Salmon and Vascular Risk in Young Healthy Subjects

Consumption of fish is associated with significant health benefits, particularly improvements of cardiovascular risk, but natural supply from the wild is limited. Salmon farming is a successful alternative. The aim of this chapter is to review the evidence from studies examining the health effects of salmon eating in adult subjects. A systematic review of the literature identified 11 studies. Evaluation of such evidence indicates that eating salmon is significantly and consistently associated with improvements on well-established vascular risk factors such as triglycerides and HDL-cholesterol but not total-cholesterol or LDL-cholesterol. The impact of eating salmon on novel markers of vascular risk is less well studied. Although some concerns have been expressed over the health risks of environmental contaminants found in some fish species, there is an overall agreement on the fact that the health benefits of eating fish exceed its potential risks, and farmed salmon appears to be a good option.