Salmon has long been considered a healthy food, especially when eaten in diets that forgo excessive salts, processed foods, and unhealthy oils. Now, a new study examines salmon from a metabolomic perspective, and describes, on a molecular level, the health benefits of salmon.
The study found that salmon contains 508 food-specific compounds, or FSCs, including 237 metabolites that are unique to salmon.
When it is eaten as part of a Mediterranean diet, salmon delivers to the body at least 48 of these compounds, along with 30 metabolites — substances produced during digestion or other body chemical processes. Four of these metabolites are associated with significant improvements in cardiometabolic health indicators, or CHI.
A Mediterranean diet has an emphasis on healthy oils for fat, such as olive oil. It favors plant-based sources of nutrition, including vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. Protein is supplied by sources such as poultry, fish, and vegetable proteins such as beans, as well as yogurt and cheese.
Compared to the standard Western diet, the Mediterranean diet largely avoids red meats, sugars, excessive salt, and unhealthy fats.
For the new study, researchers performed a secondary analysis of an existing random controlled feeding trial involving 41 participants who ate a Mediterranean diet for two five-week periods, with a four-week break in between. Individuals ate two servings of salmon per week during the diet intervention periods.
Participants were recruited in the Greater Lafayette, IN area, and none were already eating a Mediterranean diet. Their ages ranged from 30 to 69. They had obesity or overweight, although none had any active metabolic conditions — such as type 2 diabetes — or acute illnesses.
The researchers recorded their CHIs, and collected the participants’ blood plasma samples before and after the study.
The researchers used chromatography-mass spectrometry-based metabolomics to analyze participants’ plasma, as well as salmon and 99 other foods consumed on a Mediterranean diet. If the researchers found a compound in all instances of salmon but not in other diet foods, they characterized it as a salmon FSC.
They then identified metabolites associated with the salmon FSCs via machine learning.
The researchers found increases in two annotated salmon FSCs and two metabolites were associated with greater cardiometabolic health, evident by CHIs in the participants’ blood plasma at the end of the trial. These cardiometabolic benefits included reductions in total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, and apolipoprotein B, which is an indicator of heart disease.
The study is published in The Journal of Nutrition.
Michelle Routhenstein, cardiology dietician and preventive cardiology nutritionist at EntirelyNourished.com, who was not involved in the study, said the study and its “findings suggest that this approach could help find important compounds in foods that might be helpful for health. But more research is needed to confirm this.”
“Metabolomic studies have highlighted the diverse array of bioactive compounds present in olive oil, such as phenolic compounds and oleic acid, which are associated with anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and cardiovascular health benefits,” she explained.
The same sort of research, said Routhenstein, has found barley, quinoa, and bulgur to be rich sources of phytochemicals. These include phenolic acids, flavonoids, lignans, and phytosterols, compounds possessing antioxidant properties that help to combat oxidative stress and inflammation in the body.
– Medical Health News
Written By: Robby Berman
Fact Checked by: Kelsey Costa, MS, RDN
Scientists find compounds in salmon that may lower cholesterol, heart disease risk