Smoked Salmon — Is It Safe?
The myth of salmonella scare in smoked salmon or lox.
Raw salmon?
No, thanks.
Every time, my friends and I are ordering at a sushi place, they will make sure they are not served raw fish on their plate. There is an assumption of raw food being equal to bad food that can cause all sorts of health problems like salmonella.
God forbid, you die.
No, thanks.
But is there truth to it?
Does every salmon you eat have salmonella in it? And if so, why is it sold in the grocery stores? Why are there smoked salmon recipes all over the internet?
I had questions.
Questions nobody else was asking.
People would rather not eat salmon.
Because it is bad.
Nobody wants to die and smoked or cured salmon gives you parasites.
Does it?
I thought about Dave Chang’s (New York based Korean restaurant Momofuku’s famous chef) pregnant wife Grace eating sashimi and sushi on this Netflix show about food around the world.
She was told by this mother of two kids that it was perfectly fine to eat sashimi.
She’d done it and her kids were fine.
It was time to defuse the myth.
I thought of the benefits of eating fish on the brain and the rest of the body.
I thought about the taste of salmon.
Then, I went grocery shopping and decided to prepare lox on toasted rye bread with cottage cheese. I picked this salmon gravlax with chopped dill to add to my sandwich.
After my meal, I texted one of my friends about the meal I had and how easy it was to prepare.
She asked me if I used raw fish.
Not again.
That’s how I went down the rabbit hole trying to understand why raw salmon is hated so much.
Beginnings of Salmon Sushi in Japan
“Norwegian salmon’s different. Parasites aren’t a problem.”
Most of us love salmon nigiri. But little did I know that the tradition of using raw seafood on rice was not invented in Japan. Japan did not trust the Pacific salmon due to the potential of infection. Norway, on the other hand, had too much salmon so they looked to find a way to market salmon sushi to Japan. They were using aquaculture farming for their salmon and the fish was being refrigerated, which would prevent the bacteria from being cultured.
So the fish no longer had any potential parasites but the Japanese people were slow to warm up to the idea. It took Japanese restaurants another 20 years to market it to Japanese folks and break the myth.
Now salmon is synonymous with sashimi around the world.
Or at least in the US.
What about the different kinds of salmon like smoked salmon or lox?
Beginnings of Cured Salmon in the UK
“The word comes from the Yiddish word for salmon, lax.”
In the US, the word lox is used to refer to the smoked salmon you’d put on your bagel with cream cheese.
European Jewish immigrants brought smoked salmon to the US in the early 1900s. It mainly stayed in the Jewish community due to segregation at the time.
But little did I know, lox had originated in the UK by Jewish immigrants who migrated from Russia, Poland and Ukraine, who found a market for cured salmon business. Jewish immigrants already knew how to preserve fish and there was no refrigerator in those days. They used their skills on the much more expensive salmon found in the UK and started to market their product to the aristocrats who loved to serve smoked salmon to their friends at the feasts they planned.
At the time, Jewish immigrants did not eat smoked salmon because they could not afford it. But they found a way to make money from it. All of this took place in the early and the mid 1900s, simultaneously as it was brought to the US. However, smoked salmon was known as a luxury food in the UK, except it was commonly accepted by everyone. It was not only confined to the Jewish community.
In the UK, they started smoking Scottish Salmon, which is a type of Atlantic Salmon. There are also Pacific and Chilean Salmon amongst others.
Why eat Salmon at all?
“Smoked salmon is packed with nutrients, vitamins, and omega-3 fatty acids, all of which will boost your health and lower your risk of cancer, heart disease, and cognitive decline.”
Smoked salmon’s health benefits include:
- Lower risk of cardiovascular disease
- Better brain health
- Lower risk of cognitive decline
- Less anxiety
- Help keep a healthy weight
- Fight inflammation
Smoked salmon also has Vitamins B12, Vitamins A and E and Astaxanthin (an antioxidant that lowers the risk of heart disease).
Smoked salmon is low in calories and high in protein. It can help you feel full for longer and help boost your metabolism.
It can also help lower inflammation, the cause of many chronic conditions such as cancer, ulcerative colitis, diabetes, and heart disease.
However, smoked salmon is high in sodium so you should definitely limit your daily intake. Too much smoked meat also increases your chances of cancer and it may have harmful bacteria if you have a weakened immune system or sensitive stomach.
I’d argue that too much of anything is not good.
If you are a healthy individual who watches their smoked salmon intake, limiting it to once or twice a week like me, you should be fine and even healthier than before based on the overall pros of adding salmon to your diet.
Conclusion
And I had done it.
I made a salmon snack and it was delicious.
And I was alive to see another day.
And I will be eating again.
If you are interested to find out more on the history of Japanese Salmon Sushi, I encourage you to check out this medium article: https://medium.com/torodex/salmon-sushi-is-not-a-japanese-invention-9189d9cd78b7
Here is a podcast on the Nordic history of Japanese Salmon Sushi:
Here is a link on the Jewish history of Smoked Salmon: https://forward.com/food/359872/the-fishy-jewish-history-of-britains-smoked-salmon-business/
You could find out more on different salmon types here: https://www.thespruceeats.com/types-of-salmon-4098993
Here is a link to all the health benefits of salmon:
