The Importance of Wild Caught Salmon to Your Skin Health with Randy Hartnell

We have an exciting guest on today’s show, but first a listener question.

Becky Asks: “I have very sensitive skin and break out in acne all the time. I’ve heard about using oils to cleanse and moisturize my skin but I’m worried it will make me break out. Are there any okay for acne prone skin?”

Almond oil and Jojoba oil are good choices for acne prone skin. One of my favorite oils to consume comes from a food. That food is wild salmon. Salmon is great for healthy skin because of the Omega 3 oils and the astaxanthin content, but is wild salmon really safe to eat?

Today’s guest Randy Hartnell, a former fisherman and current owner of a wild seafood company, will help answer this question. Randy spent more than twenty years as a commercial salmon fisherman in Alaska. In 2001 with his wife Carla, he founded Vital Choice Wild Seafood & Organics, a leading on-line seafood company.

Randy is dedicated to helping people have access to high quality sustainable seafood, while educating them about the impact of food choices on their health and the environment. In this interview, we cover health benefits of consuming seafood, quality, purity, and contamination concerns. Plus,the safest fish to eat, sustainable fishing practices, and the real difference between wild and farmed fish.

Topics discussed today include:

• Started fishing during college while working his way through school
• About 15 years ago industrial farmed salmon pushed wild salmon out of the market
• Randy decided to start Vital Choice as a solution for people who want wild salmon, but couldn’t get it
• People are becoming more informed about the difference between farmed and wild salmon
• Randy started telling his story to anyone who would listen and telling his story to people who were influencers in health and wellness
• These people were really receptive to the information
• Randy was a herring fisherman in San Francisco and his engine blew up, he was watching TV while rebuilding the engine and saw Dr. Perricone on PBS
• Dr. Perricone was promoting his book, “The Wrinkle Cure” Dr. Perricone was talking about how wild salmon was great for fighting wrinkles
• Randy and his wife wrote Dr. Perricone a letter and Dr. Perricone decided to list Randy’s fledgling business, Vital Choice as a resource in his next book “The Perricone Prescription
• What makes wild salmon so good for our skin is the Omega 3 fatty acids
• Particularly long chain fatty acids EPA and DHA, these are marine fats that are not found in the terrestrial food supply, our cells all contain concentrations of these long chain fatty acids
• In our industrial food supply these fatty acids have been displaced
• Over 95% of people eating an American diet are deficient in omega 3 fatty acids which manifests itself as skin problems
• Vital Choice has been testing the wild caught fish for over 15 years and the benefits of eating the seafood outweigh any possible trace levels of mercury that may be found in seafood
• They source fish that have short lives and eat toward the bottom of the food chain, like krill and plankton and the salmon they sell is one of the cleanest fish tested, Alaska is also one of the most pristine places on Earth
• They also sell other clean, pure, sustainable sources of fish
• Alaska is the model for the world on fishery management, they have a biologist in charge of every river to maintain sustainability
• Wild salmon is an amazing food for humans and other species
• Farmed salmon is similar to factory farmed beef or pork
• Wild salmon are consuming what nature intended them to consume
• Humans have always been eating wild seafood, it is what we are programmed to eat because it is a natural food
• Farmed salmon are fed grains, just like factory farmed cows, these grains contain omega 6 fatty acids that can be highly inflammatory
• Wild salmon has 9 times more omega 3s than omega 6s, a farmed salmon has equal amounts, this goes for all farmed fish from catfish to tilapia
• These salmon are also raised in pens with pollution, disease and parasites. The waste has a detrimental environmental impact.
• Canada just approved GMO salmon, the first GMO animal sold as food, they take a gene from a different fish and put it into salmon to make it grow to large abnormal sizes
• The problem with eating GMO foods is that nobody knows how these foods may modify our genes, we won’t know the impact for several generations
• Farmed salmon are pale orange and have large fat lines
• Wild salmon is dark orange and almost no fat lines
• Wild salmon comes from Alaska, they have had historic salmon runs in the last few years

Mentioned on today’s show:

Vital Choice Seafood

Farmed and Dangerous

Dr. Perricone

I hope you enjoyed this interview today with Randy Hartnell. If you have any questions please post them below the video on YouTube or my website.

Additional links to check out:

• TheSkinQuiz.com - Get your customized skin profile. It’s free, and based upon your answers, it will give you great tips for glowing skin and vibrant health.

Don't miss out on all of the latest tips to get glowing healthy skin from the inside and out. Be sure to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter. Join the conversation!

If you enjoyed this show please leave a review on iTunes.