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.

Caution … gaining an extra inch (or foot) around your belly may end up costing you more than a new set of clothes.

A study by scientists at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research shows that people in their 40s with larger stomachs – so-called “central obesity” – have a higher risk of developing dementia.

Evidence from prior studies indicates that being obese or overweight raises the risk of all forms of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease (AD), and that being obese or overweight also promotes the degenerations in brain function associated with dementia.

Research has also shown that having a large abdomen in midlife increases the risk of diabetes, stroke, and heart disease.

There's plenty of evidence that excess belly fat is a bigger risk factor for cardiovascular disease and diabetes than being obese.

But until now, no researchers had investigated whether the same pattern holds true for risk of dementia.

The findings of the new Kaiser Permanente show a similar link between belly fat and dementia, and suggest that the degenerative changes underlying dementia begin decades earlier.

As lead author Rachel Whitmer, Ph.D. wrote in an evidence review published last year, “There is a need to take a ‘life

Rachel Whitmer, Ph.D.

course approach’ and to consider the role of risk factors prior to the onset of old age.” (Whitmer RA, April 2007)

Dr. Whitmer made these key observations (KP 2008):

• “Capturing abdominal obesity in midlife may be a much better indicator of … dementia risk. Measuring abdomen size in older age people may not be as good an indicator because as people age they tend to naturally lose muscle and bone mass and gain belly size.”
• “Autopsies have shown that changes in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease may start in young to middle adulthood, and another study showed that high abdominal fat in elderly adults was tied to greater brain atrophy. These findings imply that the dangerous effects of abdominal obesity on the brain may start long before the signs of dementia appear.”

As our readers and customers know, Vital Choice sells only wild fish and shellfish harvested in a sustainable manner.

And most of our fish and fish products are certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC).

This international non-profit organization was set up in 1997 to promote solutions to the problem of overfishing, and the MSC now runs the only widely recognized environmental certification and eco-labeling program for wild-harvest fisheries.

Importantly, the MSC is the only seafood eco-label consistent with the guidelines for fisheries certification set by the United Nations.

MSC honored by major consumer magazine

Last month, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) received recognition from the British edition of Good Housekeeping magazine.

This award and the publicity attending it are very welcome.

Sustainability certifications like those given by the MSC can help tighten governments’ regulation of fisheries and the behavior of fishing industries.

But this will only happen if a critical mass of consumers begins to demand certified-sustainable seafood, and look for eco-labels like the MSC’s blue oval.

The work of the MSC was recognized at the 4th Annual Good Housekeeping Awards that took place in London on February 25, 2008.

The MSC was given the award for Outstanding Contribution to Food for its work in raising awareness of sustainable fishing and promoting sustainable seafood choices through its blue eco-label.

Here’s how the magazine expressed its reasons for the award (GHM 2008):

• “Tackling the problem of over-fishing and the near extinction of our favorite fish, such as cod and skate, hasn't been easy, but this global, non-profit organization has made many changes of which it can be proud.”
• “There's now a blue fish logo on packaging that's easy for supermarket shoppers to spot in store. Any fish product carrying the MSC logo is guaranteed to come from healthy stocks and will have been caught using non-damaging techniques - reassuring knowledge for consumers.”
• “The website, msc.org, offers a wealth of information, including lists of where you can buy sustainable fish, whether fresh or processed. Plans for the future include certifying schools, restaurants and hotels that feature sustainable fish on their menus.”

Entries for the awards were nominated by a panel of experts, and Raymond Blanc, the Michelin-starred chef who presented the award, made these comments:

“Our seas are a fantastic resource but we have used them without care for too long. Those of us producing food, the chefs and cooks, need to be a part of the process of changing the way we think about fish.”

“The work of the Marine Stewardship Council is so, so important in this if we are to have fish on the plate in the restaurant and at home in the future.” (MSC 2008)

Sadly, a search of the Web site for the US edition of Good Housekeeping magazine yields no information on seafood sustainability, and only skimpy information on related subjects like farmed Salmon.

Vital Choice, sustainability, and the MSC

Certification of fisheries is a slow, laborious process, and it will take many years for the MSC and similar organizations just to assess fisheries that request certification, which is a voluntary, expensive process.

As noted on our Sustainability page, most of the fish and shellfish species we currently sell come from fisheries that are certified sustainable, either by the Marine Stewardship Council and/or by the State of Alaska.

• The State of Alaska certifies as sustainable the fisheries that supply our Weathervane Scallops, Spot Prawns, and King Crab. (To learn how the State acts to protect its valuable Salmon fisheries, see “Alaska Projects Healthy 2008 Salmon Harvest”.)
• The MSC certifies that specific Vital Choice Salmon products come from sustainable Alaskan fisheries: Wild Red™ canned Alaska Salmon, Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon Oil, Pouched Alaska Sockeye Salmon, Silver and King Salmon portions, Alaskan Sockeye Salmon fillet, Smoked Alaskan Sockeye and King Salmon.
• The MSC certifies the sustainability of the fisheries that supply our Alaskan Salmon (Sockeye, King, and Silver), Alaskan Halibut, Alaskan Sablefish, and North Pacific Albacore Tuna as sustainable.  
• The MSC certifies that our Sockeye Salmon Sausages and Burgers contain only sustainably harvested Alaskan Sockeye.

Only two Vital Choice product categories include seafood whose sustainable fisheries are ...

Red-purple grapes and red wine feature a promising antioxidant factor called resveratrol.

New findings add to the already substantial animal and lab evidence of resveratrol’s potential as an anti-cancer food factor.

In animal and cell studies, resveratrol blocks the process of cancer creation and growth at various stages.

Resveratrol is one of the polyphenol antioxidants abundant in grapes, berries, tea, red cabbage, eggplant, beans, whole grains, and cocoa.

It occurs in all grapes and berries (and peanuts) – which produce it to fight off fungi – but is most abundant in blue, red, and purple grapes.

Grape agent sickens pancreatic cancer cells, leaves healthy cells alone

Good news for lovers of grapes, grape juice, and red wine comes from researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

 

Resveratrol’s Metabolic Rewards In addition to its known anti-cancer properties, resveratrol can extend the life spans of yeasts and flies, which suggests its potential as an anti-aging agent useful in delaying age-related human diseases.   Most recently, experiments in rats showed that large doses of resveratrol can improve the physiological factors underlying metabolism-driven conditions like diabetes, dementia, and cardiovascular disease.   (See “Red Wine Constituent Gives Mice Radical Metabolic Makeovers”).     But the doses needed to produce positive metabolic effects in rodents were huge.   Unless scientists succeed in current attempts to create a more potent synthetic counterpart, resveratrol’s powerful anti-aging potential may remain more hypothetical than practical.

Previous studies have shown that resveratrol can prevent cancer-promoting damage to cellular DNA, thanks to its anti-inflammatory effects, antioxidant powers, and its ability to stimulate detoxification genes and suppress internally generated carcinogens (Gatz SA, Wiesmüller L 2008).

Yet despite intense scientific interest in the anti-cancer potential of natural antioxidants, some physicians are concerned that dietary antioxidants might actually protect tumors.

Fortunately, the results of a new study showed that resveratrol increases the damage that radiation therapy does to malignant cells while protecting normal tissue from its harmful effects.

As team leader Paul Okunieff, M.D. put it, “Resveratrol seems to have a therapeutic gain by making tumor cells more sensitive to radiation and making normal tissue less sensitive.” (UR 2008)

What's more, Dr. Okunieff’s team found that resveratrol selectively cripples the cellular energy centers (mitochondria) of pancreatic cancer cells, while leaving healthy cells untouched.

The mitochondria of healthy and cancer cells alike contain their own DNA, and can supply the cell with energy as long as the DNA is intact, allowing these minuscule organelles to function properly.

If resveratrol can throw a monkey wrench into the workings of pancreatic cancer cells’ mitochondria, it may ...

Today’s recipe is adapted from one by Suvir Saran and Hemant Mathur, co-owners/chefs of Dévi, the acclaimed, Michelin one-star Indian restaurant in Manhattan (8 East 18th Street, between 5th Ave. and Broadway).

Saran and Mathur specialize in recreating authentic regional dishes like this one, which hails from Goa, the former Portuguese colony and modern beach resort south of Bombay (Mumbai) on India’s west coast.

Goan-Style Curried Prawns

Prep and cooking time is about 30 minutes.

Makes 3 to 4 servings

1 1/3 pounds wild Pacific Spot Prawns, peeled and deveined

Sea salt

Organic ground black pepper

1/8 teaspoon organic cayenne pepper

¼ cup organic extra virgin olive or macadamia nut oil

4 dried red chilies

About our Wild Spot Prawns Virtually all commercial Shrimp and Prawns – but not ours – are dipped in a chemical solution to keep the shrimp shells from turning black . We’re proud to compare this unappetizing array with our pure, simple ingredient list: “Wild Pacific spot prawns, sea water”. Our pure, delicious Spot Prawns are harvested sustainably in cold, clean waters between Washington State and Southeast Alaska. They come packed in convenient tubs that contain nothing but the same clean seawater in which these tasty crustaceans once swam … with no additives of any kind.

1 3-inch piece ginger, peeled and minced (or 1 Tbsp ground organic ginger)

1 medium red onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped (or 2 tsp organic garlic granules)

2 teaspoons ground organic coriander

1/2 teaspoon organic turmeric

3 cups canned chopped tomatoes, with juice

1/2 teaspoon curry powder

1 1/2 cups coconut milk

1 cup chopped fresh cilantro

• Place Prawns in a gallon-size container, and add 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon black pepper, and cayenne. Mix well and refrigerate.
• In a deep skillet or sauté pan over medium-high heat, combine oil and chilies and stir 1 to 2 minutes. Add 1/4 teaspoon black pepper and cook for 1 minute longer. Add ginger, onion, 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon salt and sauté until onion is soft and translucent, 5 to 8 minutes. Add garlic, ground coriander and turmeric and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute.
• Reduce heat to medium-low and add tomatoes. Stir, scraping sides and bottom of pot, for 1 minute. Increase heat to medium-high and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring often.
• Stir in curry powder and cook for 1 minute. Add coconut milk, bring to a boil, and add Prawns. Bring to a simmer and cook until Prawns are opaque, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in cilantro. Serve with rice (preferably, brown basmati).