Ep. 133: Wild Seafood 101

On today’s episode, we’re talking Wild Seafood 101! We’re covering the nutritional benefit of seafood, why wild matters, and if a farm-raised fish is ever a healthier choice.

We’re back with our 133rd episode of the Fed+Fit Podcast! Remember to check back every Monday for a new episode and be sure to subscribe on iTunes!

Find us HERE on iTunes and be sure to “subscribe.”

[powerpress]

Episode 133 Sponsors

• Pride of Bristol Bay – Between November 24th and December 10th (of 2017) get a $2/pound discount + FREE shipping on your order of salmon with the code “fedandfit.”

Episode 133 Links

• Seafood Watch by Monterey Bay Aquarium
• Marine Stewardship Council

Episode 133 Transcription

Today’s show is brought to you by Pride of Bristol Bay, where you can get truly sustainable, high quality, nutritious Alaskan sockeye salmon delivered right to your door. Pride of Bristol Bay’s wild salmon is sustainably harvested in the pristine waters of Bristol Bay, Alaska. Their focused team of fisherman are committed to the highest quality in handling standards at the point of harvest, creating the unsurpassed quality and flavor you’ll find in every one of their wild sockeye filets and portions.

Each case of their wild salmon is labeled with the name of the Bristol Bay fishing district in which the salmon was harvested. It’s the ultimate in traceability. Boxes of supremely fresh frozen filets and portions of the highest quality salmon are delivered to your door, skin on, and already deboned. It is hands down the best salmon I’ve ever enjoyed.

You can learn more about Pride of Bristol Bay and support their important work by ordering your first box of frozen salmon by visiting their website over at www.PrideOfBristolBay.com.

Cassy Joy: Welcome back to another episode of the Fed and Fit podcast. I am your host, Cassy Joy Garcia. I’m really excited to bring you today’s episode. Every once in a while, we like to dive into a really geeky topic, and today’s episode is no except. If you’re a new listener here, welcome to the show. It is a 30-minute nutrition, mindset, overall healthy lifestyle focused show. We publish every Monday, and I’m just thrilled to have you here.

So when we jump into some of these geekier episodes, I really try to do my best to make sure that I’m boiling down some of these bigger nutrition and scientific topics into really easy, digestible pieces of information; no pun intended! Or pun intended, I’ll take that credit.

So today we’re going to talk about wild seafood. So the name of the show is wild seafood 101. It’s a question I get a lot. Just like I did a podcast episode many moons ago; it’s up there if you want to look for it. But it’s about the importance of grass-fed beef. And the difference between that and conventional beef; what’s the actual difference? So today we’re talking in the same vein. What is the real importance of wild seafood? Why does it matter? Is it just another buzzword? You know, gluten free seems to be a big buzzword lately. Are these gluten free crackers actually healthier for me than another cracker?

So what I’m trying to do with the show and some of these especially science-y episodes, is to give you some tools to where you can better navigate and make decisions for yourself and your family. Alrighty! Knowledge is power, right? So let’s jump in and get some knowledge nuggets.

Ok, so we’re going to talk about why wild is important. We’re going to talk about why it’s important for our health. What seafood actually does for our health in general. Whether it’s sourced from a wild or a farmed capacity. And then we’re also going to talk about the sustainability piece of the equation. What does that even mean? What is sustainable seafood? And is how wild seafood caught important? How are fish farmed? Let’s kind of review some of those things. We’re going to answer the question, is farmed fish ever better? It’s an interesting question, and I think it deserves a good answer.

And then I’m going to give you some ideas on what you can do. What do you do with this information now, moving forward and making good decisions. But I don’t want to create any sort of fear; I’m not a fear mongerer. So I just really want you to walk away feeling empowered with good pieces of information, to make some good decisions for yourself and your family. And then I’m also going to give you some other resources. A lot of the information I am going to share with you on today’s show came from the Seafood Watch Group over at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I am such a fangirl of them. I really am, I follow them on all the social media outlets. Goodness. Whoever runs their social media on Instagram and back in the day Snapchat, when I was really active on Snapchat, just does a stellar job. And if any of those people happen to be listening; I tip my hat.

So, they’re a wonderful group and a lot of the information I cultivated today for how wild seafood is caught, and then how farmed fish are farmed. A lot of that came from them, so thank you to them. I will link to them, of course, in today’s blog post.

And then I also have a very special deal that I’m going to give you at the very end of the episode to kind of help you get your hands on some really good, high quality seafood. You’re going to get a lot of bang for your buck, nutritionally. So let’s talk about it. Let’s talk about the nutrition.

Well, first. What is wild seafood? Again, it’s a buzzword. Wild seafood; and if you want more information on this from a true expert in the industry, I highly recommend you pull up episode number 125. It was all about seafood fraud, and what that actually means. And a solution for consumers. I interviewed Matt Luck, the owner of Pride of Bristol Bay. He has an incredible wealth of information when it comes to this stuff. And seafood fraud is a huge passion of his.

But why that leads into answering this question of what is considered wild seafood is, there’s not really a good answer. Sometimes wild seafood is exactly what you would want to think it is. It’s a guy who went out on a boat into the ocean, dropped his line into the water, and caught himself a big old halibut. Right? And that’s what he was there to fish for. It’s in season. It’s totally healthy. It’s not an overpopulated area. Took the fish home. Packaged it. Froze it right away so it’s really fresh, and enjoys that with his family. That is, of course, the ideal scenario of wild seafood. And that’s where you’re going to get the most nutritional bang for your buck with the smallest amount of environmental impact. That’s the ideal scenario.

Now, we have seafood fraud in this country. And again, listen to that episode if you want to learn more about it from Matt. But in a nutshell, seafood fraud is when we are sold something that is actually different from what we think we’re buying. For example, it could be that it’s just a blatant fraud. We think we’re buying wild salmon. It’s labeled as wild salmon. But it’s not. It was actually farm-raised salmon. Or maybe it was salmon that was farmed in a cage in open water, but it was given feed. Or different kinds of fish are given their own kind of feed. So you’re not actually getting fish that was roaming around in the wild, wild west of the ocean. So it can really range big time based on what you’re getting.

And if you’re buying it from the grocery store, there’s also the question of how actually fresh is this fish. So seafood fraud goes beyond just the labeling of wild versus farmed, to also; how healthy is this piece of fish? How long ago was it caught? Where was it caught? How was it transported here? Was it transported at a really great temperature that helps to preserve all of these very fragile nutrients, or was it not? There’s a lot of questions that can be raised.

{laughs} Again, I love the puns, apparently, but there’s really murky waters surrounding wild seafood in this country. So we’re going to talk a little bit about how to navigate some of those waters. But that’s the landscape we’re dealing with at this point in time.

Ok, now let’s jump in. I’m going to put on my nutrition consultant hat, which is what I am. Certified nutrition consultant. So one of the reasons why I have to admit I was first motivated to learn about wild seafood isn’t necessarily the sustainability story is not what drew me in. I am being completely honest here; if I’m an environmentalist, it’s almost by accident. It’s something that I learned about and then became compassionate about. Because it’s a really compelling story. It’s really interesting, and I do feel a sense of responsibility. But the environmental aspect is not what drew me into this conversation.

What drew me into this conversation initially is the impact on really healthy seafood, how that can have an impact on our health. So that we can thrive and live and perform optimally. Us as healthy human beings. So why is wild important? The first note is for our health. And the second note we’re going to talk about is for our earth.

First let’s talk about for our health. The first nutrient that probably comes to your mind are omega-3 fatty acids. Right? And specifically long chain omega-3 fatty acids, which are really, this is one of the very few sources we have of these in our diet. These long chain omega-3 fatty acids. The two of which we’re most concerned about within seafood are EPA and DHA. And I’ll talk a little bit more about each one of those; what they are, what they do with the body.

And essentially, although EPA and DHA can be derived from other sources, the most efficient and effective form of both of those nutrients is going to come from seafood. From actually consuming chewing on a food source. And I’ll talk a little bit about that in a second; especially DHA. How we think it might be derived from another source, but it’s a really inefficient process.

Ok, so first, EPA. I’m going to read you the name of it; I’m probably going to murder it. {laughs} But I just want you to have it in your back pocket. So EPA stands for eicosapentaenoic acid. There’s some chemist out there laughing at me right now. Ok, so EPA. It’s one of the several omega-3 fatty acids found almost exclusively in cold water fatty fish. Such as salmon, sardines, and some studies have found; some of the literature says it is actually better absorbed. EPA and DHA are some of those fatty acids that you’ll find in omega-3 supplements. So part of this argument is, is it better to get omega-3 fatty acids from a food source, or is it better to get it from a supplement. Right? From a fish oil pill.

And what a lot of the more recent responsible literature has come back and said is that we actually assimilate these nutrients better when we eat them from the natural food source. And the idea is we’re actually able to assimilate those nutrients. Because it’s not that you are what you eat, right? You are what you assimilate. And there are all kinds of things that we can consume, maybe in the supplement form, that truly just pass right through. So hypothetically we would need more of them in the supplement form in order to meet whatever minimum requirements our body has.

Whereas if we eat them in the natural form, we’re eating this fish that has EPA, DHA, a bunch of other nutrients we’re going to talk about, other fats, other proteins. It’s a complete food, and our body is essentially given, not just that single nutrient that’s been isolated, but a whole basket of nutrients that work together. The body, your body, can then use all of those nutrients together as one to help assimilate those really good, healthy, long chain omega-3 fatty acids.

So, EPA is one of those really important ones out there. It is an anti-inflammatory fatty acid. Omega-3 in general is considered anti-inflammatory, but the reason why at large they’re considered anti-inflammatory is because they can help counteract the negative impacts of omega-6 fatty acids. And our Standard American Diet, in general, even if you don’t consider yourself following a Standard American Diet, we probably are still getting in too much omega-6 fatty acids. A lot of those come from those rancid seed oils, for example. So omega-3 fatty acids; it’s more about, we need some of both, but the ratio tends to be too many omega-6 to too few omega-3 fatty acids. And so these EPA and DHA fatty acids; these long chain omega-3 that we can get from seafood help to balance out that equation and help to establish a little more anti-inflammatory efforts on behalf of our bodies.

Ok, so EPA is that one. The second one, DHA, which is probably my; if I had to pick a favorite. It’s a little weird to pick a favorite nutrient, but I’m a little bit more passionate about DHA, because it’s so fascinating to me. DHA stands for docosahexaenoic acid. Nailed it! {laughs} It’s another omega-3 fatty acid. And it is actually the primary structural component of the human brain, our cerebral cortex, our skin, and part of our eyes. It’s actually, a little further from that, it’s the most abundant fatty acid of our brain phospholipids.

Some people argue that it’s actually an essential fatty acid. It’s not generally considered an essential fatty acid. An essential fatty acid meaning that you must consume it. You must take it in through your diet in order to be healthy. It is not widely considered to be essential by everybody, but some consider it to be essential because; the reason why it’s not widely listed as an essential fatty acid is because it can be derived from alpha-linoleic acid. But like I said, it’s a pretty inefficient process in the body. So our body would have to backward engineer to get this nutrient that it needs to build all of these healthy tissues. Whereas if we take it in through our diet, we’re guaranteed to get some. Especially if we’re taking it in with all of these other natural nutrients that come with it, like in the form of a piece of fish. A bite of fish.

So it’s interesting. It’s argued by some to be an essential fatty acid, so we need to get it from our diet. It’s also babies, for example, it’s one of the few nutrients that actually passes through the placenta. Not one of the few, but it’s one of the nutrients that passes through the placenta to the baby from the mother. And so it’s one of those interesting things that mom needs to make sure we’re taking those in. We can help build really great human baby brain, spinal, skin, eyes, things like those kinds of tissues. And then again, DHA is passed from mom to baby through maternal milk. So if it’s a formula fed baby, it’s important to make sure that that formula has DHA in it, as well. So it’s pretty interesting.

So those are the two omega-3 fatty acids, long chain omega-3 fatty acids that are so important, that we really only get from fish and from marine algae. We don’t find those forms in, let’s say flax oil, for example. What we get from flax is going to be; {laughs} I was going to make a joke. We get a lot of flak from flax. What we find in flax oil is that ALA, alpha-linoleic acid. Which again, it’s not the end result. We’re not actually taking in directly DHA and EPA. We’re taking in this other nutrient that our body can convert, but not very efficiently.

Ok. Another nutrient that I’m really excited about in fish, and we’re going to get in abundance. All of these we get in even more abundance in really good healthy wild fish that grows and lives in it’s proper environment, where it was meant to thrive. It’s eating all the good little foods that it’s meant to eat. And it’s hanging out with it’s school and all of it’s friends {laughs}. I’m jumping into a Disney movie now, scenario, in my mind.

But if you think about it, food that we are able to source from a true, natural, meant to be environment is going to have more of these wonderful nutrients in abundance. And one of those also is the mineral selenium. This is one that’s not talked about very often, but it is so, so vital to our overall health. And it’s one of those things that we can really get; man, we get a lot of it from wild seafood. Seafood in general, but especially wild, healthy seafood. It’s a vital mineral that’s made use in the body to help combat things like inflammation, disease. It helps to promote healthy thyroid function. It protects against cancer. And it can also balance fertility related hormones. It does a whole bunch of things, but that’s just a nice little highlighted list.

Tuna and salmon are at the top of the list of selenium carrying seafood. Selenium also helps to protect, interestingly enough, against mercury toxicity. It really helps counterbalance against mercury toxicity. So it’s interesting. I’ve seen a couple of arguments that say, it’s not so much that we need to be worried about how much mercury is in our seafood. We need to be looking at the balance between, how much selenium to mercury does it have? Because if it has more selenium, then it’s still a healthy choice. And it’s just an interesting argument. I haven’t quite wrapped my mind around it in its entirety, but I wanted to share a little bit of that.

So it’s a really, really vital, wonderful mineral and nutrient. And if you Google it, like the nutritional benefits of salmon, and pull up, I think self.com has one of the most amazing databases for those kinds of things. You’ll see selenium, what we get even from farmed salmon, for example, we’re going to meet our daily needs and then some. Which is a small serving.

Ok, another nutrient that of course we’re getting from wild seafood is going to be vitamin D. We’re getting a heck of a lot of vitamin D, especially from some of those cold-water fish. Salmon, sardines; those are some of my favorite ones, obviously, I keep going back to them. Vitamin D is one of those really, really important vitamins that we don’t really get from a whole lot of other sources. So we have to be really conscientious of it, and wild seafood is a really good source.

Of course, we get protein. Right? Because we’re consuming a meat. A muscle tissue. And that’s really wonderful, and it’s really good to make sure that we’re staying on top of that stuff! Ok so those are some of the nutritional reasons why seafood is important. Specifically, wild seafood. Because we’re going to get a greater concentration of those really good minerals.

And nutritionally speaking, also. When we’re looking between the difference between wild seafood and farmed seafood. Again, I’m not quite as dogmatic on the nutrition side of this; or I don’t think the importance of this equation weighs more with nutrition as it does. I think it’s important to get seafood, period. But I also think it’s important to look at the sustainability factor. And sometimes; we’ll answer this question specifically, but sometimes farmed might be a better choice depending on where you are, and specifically what the seafood is. And I’m going to give you some tips on how to navigate that.

By and large, wild is better. You’re going to get a better nutrient profile. You’re going to get a better piece of protein in front of you, with a better balance of all of these wonderful micronutrients. So kind of keep that in mind as we move forward.

So the other reason why wild is important is of course for the health of our earth in general. And it’s really interesting; one of the things that I saw that Monterey Bay Aquarium talks about when it comes to the battle against the degradation of our oceans is that it’s out of sight, out of mind. When we look at the oceans, they seem so expansive and so vast. We don’t really; we can’t really see what’s going on below the surface quite as easily as we can look outside and notice that the number of brown pelicans have reduced down on the coast; the Texas coast, for example, where I’m at. There was a big scare; I think it might still be, them being an endangered species.

It’s kind of out of sight, out of mind. And so we don’t always think about it. And that’s why it has become such an issue over time. We’ve over-fished certain species. We’ve definitely over-fished certain areas. We’ve really damaged ecosystems in general because of our fishing techniques. And then when we go into the conversation of farming fish, there are a lot of instances where farming fish has done the same reason we have conventional farming methods of ruminate four legged animals on grass, is because we’re able to increase our yield while decreasing costs. Right, that’s what ranchers are up to. I’m not here to vilify that at all, that’s just basic economics. And when it comes to farming fish, it’s very similar. We’re trying to increase our yield to decrease our costs of going out and fishing and not knowing what we’re going to bring in.

So some of those farming activities can have a negative impact on our earth, as well, and certain ecosystems because of runoff waters. We’ll talk a little bit about that. And then, of course, if some of those farmed fish are released into the; based on the different kinds of farming techniques, they could actually be farmed in open water, for example. While they’re fed certain feed, they’re farmed out there. They could escape, and they can intermingle with the local populations, and spread disease and all these other kinds of stuff. Runoff waters for contained farming systems. The runoff waters can contaminate and spread disease. All kinds of yucky stuff. So it’s a huge conversation, and I’m going to try to keep it; give you just the high-level stuff. This is just the 101. {laughs}

Let’s go ahead and talk about it. Is how the wild seafood caught important? That’s a question I wanted to answer today, and the answer of course is yes. So I’m going to talk about four different ways we can fish for wild seafood. Some of them are great, some of them are not great. And again, knowledge is power. Just being informed consumers, you never know when this might come up and you might be able to make a really good decision that helps align you with consuming something that matches up with maybe your priorities and your goals.

The first one we’re going to talk about are dredges. And a dredge, it’s a metal cage that’s dragged along the ocean floor to capture wild seafood. And overall these dredges; it’s specifically used to harvest shellfish, for example, because it can actually be dragged pretty low. And these can really destroy ocean floors. When they’re dragged across areas that are relatively sensitive, or have a special ecosystem, it can do a lot of damage. So dredges are fine as long as they’re restricted to a certain area.

Gill nets is another one that we’re going to talk about. Gill nets is a long wall of netting. And when you think about the movie Finding Nemo; I think it’s in Finding Nemo. But it’s that long wall of net that fish will swim into and be caught up in. But it can also catch other marine life, like sea mammals and sea turtles. So the solution here to accidentally catching some of these other creatures is to maybe set them a little bit lower to allow for those other creatures to swim above and below. And then to install; interestingly I read a little bit about these noisemakers. These warning noisemakers that could deter maybe the marine mammals, but not deter the fish that they’re meant to catch.

Other wild seafood catching methods; one of them is long lines. It’s essentially what it sounds like. A long line; I found this interesting, can be between 1 and 30 miles long. Isn’t that fascinating? It’s essentially a long line that trails behind a boat, and it has these lines that drop straight down with bait. And they’re usually used to catch tuna and swordfish, those kinds of seafood. But others, of course, can be accidentally caught because they’re attracted to the bait. Some of the solution here is maybe set them a little bit lower so that the other sea life are less likely to run into them.

And then the last option we’re going to talk about for wild seafood; of course there are other things like harpooning and other kinds of nets and all kinds of things out there. But the last one we’re going to talk about is a pole and line. Which is exactly; when you think of somebody fishing, it’s probably what you picture. You picture them standing on the back of the boat. They have a pole out, and a line that drops straight down. Right? That’s pole line fishing. And then there’s trolling lines, which are much longer lines. They go behind the boat, and the boat is in motion. So these lines are pretty fast moving, and they’re used to catch certain kinds of fish.

For the most part, this is probably the best way to go. If you can find seafood that was caught through pole and line or trolling lines, for example, it’s really highly likely that it’s a really sustainable choice, wild seafood choice. Because the likelihood of them catching seafood that they did not mean to catch is low, because they can reel it in, assess what they caught, and throw it back.

Ok. Now let’s talk about farmed fish, just because it’s interesting. So there’s a bunch of different ways, and I’m not going to go into all of them. But I do find it fascinating. Once upon a time I wanted to be a marine biologist, so maybe that’s why I just love researching some of this stuff. I think it’s so fascinating. What I have found, generally, and I’m going to recommend a couple of seafood guides to help you navigate these things. But I’ve generally found that for the most part, farmed shellfish are actually a pretty sustainable source of seafood, versus wild shellfish. And that’s going to vary depending on where you’re going, so I’m generalizing. Please keep that in mind.

But, there’s a couple of different options for farmed shellfish that actually isn’t really that terrible in terms of environmental impact, and based on where it seems to me they are raised, they could also have a very similar nutrient profile. Making them just as healthy on a micronutrient scale as maybe some of the wild counterparts.

So shellfish, there’s a bag and rack option for farming shellfish. They’re raised on racks that sets just above the sea bed. And it’s interesting; for the most part, the wild population there is not tapped for juveniles. The juveniles come from hatcheries. And in this method, they rarely escape. Meaning they don’t then integrate themselves with the wild population there, meaning they don’t have an impact with interbreeding with those populations, so it’s a relatively responsible method.

There’s another shellfish option called suspended shellfish cultures. And this is really fascinating. It essentially looks like a line. So you’ve got a line that floats towards the top of the water. It’s held up there with buoys, and these other lines go straight down. And there are shellfish suspended to the lines that go straight down. And because these certain shellfish, most of them are filter feeders, they don’t require additional food. So even though they’re farmed, and they’re dropped, they’re not actually fed other kinds of farmed foods. So the impact that they have on the natural habitat there is minimal. They’re able to just kind of be there and take in the natural nutrients. So again, on a micronutrient scale, I’d be inclined to hypothesize that they’re going to be pretty much on par with wild.

Ok, other kinds of farmed fish. There are hatcheries. These are fish that are bred in a nursery first, and then released. This is interesting. They’re released for true aqua culture, or for “wild capture.” Aqua culture is when you’ve taken fish and you’re farming it; I don’t think it’s a widely applicable term for a lot of it can be farmed in the open water, but just in its own contained space. And they’re fed their own feed, anyway. We’ll talk more about that in a second.

But some of these hatchery fish are bred in a nursery, they’re started there, and then they’re released into the ocean for what they consider to be wild capture. And then I would be inclined to think that the next part of this story, then, muddies the waters a little bit further when we’re talking about; well, was it wild seafood or was it seafood that was actually born and raised in the ocean in the wild. Did it have really good, healthy algae and all other kinds of food that it’s supposed to have growing up? Or was it bred in a nursery, given feed, and released to be caught and labeled as wild? Really interesting things. These wild captures are dangerous because of course they can interbreed with the local fish, and mess with kind of that established environmental status quo.

Ponds are another way that fish are farmed. When I thought about farmed fish, this is exactly what I had imagined; a pond. Trenches, pools that had been dug out, filled with water. These are very typical for certain kinds; tilapia, of course, is really common. Shrimp is really common. Catfish are really common in these kinds of environments. And they have a really high environmental impact, because the water runoff can be really contaminating to the surrounding area. And then there’s a lot of deforestation that’s going on when they’re trying to build these really large ponds. So that’s really interesting.

Of course, there are other kinds of methods. I won’t bore you with all of them. One of them is called ranching, and it’s really interesting. It’s where they catch juvenile fish; think a tuna. They’ll catch juvenile tuna, and then they will take those juvenile tuna and take those to a farm, and fatten them up with feed before they harvest them. So again, it raises the question. Is it farmed? Kind of like grass. Is it grass-fed, grass finished? Or was it grass-fed for the first however many months of it’s life, and then finished on grain. Right. So are you really getting what you think you’re getting? It’s really fascinating.

So this leads us to the next big question. Is farmed ever better? And to be honest, my answer is sometimes. Like I said with the shellfish; sometimes farmed can be better. Especially if there environmentally speaking, it would be better to let the natural habitat kind of heal and recover. And if that happens at the same time that the farmed seafood could present the same nutritional profile as wild. Then yes, farmed would be better, right? In that instance.

It’s a really complicated question. And luckily, there are some wonderful sources out there. One of them that I’m going to tell you about, of course, my fangirl continues. Seafood Watch, by the Montery Bay Aquarium, they created a fabulous app. You can go straight to your app store, type in Seafood Watch, and go ahead and download it. It’s a free app. And what it will allow you to do is you can search. It will tell you where you are; turn on, of course, your locating service. But based on where you are, it will tell you green, yellow, red. What are the best, ok, and avoid seafood choices based on where you are. Right?

So I’m in Texas. So I would pull that up, and I would see that certain fish are great here wild. Some wild fish I should avoid because they’re being overfished or their habitat is in danger; who knows what it is. So although it may be out of sight, out of mind for us as general consumers, the Seafood Watch, which is a really great name for it. They’re keeping their eye on these populations and doing the work for us. So that’s a really great app to be able to pay attention to. You will find on there; sometimes they do recommend certain farmed fish as better.

And me as a nutritionist, I’m going to say, fish is great for you. Fish is better. {laughs} Fish is better than no fish. And if we’re able to get fish on our plate, mostly wild, right? And sometimes if it’s from a farmed source that is nutritionally just as significant, like the shellfish, then heck. Go for that too.

Ok, so what can we do? What can we do with all this information? Well, number one, of course we can vote with our dollars. We can spend our money on seafood sources that are doing the good fight. Right? They’re out there. They’re fishing responsibly. They’re only fishing in certain areas. They’re not overfishing. They’re packaging their fish really responsibly, right? So they’re catching it and they’re freezing it immediately so that quality is preserved. So we can vote with our dollars to make sure that we’re putting our money towards those kinds of organizations.

We can research a little bit further. We can download the Seafood Watch app, and learn a little bit about what are healthy choices in our area. And then when you go to the grocery store, if you still would prefer to buy fish from the grocery store, which is fine, head to the countertop and ask, do you sell sustainable seafood? Because sometimes that’s a better question than, do you have wild seafood. Because just because it’s wild does not mean it’s sustainable.

And truth be told, it’s hard to know what the real answer is, even to the sustainability question. Because of the seafood fraud concept that’s floating around. So ultimately, I say get to know your brand. Get to know an organization that can supply seafood. Like Pride of Bristol Bay, for example. That’s a brand that I really trust and who have done a fantastic job of sourcing only really healthy seafood in a sustainable manner. And they’re delivering the highest quality fish right to people’s doors. That kind of a relationship is where we’re really able to defog and remove a lot of that smoke and mirrors. But we can start asking questions.

And when we ask questions, we let the grocery store know, and we let the restaurant know that we’re invested in this idea. We really care about sustainability. And we care about where our food is coming from. And we have some questions. It’s not necessarily that we’re trying to pull a Portlandia; if you’ve seen that episode where they’re talking about the chicken. It’s not that I’m suggesting we sit down and we ask about at the restaurant we want to know exactly which fishing district this fish came from. When was it caught. How many friends did it have. What was his nickname in elementary school. Those aren’t the kind of questions we’re trying to ask. We’re just trying to deliver the message in general that we do care about where our seafood is coming from. And we’re tired of the wool being pulled over our eyes.

So what can we do? We can vote with our dollars. We can spend our money; our budget on seafood, on companies and organizations that are doing the work to make sure that they’re getting us responsibly sourced, high quality seafood. And then we can start asking more questions. And we can continue to educate ourselves.

So like I said; to recap. Trustworthy sources outside Pride of Bristol Bay salmon, it’s one of my favorites. I highly recommend you look up episode 125, where we talk a little bit more about seafood fraud with Matt Luck. Man, he’s a fascinating guy with a wealth of information. Seafood Watch by the Montery Bay Aquarium. One day I’m going to go there and I’m just going to geek out over their entire facility. I just love what they’re up to. There’s also the Marine Stewardship Council, where you can learn a little bit more about what’s out there right now and what’s safe. It’s just another resource. I will link to all of these in our show notes.

And then lastly, you made it to the end of the show so I’m going to tell you a little bit about this last special going on. So, Pride of Bristol Bay, one of our proud podcast sponsors. I choose these podcast sponsors very, very carefully. I want you guys to know that. It’s not just that they’re cold-calling, or I’m cold-calling and we just take anybody who comes along. I really want to make sure that if I’m talking about this company on a regular basis, that I really believe in what they’re up to. And I really believe in what Pride of Bristol Bay is up to.

So what they’re offering right now, between November 24th and December 10th, 2017. So if you’re listening to this episode when it comes out, you have approximately a little over a week to take advantage of this offer. If you go through and you order a box of salmon, wild-caught, flash frozen, deboned salmon in either the large filets or the individual serving portions, and you use the code Fed and Fit when you check out, they will give you a $2 per pound discount. Which is huge! And, free shipping. Right now. So it will save you. They send you a box; it’s not a subscription. You can just order a box for either yourself, if you’re looking to really stock up on really good, healthy salmon. Get a lot of those nutrients I talked about, right? A lot of those long-chain omega-3 fatty acids; EPA, DHA. Let’s go ahead and help those brain tissues and all those really wonderful things regenerate. Get a good dose of selenium, vitamin D. Really good healthy protein. They’ll send you a box of frozen salmon right to your door. It’s on dry ice. I got mine, and it was very, very cold. Still very frozen.

Anyway, they will send it to you. You’ll wind up saving approximate $40 on that box. It’s a really, really wonderful deal. And the free shipping is killer. And if you’re already stocked up on salmon, this is also a really good time of the year to gift this to somebody. This is a wonderful gift to give somebody, right? When it comes to health and just wanting to take care of our friends and family, this is one of those gifts that I think you can’t go wrong. Right?

Sometimes we’re thinking of an aunt, or a mom, or a dad, or a brother, or a sister that we really wish they could just care a little bit more about some part of their health. Or know a little bit more. And we’re tempted to give them maybe a book. Or maybe we’re tempted to give them, maybe a Fitbit to encourage them to walk more. Right? Some of those things can offend more than they necessarily encourage somebody. But there’s no way that a box of the most thoughtfully sourced and delicious salmon can offend anybody. And what you’re really doing is you’re giving them the nutrients. Saying, here you go. I want you to eat this. I want it to nourish you. Nourish your body and your family and you’re going to love it. Happy holidays.

I think it’s just such a wonderful gift. It might sound a little weird, to give somebody salmon at Christmas at first thought; but at the end of the day, I think it’s one of the best gift ideas I’ve ever come across. So this is a really good one. It’s a good one to get at a discount right now. So buy a box for yourself. Buy a box for a friend. You get $40 off that box with the code Fed and Fit, and everybody wins!

Ok. Well that’s it for today’s episode. Thank you so much for tuning in. It’s been a lot of fun. As always, you can catch the complete show notes over at www.FedandFit.com. So in case there’s something I talked about that you want to recap, it will be available there. Thanks everybody for listening, we’ll be back again next week.