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.

Young children who consume substantial amounts of omega-3s from fish and/or fish oil appear less likely to develop type 1 diabetes.

This finding – which we reported here last fall – will be tested by University of Minnesota researchers in the pilot clinical study described here.)

Now, the results of an evidence review suggest that vitamin D – another nutrient that’s abundant only in fatty fish – may help deter this lifelong disease.

Key Points Prior epidemiological evidence links low vitamin D levels to increased risk of type 1 (childhood) diabetes. New analysis finds a 30 percent, dose-dependent risk reduction in kids taking supplemental vitamin D. Vitamin D regulates the immune system and helps fight viral infections, which are believed to trigger type 1 diabetes. Animal study finds that vitamin A and grape powder protect mice from artificially induced type 1 diabetes.

As Dr. O’Connor said, “It could be that moderate-intensity exercise is too much for people who are already fatigued, and ...

Time and again, factory-style Salmon farms have suffered devastating epidemics of a viral disease called infectious salmon anemia (ISA).

And now the problem has spread to Chile's infamously sloppy Salmon farming operations, which are mostly run by big European firms.

Incredibly, these firms experienced the same problem in Europe for the same reasons ... a textbook case of repeating the same mistake and expecting a different outcome.

About one in three Chilean Salmon are sold in American restaurants and food markets, including Costco and Safeway stores.

 

Key Points Overcrowding invited a devastating viral infection, despite disasters in Europe brought on by similar practices. Virus fiasco echoes experience with sea lice on British Columbia’s Salmon farms. Epidemic highlights the power of Salmon factory farms to evade regulation in regions that want jobs.

Last week, industry magazine IntraFish reported that Safeway told its buyers to reduce purchases of Chilean Salmon, sending shock waves through Chile’s $2.2 billion farmed Salmon industry (Cherry D 2008).

Costco says its quality inspections will screen out any problem fish. 

A predictable problem: The history of ISA infections on Salmon farms

Factory Salmon farms in Norway, Scotland, and Eastern Canada have all fallen prey to this disease, which thrives when the underwater pens used to grow farmed Salmon are grouped too closely together, to save costs.

The ISA virus was first detected in 1984, in Norwegian Salmon farms. Claims that it would remain isolated to Norway proved false when ISA appeared in New Brunswick (Canada) Salmon farms in 1996.

The virus reached Scottish Salmon farms in 1998: the year when ISA infections forced a quarter of New Brunswick’s Salmon farms to close temporarily and led operators to slaughter more than 1.2 million farmed Atlantic Salmon in an effort to control the disease.

In October 1999, biologists with the Atlantic Salmon Federation discovered wild Atlantic Salmon infected with the ISA virus in New Brunswick’s Megaguadavic River, which was the first documented instance of wild Salmon carrying the deadly virus. (The Atlantic Salmon Federation biologists also discovered the source: escaped farmed Salmon with ISA.)

This virus can be carried by escaped farmed Salmon, and by the sea lice that plague overcrowded Salmon farms.

This makes industrial Salmon facilities breeding grounds from which the deadly viral infection can and does spread to wild fish, including wild Salmon.
  

Virus appears on Chilean farms, virtually invited by crowded conditions
ISA was first detected in Chilean farmed Salmon last July in crowded aquaculture areas in Region 10 – the so-called Lakes region – which hosts most of the industry.

(We’ve reported on problems at Chile’s Salmon Farms before: see “Chile’s Salmon Farms Accused of Drug and Worker Abuses”.)

Spreading much faster than expected, the virus was detected further south just six months later, on a Salmon farm in Chile's Region 11.

The Times ran this cogent quote from Dr. Felipe Cabello, a professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at New York Medical College, who has studied Chile’s fishing industry: “All these problems are related to an underlying lack of sanitary controls. Parasitic infections, viral infections, fungal infections are all disseminated when the fish are stressed and the centers are too close together.” (Barrionuevo A 2008)

The ISA virus is not harmful to humans, but it can make the fishes' flesh mushy: one reason why Safeway is cutting back on Chilean Salmon.

And in recent years, the same conditions that led to its appearance in Chile induced many other illnesses. Even Salmon farming companies admit that these other, non-viral, infections have forced them to use of large amounts of antibiotics, including, critics note, veterinary antibiotics banned in the United States.

Observers in Chile note that there is a huge black market in antibiotics in Chile, whose regulators have not yet created a system to reliably record the use – or abuse – of anti-bacterial and anti-parasite drugs.

Major Salmon farmer admits to profit-induced indifference
To date, the ISA virus has mostly affected Salmon raised by Marine Harvest, a very large Norwegian company that produces about 20 percent of Chile’s farmed Salmon.

The New York Times story also featured some mind-boggling admissions from Marine Harvest spokesman Arne Hjeltnes, who admitted that antibiotic use was too high in Chile and that crowding between fish pens had contributed to the problems.

Mr. Hjeltnes said that Marine Harvest welcomed tougher environmental regulations.

But one wonders why a large, operationally savvy Norwegian Salmon farm company would need to be told to follow the steps they took in Norway years ago.

The answer, from Marine Harvest’s press person, boggles the mind: “Some people have advocated that this industry is too good to be true. But as long as everybody has been making lots of money and it has been going very well, there has been no reason to take tough measures.” (Barrionuevo A 2008)

Mr. Hjeltnes went on to tell the Times that the current crisis was “eye-opening”, even though his company experienced ISA epidemics in Norway, created by the same conditions the company has created in Chile.

Far-reaching ripple effects of Chile’s Salmon farms

Dr. Cabello told the Times that antibiotics residues have been detected in Chilean Salmon exported to the United States, Canada and Europe.

And he estimated that, compared to Norway and the US, Salmon producers in Chile use 70 to 300 times more antibiotics.

While legal in Chile, some of these antibiotics – such as flumequine and oxolinic acid – are not permitted in American ...

Scandinavian Sardine Spread
This Scandinavian-style spread from Andrew Weil, M.D. (www.drweil.com) is delicious on dense, thin-sliced pumpernickel bread or whole grain crackers.  
Serves 1 or 2

1-2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon onion, finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

• Drain the fish and mash them with a fork in a bowl together with the mustard.
• Add the onion and lemon juice and stir.
• Spread on whole grain bread, brown pumpernickel bread, or whole grain crackers.

Copyright 2004 Weil Lifestyle, LLC