Eat like a salmon, not salmon: Healthiest fish revealed in new study

Salmon is the most eaten fish in the Netherlands, but not the healthiest fish. In a new study, scientists say that fish eaten by salmon contain more nutrients than these predatory fish themselves. They advise: don’t eat salmon, but eat like a salmon.

Most salmon in the supermarket is farmed fish. A cage full of salmon is not a pretty sight. Packed together with many thousands of their own kind, the fish swim through their own feces and are infested by flesh-eating lice. As the years go by, they look more and more like zombie versions of themselves. Breeders solve this by grinding a bunch of antibiotics into their feed.

The Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority still judges salmon as a safe fish, and it also contains a lot of healthy omega-3. On the other hand, farmed salmon contains many PCBs (pesticides and other toxic substances). Eight times as much as a specimen from the wild.

Now at Manners we won’t tell you so quickly what you should or shouldn’t eat. However, we are happy with the healthier alternatives that scientists put forward in a new study. Coincidentally, this also includes a Dutch favorite.

Healthiest fish contains much more omega-3 than salmon

In a study by Nature Food scientists conclude that the fish normally eaten by salmon contains more healthy nutrients than the salmon itself. In addition to mackerel and anchovies, this also includes our own Dutch herring. All three fish are packed with proteins, calcium, iron and vitamins D, A and B12.

Even the miracle substance omega-3 – good for (among other things) the heart, eyes and brain – can be found in relatively greater quantities in prey fish than in salmon. Moreover, because they naturally have a shorter lifespan, a lot less mercury has accumulated in their fish bodies compared to long-lived (farmed) salmon.

Herring, anchovies and mackerel as an alternative to salmon

It is a happy coincidence that all the species highlighted in the study are already fully established in the Netherlands. A mackerel sandwich, anchovies in pasta or a herring from the fist – it will sound familiar to most of us.

Yet there is in the Netherlands eaten about 3 times as much salmon as herring, 7 times as much as mackerel and 35 times as much as anchovies. We prefer not to tell you what to eat, but we dare to recommend a little more variety. For example, try this salad with smoked mackerel from Culy.

Mackerel makes you happy

We ourselves don’t need any motivation to get a mackerel sandwich from the market. It is not only the healthiest fish. For those in doubt: check the first place in this ranking of food that you demonstrated fortunately makes.

By the way, this whole story can be thrown in the trash if you watch the Netflix documentary Seaspiracy have seen.