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Paging Dr. Gupta: How Safe is Your Salmon?

Aired July 31, 2003 - 11:36   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We have doctors left and right today. Time now for our daily dose of health news. The question for you, how safe is your salmon? Americans are eating more and more salmon because of all the news about its health benefits, but there's actually a new study out that focuses on one unhealthy aspect of this popular fish.
Our medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joining us from New York with the details.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Yes, salmon is really popular, Daryn, there's no question. Only shrimp and tuna are more commonly eaten fish than salmon. A lot of people eating salmon more than once a week. It is a very healthy food. I think I should point that out right at the top. It's a good source of iron. It's a good source of something known as Omega III fatty acids, which I'll tell you a little bit more about as well. They may sort of combat depression in pregnant women and they reduce your risk of Alzheimer's Disease. There's lot of benefits, no question, to salmon.

But the issue at hand now is something known as PCBs as, polychlorninated biphenyls, and you're probably asking, what are these things. We have a list of some of things that this actually is. That's coming up, I think, here as well.

But this is a particular compound that's been around for some time, but people haven't used it since 1976. It's completely manmade. You can't smell it. You can't taste it. But it's probably in a lot of different foods. It may cause cancer. That's obviously the concern. There's a private group that went out to find out how many PCBs are located in salmon, how much is too much, and which salmon have the most PCBs in them.

Now what they found after looking at 10 different sources of salmon around the country, both in the East Coast and West Coast, was that farm salmon tended to have higher incidents of these PCBs than wild salmon. You can see the numbers there, 27 parts per billion in the farmed salmon versus the wild salmon.

But the real question here, Daryn, how much is too much? The FDA, based on some guidelines back in 1994, said 2,000 parts per billion, that is still OK. EPA saying 4 to 6 parts per billion and you're getting a little high. You can see a little bit of the confusion right there -- Daryn. KAGAN: Well, some of the confusion, Sanjay, might be, is if the salmon you buy in the market or at a restaurant if it wild or it is farmed, how do you know, and how do you know how much of it to have, to eat?

GUPTA: Well, it's very difficult sometimes to tell which is farmed and which is wild. Most of the salmon, I would say at this point, most of it probably is farmed out there right now.

And you can look at some of the benefits of wild versus farmed. Higher in protein, lower in saturated fat. That's for the wild salmon. Higher in Omega III fatty acids, although they both have significant amounts of Omega III fatty acids, no trace of antibiotics in the wild.

The best bet, Daryn, really for any individual figuring out wild versus farmed is to simply ask about it. It probably is not going to be labeled as such.

As far as how much you eat, one to two servings per week is probably fine. If you're pregnant, then the numbers should probably go down, because there is a concern about mercury. And just really quick, because mercury comes up all the time, as well, Daryn. The questions about mercury, usually the predatory fish, that the fish that like to eat other fish are going to have the highest sources of mercury. You can see the list there -- shark, swordfish, king mackerel, one of my favorites, tilefish, those are all going to have higher levels of mercury, especially for pregnant women; they should probably stay away from that, because it might have some impact on the developing fetus -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Very good tips.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you for that.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired July 31, 2003 - 11:36   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We have doctors left and right today. Time now for our daily dose of health news. The question for you, how safe is your salmon? Americans are eating more and more salmon because of all the news about its health benefits, but there's actually a new study out that focuses on one unhealthy aspect of this popular fish.
Our medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joining us from New York with the details.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Yes, salmon is really popular, Daryn, there's no question. Only shrimp and tuna are more commonly eaten fish than salmon. A lot of people eating salmon more than once a week. It is a very healthy food. I think I should point that out right at the top. It's a good source of iron. It's a good source of something known as Omega III fatty acids, which I'll tell you a little bit more about as well. They may sort of combat depression in pregnant women and they reduce your risk of Alzheimer's Disease. There's lot of benefits, no question, to salmon.

But the issue at hand now is something known as PCBs as, polychlorninated biphenyls, and you're probably asking, what are these things. We have a list of some of things that this actually is. That's coming up, I think, here as well.

But this is a particular compound that's been around for some time, but people haven't used it since 1976. It's completely manmade. You can't smell it. You can't taste it. But it's probably in a lot of different foods. It may cause cancer. That's obviously the concern. There's a private group that went out to find out how many PCBs are located in salmon, how much is too much, and which salmon have the most PCBs in them.

Now what they found after looking at 10 different sources of salmon around the country, both in the East Coast and West Coast, was that farm salmon tended to have higher incidents of these PCBs than wild salmon. You can see the numbers there, 27 parts per billion in the farmed salmon versus the wild salmon.

But the real question here, Daryn, how much is too much? The FDA, based on some guidelines back in 1994, said 2,000 parts per billion, that is still OK. EPA saying 4 to 6 parts per billion and you're getting a little high. You can see a little bit of the confusion right there -- Daryn. KAGAN: Well, some of the confusion, Sanjay, might be, is if the salmon you buy in the market or at a restaurant if it wild or it is farmed, how do you know, and how do you know how much of it to have, to eat?

GUPTA: Well, it's very difficult sometimes to tell which is farmed and which is wild. Most of the salmon, I would say at this point, most of it probably is farmed out there right now.

And you can look at some of the benefits of wild versus farmed. Higher in protein, lower in saturated fat. That's for the wild salmon. Higher in Omega III fatty acids, although they both have significant amounts of Omega III fatty acids, no trace of antibiotics in the wild.

The best bet, Daryn, really for any individual figuring out wild versus farmed is to simply ask about it. It probably is not going to be labeled as such.

As far as how much you eat, one to two servings per week is probably fine. If you're pregnant, then the numbers should probably go down, because there is a concern about mercury. And just really quick, because mercury comes up all the time, as well, Daryn. The questions about mercury, usually the predatory fish, that the fish that like to eat other fish are going to have the highest sources of mercury. You can see the list there -- shark, swordfish, king mackerel, one of my favorites, tilefish, those are all going to have higher levels of mercury, especially for pregnant women; they should probably stay away from that, because it might have some impact on the developing fetus -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Very good tips.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you for that.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com