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The Benefits of Wild Caught Fish and How to Source it Sustainably
From both an environmental and a nutritional standpoint, supporting sustainably sourced fish is something that matters a great deal to me. Just like meat that comes from properly raised animals that have access to pasture and sunshine, seafood caught using sustainable practices with an awareness for the environment should be a huge priority. From a nutritional standpoint, wild caught fish offers more benefits, like higher levels of beneficial omega-3 essential fatty acids. Of course, the taste and freshness of wild caught isn’t even comparable. Wild caught fish is in a league of it’s own.
The Benefits of Wild Caught Fish and How to Source it Sustainably
Wild Caught vs. Farmed
The ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fat of wild salmon, is far superior to farmed. Farmed salmon has a 1-1 ratio of omega-3s and omega-6s (due to the “junk food diet” they are fed), while the ratio for wild salmon is generally between 6 and 9 to 1, which is a much more ideal and healthful ratio.
Wild salmon swim around in the wild, eating what nature intended them to eat. Therefore, their nutritional profile is more complete, with micronutrients, fats, minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants like astaxanthin (which is what gives salmon its pink or red colored, flesh.)
In my opinion, farmed fish are the aquatic equivalent to factory farmed livestock, or confined animal feeding operation (CAFO) animals. Farmed fish generally live in very small, crowded quarters – typically pens or cages submerged in lakes, ponds, and other bodies of salt water, but sometimes on land as well. They also produce toxic waste, and fish of inferior quality. These fish are further contaminated by drugs and genetically engineered corn and soy meal feed, and in the case of salmon, synthetic astaxanthin, which is made from petrochemicals that are not even approved for human consumption. Wild caught fish, on the other hand, are caught by fisherman out in their natural habitat 1http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/04/15/wild-alaskan-salmon.aspx
References
1. ↑ http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/04/15/wild-alaskan-salmon.aspx -
Tuna and Arugula Salad with Avocado, Black Olives & Lemon Parsley Vinaigrette
Sometimes you find yourself in places and situations you hadn’t planned. Life is funny that way. How do you handle it? Can you roll with the punches? I like to believe that ultimately there is a plan for me, it helps with those little bumps and the unplanned surprises. As Seane Corn, one of my favorite yoga teachers says “everything happens as it is supposed for our souls to transform”. Not only do I now believe and live by this, but it has also allowed me to be much more open and flexible in my life. I know that things unfold as they should, oftentimes to teach me something. It has allowed me to see things with clearer eyes and to allow things to transform and evolved as they are meant to. I wasn’t always able to do this. This is a practice I have been working at for sometime now. In the past, if I set a plan and things veered off course, I would at times get a little freaked out and possibly allow to ruin my day or whatever situation I was in. It was never fun. Not only did it make the situation harder to deal with, but it made me harder to deal with. It’s not to say that is still doesn’t happen now and again, that I too don’t need these reminders once in a while.
What does this have to do with a tuna salad I’m sure you are wondering? The first time I made this salad, was in one of these very situations where I was being tested. My husband, Mark, and I, were planning a quick summery dinner of grilled ahi tuna steaks. We bought these beautiful wild-caught tuna steaks and I had planned an Asian-inspired meal around them, we were going to to serve them over cauliflower rice with a quick arugula salad on the side. I was thinking ginger, coconut aminos, garlic, sriracha. I asked Mark to grill them up quick, a task he has done many, many times before. Seared tuna steaks need but a couple minutes per side, to keep that beautiful rare center that this particular cut lends itself so well to. Overcooked tuna steaks can be a bit dry and tough.
