Hello and welcome to the Nutrition Diva podcast. I'm your host Monica Reinagal.

Writer Jessica Noel recently published an op-ed in the New York Times titled Smash the wellness industry. And in that piece, she suggests that our pursuit of wellness, or what we call wellness anyway,

is actually undermining both our health and our happiness,

especially that of women.

I'd like to share a few reflections on this article, but first I want to take a moment to answer a question that came in on

the Nutrition Diva listener line.

Hi Monica I was wondering if you could please let me know if there's any difference between fresh fish and canned fish.

What are the nutritional differences? Is there any pros and cons to canned fish and fresh fish, for example,

canned salmon versus fresh salmon? Thank you very much and have a wonderful day. Canning involves

subjecting food to heat and pressure in order of course to extend its shelf life. Now any form of processing can affect

the nutritional value of foods but the primary nutrients that we most value in fish, things like

protein, omega-3 fatty acids, selenium and so on, are pretty heat stable, so we wouldn't expect any major losses there.

Canned fish is certainly cheaper and there's virtually no risk of

spoilage or bacterial contamination. On the other hand, can't fish are likely to be

higher in sodium and of course the canning also affects the

flavor and the texture of the fish, but those are really matters of personal

preference. One surprising advantage of canned salmon is that it is much higher in

calcium than fresh salmon. Perhaps because the part of the fish that they

process for canning is closer to the tail and has lots of tiny little bones.

Now these are too small and soft for you to notice,

but they do add a significant amount of calcium.

But at the end of the day, both fresh and canned fish are a great source of healthy protein.

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