Best Practices for Buying Seafood and Poultry Meats

Article At A Glance:

• Shopping smart for seafood means buying wild-caught (as factory-farmed fish are high in toxins and low in nutrients)
• Conventionally-farmed chicken almost always contains arsenic, so, opt for organic.

Seafood

When it comes to eating seafood, I recommend wild-caught fish. The differences between wild-caught salmon compared to factory-farmed salmon are staggering. Factory-farm fish are lower in every nutrient and receive antibiotics and artificial colors to make them look more pink and attractive to buyers.

Shockingly, factory-farmed salmon has sixteen times the amount of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) toxins than wild salmon. PCB is a known carcinogen once used to manufacture electrical appliances. Although it has been banned for food processing worldwide, it still exists residually and contaminates salmon feed. Please avoid this harmful toxin and buy wild-caught salmon!

Poultry

You've heard me say it before, and I'll repeat it. When it comes to meat, buy organic. By the FDA's standards, this means that our kids won't be consuming pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics. Also, here's a shocking fact: chicken conventionally farmed often contains arsenic. Arsenic! Researchers from Johns Hopkins University randomly sampled non-organic chicken from several states and found that 100% of them included this poison (a known carcinogen). Yuck! If that's not reason enough to buy organic, I don't know what is.

I also highly suggest purchasing foods that say “pastured” on the label when it comes to poultry. This means that the chickens spend some of their day outside, meaning they'll eat more of a natural diet, increasing their nutrient levels. If you're feeling ambitious and want to go all-out in your healthy eating habits, look for poultry labels that say “air-chilled” as well. Instead of being dunked in a communal pool of chlorinated water to cool it down after cooking, the chicken cools in the air, which means that there is as much as 20% less chance of bacteria contamination.

If buying pastured or air-chilled chicken is a little too extreme for you, no worries. Just make sure it's organic.

Friends, I know I say it repeatedly, but I really can't emphasize how important it is to buy high-quality, organic food. I know it's more work to cook at home, and I know it can be more expensive, but the results make it worth it.

*This website is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for the advice provided by a healthcare professional.

                                                      References

Farmed Salmon and Human Health: The Lowdown on PCBs

Study Show Elevated Levels of Arsenic in U.S. Chicken Mean

Air-chilling Poultry Carcasses: The New Trend 

Use These Principles To Eat Healthy At Restaurants