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Fish have long been revered as a healthy alternative to red meat and a great source of those ever-crucial omega-3 essential fatty acids. But few people know that most fish today are mass-produced. Have you had salmon lately? Whether bought in a store or ordered in a restaurant, odds are great that-far from what you've been led to believe by advertisers-your meal was born in a plastic mold. It was raised on a fish farm, caged in cramped quarters and unable to swim freely. It was forced to fatten up on food pellets like a marine couch potato. That may not concern you as long as the resulting fillet packs a full range of health benefits.
But the fact is, it doesn't.
down on the
Let's take a closer look at what's for dinner and why it's not as good for you as you'd think. First, at some point, your fillet was vaccinated against disease. Later, it was flushed with antibiotics. After all, bacteria and parasites-which would normally exist in relatively low levels in fish scattered around the oceans-can run rampant in the densely packed acres of netcovered fish farms.
"The rapid increase in resistance to these antibiotics represents major challenges for this source of food production worldwide," stated a 1994 report by the American Society of Microbiology's Task Force on Antibiotic Resistance.
Your salmon was also likely fed carcinogenic and mutagenic pesticides to help it shed its inevitable beard of sea lice-the consequence of remaining inactive in a tiny cage. But wait, it's a healthy pink color, isn't it?
Well, sure it is-you chose it. That's color number 33 on drug giant Roche's color list. Extensive market tests were conducted to determine the precise shade of salmon color that appealed most to target consumers.
"Deeply colored flesh was associated with higher quality, better tasting salmon," according to sales literature for Sysco, the giant food service supplier. So to get that perfect pink hue, your fish was fed astaxanthin, a synthetic pigment. Without it, the salmon-confined throughout its life to an area the size of a bathtub-would have pale and unappetizing flesh, to say the least.
wholely mackerel
But what about those heart-healthy omega-3s? You can't pick up a magazine without reading about the...