Red Salmon vs Pink Salmon: Nutrition Red salmon have greater amounts of calories, more of the fatty acids and oils that people value, and a higher amount of protein than pink salmon.
All types of canned salmon (pink, chum, coho and red sockeye) are nutritious choices. Choose canned salmon with the bones so that you get the most calcium. Look for the lower sodium (salt) versions. Check out our article on reading labels to help you pick the best choice.
Canned salmon is every bit as nutritious as fresh salmon. Canned salmon contains a variety of key nutrients, including protein, calcium, vitamins B & D, and healthy omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fats promote healthy brain development in babies and may lower your risk of heart disease.
Whereas pink salmon is light and mild, sockeye salmon is a flavourful and rich. It has a relatively high fat content, loaded with omega-3 fatty acids. The sockeye from Copper River in Alaska is considered amongst the best tasting salmon in the world.
Salmon is low in mercury.
Both wild and farmed Atlantic salmon have much lower mercury levels than most other fish species. Farmed salmon has on average, 0.05 micrograms of mercury per gram.
You can taste a difference too, because Red Salmon tend to have a richer, fuller flavour and a firmer texture, whilst Pink Salmon have a milder flavour and a softer texture. The differences in taste also mean that both fish are used in different ways, when it comes to preparing recipes.
The FDA recommends eating 8 ounces of salmon per week. So you *can* eat it every day but in smaller servings. If you're pregnant, the FDA recommends eating 8 to 12 ounces of seafood per week from sources that have lower mercury levels — including salmon!
Fish Low in Mercury
Canned salmon has an average mercury load of 0.014 ppm and can reach measurements up to 0.086 ppm. For fresh/frozen salmon, the average mercury load is 0.022 ppm with max concentrations of 0.19 ppm. Oysters have an average amount of just 0.012 ppm, with the highest measurement of 0.25 ppm.
When one drains the liquid from the canned fish (either oil- or water-packed), nutrients are discarded. Rinsing the liquid from the fish flushes away more but is unlikely to remove more [omega-3s from the fish itself]."
Canned red salmon costs more than pink salmon
Fewer sockeye salmon are caught overall, so naturally, they cost more. But as their more intense color and richer flavor and texture are highly prized by salmon lovers, that also contributes to the higher price of canned red salmon.
Now that's for salmon. Sardines contain significantly less mercury than salmon, so even if you had two standard-sized cans of sardines (~3 ounces / ~84 grams drained), that's still only ~6 ounces of a safer fish in terms of heavy metals. In fact, you could have 4–5 cans of sardines and still be safe!
A 150 gram serving of canned salmon or sardines may provide more than 2000 milligrams of omega-3. The Heart Foundation recommends that you eat fresh, frozen or canned fish with the highest levels of omega-3s two to three times a week, and then add supplements and/or foods and drinks enriched with omega-3 as needed.
If you're concerned about limiting the amount of mercury you consume, and if you've eaten no other fish during the week, Consumer Reports says up to 12 ounces a week of Bumble Bee Chunk Light, Chicken of the Sea Chunk Light, Safe Catch Wild Elite, and StarKist Chunk Light tunas are the safer choices among the products ...
Sardines
Sardines provide 2 grams of heart-healthy omega-3s per 3 ounce serving, which is one of the highest levels of omega-3 and the lowest levels of mercury of any fish. They contain a great source of calcium and Vitamin D, so they support bone health, too.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, salmon's average mercury concentration is 0.022 parts per million (ppm). Tuna has a higher average concentration of 0.144 ppm. Health experts recommend eating about 8 ounces of seafood per week. You could easily overdo it if your daily lunch is a good ol' can of tuna.
Canning. Canned seafood falls into two categories from a bacteriological point of view: fully processed commercially sterile products and semipreserved products. The fully processed products include canned tuna, salmon, shrimp, crab, sardines, and other fish, fish balls, and so on.
The flesh of salmon in the wild can be vibrant red, pale pink, or even white. The red hues are the result of diets rich in shrimp, krill, and other species that contain high levels of astaxanthin. A wild-caught salmon with white flesh is genetically unable to process the astaxanthin, so their flesh remains pale.
It does not feed on other larger fish, so it doesn't ingest the toxins from those fish. Sockeye is considered one of the safest species to eat due to the very low level of toxicity, including mercury.
Whether it's Chinook/King, Keta, Pink, Sockeye or Coho salmon, the Environmental Defense Fund says wild Alaskan salmon is the way to go if you're looking for the best salmon for both your body and the planet. Among the best-managed fish stocks in the country, wild Alaskan salmon is low in contaminants like mercury.
The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) also has a tool to help you figure out how much mercury is in salmon and other fish, canned and otherwise. According to the EDF, wild Alaskan salmon contains the lowest contaminants of all the salmon varieties. It doesn't matter if it's coho, pink, or sockeye.