Eating wild-caught salmon is preferable to eating farm-raised salmon. The antibiotics used in salmon farming increase the risk of antibiotic resistance in people who eat them. Farmed salmon may also be contaminated with pesticides and parasites. Due to overfishing, nearly all Atlantic salmon are farm-raised, but thanks to careful management, wild Alaska salmon are abundant. If you buy Alaska salmon, you can be reasonably confident that it is wild-caught. While mercury contamination has been found in wild fish, wild Alaska salmon show low levels well within FDA limits.
Kinds
Since salmon packaging often refers to species name rather than the location from which it came, it helps to know the names of Alaska salmon. Five species live in the Pacific waters from California north and west to the Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean. Each of the five have two common names in addition to the scientific name: king or chinook salmon; sockeye or reds; coho or silvers; pinks or humpy; and chum or keta.
Calories, Protein and Fat
Based on a 3.5 oz. serving, king salmon has the highest calorie count at 250 calories, followed closely by sockeye with 220 calories. Chum, pink and coho have 155, 150 and 140, respectively. Pinks have the highest protein count at 37 g; the other varieties contain from 23 to 27 g of protein. The total fat content of a serving of king salmon is 13 g, of which 3 g are saturated; sockeye contains 11 g, of which 2 g are saturated. Chum has 5 g of total fat per serving, while coho and pink each have 4; all three contain only 1 g of saturated fat.
Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Omega-3 fatty acids are polyunsaturated fats that can reduce inflammation, prevent blood clots and raise HDL, the "good" cholesterol. Wild Alaska salmon are excellent sources of omega-3 fatty acids. King salmon contains the most omega-3s at 1,700 mg in a 3.5 oz. serving. Pink, sockeye, coho and chum contain 1,300, 1,200, 1,100 and 800 mg, respectively.
Vitamin D and Calcium
You need vitamin D for calcium absorption, as well as healthy functioning of your muscles, nerves and immune system. Wild-caught Alaska salmon is one of the few good food sources of vitamin D. A study at Boston University Medical Center found that a 3.5 oz. serving of wild-caught salmon contained as much as 988 IU of vitamin D, while farm-raised salmon contained approximately 25 percent of that amount. Salmon canned with bones is a good source of calcium, with pink salmon containing 277 mg and sockeye, 221 mg. The bones are soft and easily crushed with your fingers when mixing canned salmon for patties or other dishes.
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