Contrary to popular opinion, most of the salmon found in supermarkets and restaurants is not a healthy food because instead of growing up in the wild, it's been raised on a fish farm. As a result, farmed salmon is like an evil twin of its wild and healthy counterpart.

Much like people, salmon need a healthy diet and adequate exercise, and those are basically the factors that make the difference between salmon that do, or don't promote wellness. In their natural state, wild salmon eat algae, which is rich in healthy omega-3 fats, or "good" fats. When we eat the fish, we, in turn, consume those healthy fats. And, wild salmon also swim around a lot so they're lean. In contrast, farm-raised salmon usually don't get much exercise because they're generally raised in cramped cages in the water, and their diet is higher in calories but less nutritious than it would be in a natural habitat.

Pound for pound, both wild and farm-raised salmon contain similar quantities of healthy fats but that's where the parity ends. The farm-raised fish contain significantly more unhealthy, saturated fat, so much so that the bad fat outweighs the value of the good.

According to the USDA Nutrient Database, this is how the two types of fish compare:

Farm-Raised vs. Wild Salmon, 8-ounce Serving

Calories: 466 farm-raised; 413 wild
Total Fat: 28 grams farm-raised; 18.5 grams wild
Saturated Fat: 5.72 grams farm-raised; 2.84 grams wild
Protein: 50 grams farm-raised; 57.6 grams wild

Does Farmed Salmon Really Kill?

Chronic inflammation, which doesn't necessarily have any recognizable symptoms but underlies heart disease, stroke and every other debilitating and deadly disease of the 21st century, has become a major problem in America. Too many unhealthy, pro-inflammatory fats in our diet trigger and perpetuate this inflammation.

If an occasional piece of farmed salmon was the only unhealthy thing in your diet, it wouldn't make much difference. However, given that most of the food we eat is pro- rather than anti-inflammatory, farmed salmon just adds insult to injury.

In terms of science, Floyd Chilton, Ph.D., and director of the NIH-sponsored Wake Forest and Harvard Center for Botanical Lipids in Winston Salem, NC, has analyzed foods extensively regarding their impact on inflammation. "I don't think I'm overstating the problem when I say that inflammatory diseases affect as many as half of the people in this country," he told me in an interview. To remedy the situation, which he calls a "silent plague," he recommends an anti-inflammatory eating plan described in detail, along with recipes, in his book, Inflammation Nation.

Chilton gives first place -- as the worst, most pro-inflammatory food -- to farmed salmon. In contrast, wild salmon is at the top of his list as a healthy, anti-inflammatory food, especially wild Chinook and sockeye, with wild pink, Coho and chum salmon scoring just a hairline lower.

So, is it a stretch to say that farmed salmon kills? As long as the typical American diet remains the way it is and heart disease continues to be our number-one killer, I don't think so.