll anytime, and as always, it’s free!

To see how it works, click HERE.

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

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

The rich, red color of the meat and oil is unlike any you're likely to have had before.

Our minimal processing methods ensure that you'll get the maximum amount of nutrients naturally abundant in Sockeye Salmon.

These include omega-3s, vitamin D, and astaxanthin: the super-potent carotene-class antioxidant that gives the oil brimming in every can of Wild Red its bright orange-red color. (The liquid in standard canned Salmon is pallid and watery by comparison.)
 

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 salt (less than is added to most brands) 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!”

-- Christiane Northrup, M.D.

Sablefish is rarely seen in standard fish markets, but this buttery, flaky, white fish boasts its own rich texture and mind-blowing flavor ... and even more omega-3s than wild Salmon!

In addition to our certified Earth Kosher Sablefish, we feature golden Oven-Ready Smoked Sablefish: scrumptious, steaks infused with delicate alder wood smoke flavor, which cook fully from frozen in just a few minutes.

Foods that contain significant amounts of carbohydrates – grains, fruits, vegetables, and beans – are rated according to the heights they raise blood sugar (glucose).

And the scale used to rank different foods according to how high they raise blood sugar levels is called the “glycemic index” or GI.

Thus, foods rich in sugars or “simple” starches – such as sweets, pastries, and white breads – raise blood sugar to higher levels and are assigned high GI numbers.

Conversely, the carbs in fibrous, low-GI foods – such as green vegetables – break down slowly during digestion, releasing glucose gradually into the bloodstream.

Recently, a Australian research group reviewed dozens of prior studies and found persuasive evidence that diets dominated by foods with high GI numbers lead to a higher risk of common lifestyle diseases.
 

The authors include renowned blood-sugar and diabetes researcher Jennie Brand-Miller, Ph.D. (pictured above), co-author of The Low-GI Diet.
 

Review affirms negative impacts of sweet, starchy diets

The authors of the meta-analysis analyzed the results of 37 “prospective-cohort” studies that involved a total of nearly two million healthy men and women (Barclay AW et al. 2008).

The review’s Aussie authors found that the people who ate the diets highest in foods that spike blood sugar levels (high-GI foods) were more likely to develop diabetes, heart disease, gall stones, and some types of cancer.

According to lead author Alan Barclay of the University of Sydney, “The key message from this study is that the GI of your diet is a powerful predictor of disease risk.” (USNSW 2008)

Because GI ranks carbohydrates according to their impact on blood sugar levels, it’s not surprising that they found a link between high-GI diets and greater risk of diabetes.

GI rankings: What does the number mean? Some packaged foods now display their glycemic index (GI) number on the label. This is what the numbers mean:   70 or above = High GI 56 to 69 = Medium GI 55 or under = Low GI   You can look up the GI of most foods here.

As Barclay said, “If you have constantly high blood sugar and insulin levels due to a high GI diet, you may literally wear out your pancreas over time. Eventually it may lead to diabetes in older age.” (USNSW 2008)

They also found a surprisingly strong relationship between high-GI diets and cancer.

The heightened cancer risk comes from the fact that spikes in blood sugar cause the body to release hormones – insulin and IGF-1 – that stimulate cell growth, deter natural “suicide” among pre-cancerous cells, and thereby increase the risk of developing cancer.

Other research shows that high GI diets tend to raise cardiovascular risks, by lowering HDL (“good”) cholesterol levels and boosting triglyceride levels. (And people with low HDL cholesterol and high triglyceride levels are more prone to gall stones, as the Aussies’ new analysis affirmed.)

Top 10 tips for reducing the GI of your diet

The GI database created by the University of Sydney allows you to search for foods by name, glycemic index, or glycemic load.

To search the database and learn more about the glycemic index, go to the University’s Glycemic Index Web site, from which we derived some of these healthy ideas:

1. Include at least one low-GI carb with every meal, from one of four ...

Projections place 2008 Alaskan Salmon harvest near record levels

Two weeks ago, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game released its statewide forecast for the 2008 Alaskan Salmon harvest.

And the estimated 137 million fish of all Salmon species will make 2008 the 18th largest harvest in the past half-century.

With regard to the species we offer, the 2008 harvest will include 672,000 King (Chinook) Salmon, 47.1 million Sockeye (Red) Salmon, and 4.4 million Silver (Coho) Salmon.

The 2008 Sockeye harvest is expected to be in the top 10 Sockeye harvests since 1960, the King Salmon harvest is up by 110,000 fish compared with 2007, and the projected Silver Salmon harvest approximates the most recent 10-year average of 4.6 million.

These healthy numbers support the 2007 decision of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) to extend ...

We’ve received many calls and emails last week from customers who were alarmed by headlines announcing closure of the entire west coast to Salmon fishing.

This move came in response to a steep drop in the number of King (Chinook) Salmon from California’s Central Valley, whose rivers provide most of the Salmon caught from Oregon to Mexico.

(The photo above portrays a biologist from California State University, holding a big Central Valley King Salmon.)
  

As someone who spent more than 20 years as a fisherman in Alaska, my heart goes out to the fishing folk who’ve been hit so very hard by the collapse of California’s King Salmon run.

Fortunately, the Alaskan fisheries that supply our Salmon remain very robust. In fact, as we report elsewhere in this issue, Alaska projects a large Salmon harvest in 2008. (See “Alaska Projects Healthy 2008 Harvest”.)

You will find some more reassuring information on our Sustainability page and in our report on the Marine Stewardship Council’s November, 2007 decision to re-certify the Alaskan Salmon fishery through 2012.

All of our fresh-frozen Salmon (Sockeye, Silver and King) – and some of our canned Sockeye Salmon – comes from the certified-sustainable Alaskan Salmon fishery.

Most of our canned Sockeye comes from the Canadian fishery in British Columbia (BC), which is in excellent shape and approaching independent certification of its sustainability.

Populations of Pink Salmon in parts of BC are threatened by lice from fish farms sited near migratory rivers, but we have never purchased Pink Salmon from BC.

We support the folks in BC who are fighting to save badly threatened Broughton Archipelago Pink Salmon runs from swarms of sea lice generated by industrial Salmon farms sited near migratory rivers. (For more on this topic, see “A Bold Plan to Save Wild Salmon”.)

And we’ll tell you how to help support the fight to save California’s wild Salmon: see “How to Help California’s Kings”, below.

Pacific coast King Salmon runs suffer sudden collapse

Last week, state and federal wildlife officials decided to close seven Pacific coast zones to commercial and sport Salmon fishing.

The closure encompasses the entire King Salmon fishery, which ranges from Oregon's Cape Falcon to the Mexican border.

This drastic action follows several years of steady declines in the numbers of King (Chinook) Salmon in the waters off California and Oregon.

King Salmon that originate in California’s Central Valley account for some 90 percent of wild Salmon landed in ...

More than most vegetables, a particular group of plants called “cruciferous vegetables” appears to reduce the risk of cancer.

This family includes broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, bok choy, kale, kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts, horseradish, mustard, capers, cress, rutabaga, arugula, and turnips.

Its botanical name – Cruciferae – derives from the cross-like marking on the flower-buds of some family members.

Lab research on cruciferous (crew-sif-er-us) vegetables shows that they contain a group of sulfurous constituents – called glucosinolates (gloo-kah-suh-nates) – which, when consume, break down into byproducts that may help curb the growth of cancers in the breast, endometrium, lung, colon, liver, colon, and cervix.

And, in some epidemiological (diet-disease) studies, diets high in cruciferous vegetables are associated with reduced risk of lung and colorectal cancer.

 

Key Points New results expand benefits of broccoli and other cruciferous veggies to defense against free radicals and prostate and bladder cancer. Prior population studies suggest that cruciferous veggies guard against lung and colorectal cancer. We explain how cruciferous veggies help the body eliminate carcinogens. Researchers express caution about taking supplements that concentrate compounds from cruciferous veggies.

While generally positive, the evidence from epidemiological studies is mixed, and much remains to be learned about the effects of various cruciferous vegetables with regard to specific cancers.

Today, let’s take a look at a several recently published studies on broccoli and its cruciferous companions, which shed more light on these vegetables’ potential to protect human health.

Study # 1 – Broccoli compound boosts antioxidant and immune response

The strength of our internal defenses against oxidative stress (free radicals) helps to determine the rate and manner in which people age.

In 1992, researchers from John Hopkins University School of Medicine discovered that broccoli contains a glucosinolate called SGS, which the body converts to a compound called sulforaphane.

The results of a mouse study by researchers at UCLA indicate that ...