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.

When: Friday, November 7 through Sunday, November 9
Where: Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport, Burlingame, California
What: Click here to learn more.
How: Click here to register.

supplements contain only unrefined oil from wild Alaska Sockeye Salmon: a fish whose renowned purity is reflected in the pristine contents of our naturally colorful capsules.

Unlike standard fish oils, our naturally pure Sockeye Salmon Oil does not need to be chemically refined: a process that can damage omega-3s. Instead, our oil's purity and potency are certified by NSF.

As a result, our whole, unrefined Sockeye Salmon Oil retains all of the omega-3s (EPA & DHA), vitamin D, phospholipids, and fatty acids natural to whole Sockeye Salmon. 

The rich orange hue of our Salmon Oil comes from its natural complement of astaxanthin: the super-potent antioxidant pigment that gives Sockeye their distinctive color and protects our Salmon Oil's abundant omega-3s from oxidation.

In addition, ours was the first Salmon Oil supplement certified as sustainably sourced by the Marine Stewardship Council.

We encapsulate our Salmon Oil in pure fish gelatin, and offer special varieties for special needs:

• Smaller Softgels (500 mg)
• Liquid Salmon Oil for children and folks who may have trouble swallowing our 1,000 mg softgels
• Lemon-Flavored Salmon Oil for folks who experience bounce-back.

Vital Choice Salmon Oil (top left) vs. two standard fish oils

Folks who’ve tried our Hot-Smoked Alaskan Sablefish know that the essence of natural alder wood highlights the inherent appeal of this incredibly rich fish.

In Japanese, “tataki” means sushi-grade fish that's been quick-seared on the grill, leaving all but the exterior uncooked.

Folks who tried an advance taste of our Tuna Tataki say we hit the ball out of the culinary park!

Environmental
Stewardship Program

Vital Green™ is our pioneering environmental program that does 4 things:

1) Fight global warming by offsetting the impacts of shipping.

2) Enable recycling of foam shipping cubes via our innovative FREE program.

3) Support seafood sustainability and promote a green partnership with our customers.

4) Offers an online, clickable e-Catalog to save trees and energy.
 

To learn more, and get instructions for recycling foam shipping cubes from Vital Choice, visit our Vital Green™ page.

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"!
 

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.

Encouraging findings from a pilot clinical trial add more evidence that omega-3s boost brain function in people suffering from mild mental decline.

The results flowed from a group of volunteers diagnosed either with Alzheimer’s disease or with “age-related cognitive decline or ARCD (garden variety senility).

And they fit with the implications of a concise evidence review published last year by researchers from Quebec’s Laval University.

The Quebec team paid particular attention to DHA: the omega-3 that constitutes a large proportion of the fatty acids in brain cell membranes and is essential to proper brain function.

Key Points Small clinical trial shows that fish oil boosts brain performance in patients with mild forms of mental decline and Alzheimer’s. Results support prior suggestions that omega-3-rich-diets may delay brain decline, and may help curb senile conditions in their milder, earlier stages. Omega-3s produce multiple physiological effects that could explain their observed brain-performance benefits in older people.

We are in the midst of a burgeoning health crisis in this country, and some are beginning to suspect that the production, promotion and consumption of poor-quality and processed food are largely to blame.

Conventional packaged foods are filled with corn syrup and hydrogenated oils — just two of many "fake foods" I advise people to avoid — forcing nutrition-savvy shoppers to focus on fruit, vegetables, meats, and milk.

But due to the vast industrialization of agriculture even fresh foods are not at their optimum potential. Most—except organically grown foods—have been exposed to pesticides, hormones, and a growing list of synthetic chemicals employed to maximize profits. Declining soil health is another factor.

These trends are coupled with the widespread misinformation about the value and role of dietary fats and a continuing decline in traditional food ways. Ironically, while everybody wants to eat good food and are amateur restaurant critics, few people are clear about what constitutes good food or how to prepare it for their own table.

 

__________ Visit Vital Choice  in San Francisco Vital Choice is proud to co-sponsor the Ninth Annual Weston A. Price Foundation conference, titled Wise Traditions 2008.   This showcase for traditional foods is a unique learning and sharing opportunity for laymen and health professionals alike.   We hope to see you there!   When: Friday, November 7 through Sunday, November 9 Where: Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport, Burlingame, California What: Click here to learn more. How: Click here to register

Gradually, I was forced to "forage" outside supermarkets for the best foods and seek the truth about nutrition outside the academic/governmental mainstream. Eventually, I even had to look beyond the advice offered by most sources of alternative nutrition information.

Weston Price: Taking Nutrition Forward into the Past

My quest for time-tested nutrition wisdom led me to the work of the Weston A. Price Foundation. I was cruising the aisles of a health fair in Bethesda, Maryland, when I spied a brightly covered book lying on an otherwise empty table. The yellow cover caught my eye, but the title caught my attention: Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and Diet Dictocrats.

As it turns out, the co-author, Sally Fallon, couldn’t make it to the show that day so sent her book as ambassador. (Sally is shown in the photo below. She had the aid of fatty acids maven Mary Enig, Ph.D. in writing the science portions of Nourishing Traditions.)

I would soon learn that Sally’s insightful cookbook is the new “bible” of the Weston A. Price Foundation, an organization dedicated to spreading the nutritional findings of visionary researcher Weston A. Price, DDS. The foundation advocates accurate nutritional education, particularly in regards to the vital role of animal fats in human nutrition.

[Editor’s note: Nourishing Traditions and other enlightening books are available ...

A huge gold and metals mine is slated to open near pristine Alaskan rivers that host the world’s biggest wild sockeye Salmon runs.

Those sockeye runs begin and end in Bristol Bay: a once-obscure place newly famous for its connection to the Palin family. (That's Governor Sarah Palin at left, working on a Bristol Bay salmon setnet skiff.)

In addition to fabulously delicious, healthful salmon the Bristol Bay Salmon fishery provides some 17,000 jobs and $100 million to the Alaskan fishing industry, which includes many independent fishermen who migrate there each summer from the lower 48.
 
Folks concerned about the prospect of a salmon-threatening mine near Bristol Bay should know about a recent article in The New York Times.

The Pebble Mine would be one of the world’s largest, and its giant holding ponds would be filled with the kind of metals-contaminated water proven deadly to salmon survival.

And because the huge mine complex would sit smack in the center of the Bristol Bay watershed, independent geologists consider it all too likely that heavy metals and other toxins will reach and pollute key sockeye salmon rivers.

And that could destroy the world’s biggest source of sockeye, by far.

So we want to pass on word of this particularly incisive summary of the Pebble Mine battle, encompassing its status, politics, and prospects concisely and clearly.

The story includes sobering assessments by government scientists and a surprising slip of the tongue from the mine’s CEO that contradicts his company’s bland reassurances.

Given today's article about Greenpeace's bogus Alaskan pollock alarm – and our companion coverage of Alaska's fight over gold vs. fish – it's a good time to review the state’s historic commitment to protection of its fisheries.

Beginning with the famous Yukon Gold Rush, and continuing with the ongoing fight over drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaskans have earned a rather unfair reputation for favoring resource exploitation over conservation, without reservations. 

Eagerness to exploit natural resources is understandable, even necessary, in a state lacking much industry or other sources of income.

But the Alaskans who founded the state in 1959 were wise enough to take strong steps to protect their seafood resources ... especially their salmon fisheries.

That resolve wavered recently when Alaskans voted down even stronger restrictions on water quality, aimed specifically at preventing pollution of salmon streams by the proposed, enormous Pebble Mine. (See “Alaskans Pick Gold Mine over Salmon Protection” .)

But we have faith that when push comes to shove, Alaskans will not let desire for mining dollars destroy their irreplaceable wild salmon resource.

And these 10 points about Alaska's policies on seafood sustainability help explain our faith:

1. Alaska statehood was driven primarily by the desire to take control of the fisheries resource away from the federal government.
2. In Alaska, fishery resources are carefully managed to ensure the long-term survival and abundance of the seafood species, and the health of the surrounding ecosystem.
3. Since Alaska became a state in 1959, its constitution has mandated that “… fish be … utilized, developed and maintained on the sustained yield principle.” This means that only surplus fish over and above the number needed to perpetuate healthy runs are made available for harvest.
4. No species of Alaska seafood has ever been listed as endangered.
5. Alaska has never exceeded the conservative quotas recommended by scientists from the National Marine Fisheries Service.
6. Alaska’s sea lions, otters, birds, and whales are carefully protected, and marine preserves protect hundreds of thousands of square miles of sensitive habitat. More than 40 Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have been established in the waters off Alaska to protect them from human activity.

• 571,000 square miles are closed to bottom trawling.
• Commercial salmon fishing is prohibited in more than 1.5 million square nautical miles of ocean space.
• Approximately 58,000 square nautical miles are closed to mitigate impacts to Stellar sea lions.
• The Aleutian Islands Habitat Conservation Area encompasses 277,100 square nautical miles.

7. Overfishing – the central problem for many fisheries elsewhere – has been prevented or, when necessary, stopped ...

When it comes to seafood safety or sustainability, the facts at hand have often led us to disagree with stances taken by commercial interests and eco-groups alike.

We generally find ourselves on the side of environmental organizations, but follow the facts where they lead.

A recent Greenpeace fundraising email, which claimed a crisis in the Alaskan pollock fishery, aroused our suspicions, so we dug deeper for the facts.

Greenpeace has done some valuable work on behalf of beleaguered fisheries, and against destructive aquaculture practices.

But we think Greenpeace went astray earlier this month with their issuance of a disingenuous report … one based on selective facts and demonstrably inaccurate assertions about the Alaskan pollock fishery.

We wouldn’t bother reporting on Greenpeace’s misleading campaign but for the risk it poses to Alaska’s deserved reputation for rigorous seafood safeguards, which were written right into the state’s Constitution.

The facts often lead us to support Greenpeace positions … hopefully with greater degrees of equanimity.

For example, with some reservations, we generally agreed with the report Greenpeace issued last February, detailing the pressures on fisheries worldwide (see “Devastating Report Details Aquaculture Dilemmas”)

But we had some problems with a report Greenpeace issued last June, in which they ranked the sustainability of seafood offered by major supermarket chains (see “Seafood Report Gives Supermarkets Failing Grades”).

In that report, Greenpeace virtually ignored the proportion of a supermarket’s fish sold with sustainability certification from the widely respected Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) … by implication appointing itself as a greater authority.

Passion is one thing, but arrogance is another matter. Sometimes, Greenpeace crosses the line.

And they seem to have crossed that line with a misleading report on Alaskan pollock populations.

Greenpeace report raises bogus Pollock alarm

Greenpeace sent this fundraising email recently, based on their Alaskan pollock report:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2008

From: Greenpeace <webmaster@greenpeaceusa.org>

Subject: World's Largest Food Fishery in Danger of Collapse

Dear XXXXXX --

I want to share some shocking news with you.

The National Marine Fisheries Service just revealed that populations of Alaska pollock, the largest food fishery in ...

Indonesian cooking ranks among the most flavorful and varied in the world, and features the lively blends of spices typical of equatorial cuisines from Brazil to Bombay.

Sumatra-Style Roasted Salmon with Spinach

Today’s recipe can be halved or quartered. If you reduce the amount of Salmon and spinach, we suggest that you still make the full complement of sauce, as it will be difficult to handle the very small proportions that would result.

Makes 8 servings

Sauce ingredients
1/2 cup (one stick) unsalted butter or coconut oil

1 tsp organic cayenne pepper

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup fresh lime juice

1/2 cup natural tamari soy sauce

2 tsp arrowroot or kuzu powder (or ...