Did you know...

A fish's flesh color starts with its diet. Best known for color of course is salmon. It would probably surprise you to know that the natural color of salmon is white. Salmon eat shrimp as part of their regular food source. Shrimp eat a large amount of algae and single-cell organisms that are full of a pigment called astaxanthin, a carotenoid akin to beta carotene which is contained in many fruits and vegetables. The shrimp store the pigment their bodies absorb from their algae meals in their shell and body flesh. When the salmon eat the shrimp in large quantities, the salmon fatty tissue absorbs the astaxanthin.

After large accumulations of the pigment, the salmon changes from its basic color as a white fish to a reddish color. However, many salmon these days are raised in large nets & pens offshore rather than gathered in their wild habitat. Knowing that consumers would never buy white salmon, many salmon-farmers feed the fish astaxanthin in their diet. Because of its secondary effect of turning flesh colors, some have looked upon astaxanthin as a die or a color additive. It is neither. Rather, it is simply a nutrient that happens to turn ova or flesh pink. In fact, astaxanthin is similar to another carotenoid - beta-carotene - found in carrots. The nutrient is also found in many foods including - butter, beef, eggs, chicken, crab, lobster, shrimp, trout, pimentos and red peppers. Infact, the poultry industry commonly adds astaxanthin as a supplementary pigment to enhance yolk color in eggs.

The flesh of some swordfish can also acquire an orange-reddish tint from their diet of shrimp or other prey. Such fish are sold as "pumpkin swordfish," and some of our customers proclaim it to be the very best they have ever eaten while others consider the pink-orange color as suspect and undesirable.

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Fish are not the only animal which use and benefit from astaxanthin. Research suggests that astaxanthin has a number of biological functions and can be 100 times more effective an antioxidant than vitamin E. Such benefits include, stimulation of immune system response parameters, anti-cancer effects on human cells, anti-inflammatory properties, the ability to lower LDL-cholesterol, protect against oxidation of essential polyunsaturated fatty acids and protect against UV-light effects. Because of its vast health properties, astaxanthin is sold openly and routinely in health food, drug and vitamin stores as a dietary supplement.

It is interesting to note that in humans, carotenoids are not stored in the flesh but in the skin. That is the reason why eating excessive amounts of yellow-orange fruits can cause a person to develop a "jaundiced" look, and why astaxanthin is marketed for human consumption as the active ingredient in oral tanning pills.