The Truth About Salmon

Everywhere you read in the high blood pressure literature, salmon is talked up as a "magic food" for your heart - great in potassium, great potassium/sodium ratio, great in omega-3, great tasting, etc etc etc.

So, naturally I wanted to have salmon in my heart healthy diet. But, here is the problem I ran into: my heart healthy diet is low in fat (and yours should be too) but on a random stroll through the grocery store I found salmon high in fat beyond belief!

Was it true, salmon could not be in a heart healthy diet with a low fat focus? I needed to go to my reference shelf and study salmon. A summary of the findings:

• [good salmon] Fish, salmon, pink
• 1/2 fillet (124 g) = 5.5g fat
• potassium/sodium/magnesium = 513/107/41
• [average salmon] Fish, salmon, chum
• 1/2 fillet (174 g) = 7.4g fat
• potassium/sodium/magnesium = 847/99/43
• [average salmon] Fish, salmon, coho, wild
• 1/2 fillet (178 g) = 7.7g fat
• potassium/sodium/magnesium = 772/103/59
• [bad salmon] Fish, salmon, Atlantic, wild
• 1/2 fillet (154 g) = 12.5g fat
• potassium/sodium/magnesium = 967/86/57
• [bad salmon] Fish, salmon, sockeye
• 1/2 fillet (155 g) = 17g fat
• potassium/sodium/magnesium = 581/102/57
• [bad salmon] Fish, salmon, chinook
• 1/2 fillet (154 g) = 20.6g fat
• potassium/sodium/magnesium = 778/92/188

Most of the salmons listed above have so much fat that, regardless of their impressive potassium:sodium ratio, you cannot avoid the "obesity factor" of high blood pressure by eating them.

So, there you go: incorporate pink salmon into your heart healthy diet and you can maintain the high potassium, low sodium, low fat diet your body so desperately needs. I have found that my local grocery store sells frozen pink salmon fillets at a very reasonable price - the yummy taste of grilled salmon has remained in my heart healthy diet!