I Sat Down With a Nutritionist to Answer the Seafood Questions You've All Been Asking
I get some version of the same questions almost every week: Is wild really better than farmed? What's actually going on with mercury? Why does one salmon fillet look nothing like the next? So when Dr. Megan Lyons invited me onto her podcast, Wellness Your Way, to talk through all of it, I said yes before she even finished the sentence.
We spent 43 minutes covering the stuff I wish more people knew before they stood in front of the seafood counter feeling overwhelmed. Wild versus farmed. What mercury levels actually mean in context, and why the headlines rarely tell the whole story. How labeling in grocery stores can be more confusing than helpful. Sustainability, and what it really takes to fish responsibly generation after generation. And because I can't resist, I also got into why properly frozen seafood isn't the consolation prize people think it is — it can be the better choice, full stop.
If you've followed Sena Sea for a while, you know none of this is new territory for me. I grew up around it. My family's been fishing Alaskan waters for five plus generations, and I went and got a master's degree in nutrition and food science on top of that — mostly so I could stop hearing bad seafood advice and start being the person who corrects it. This conversation felt like getting to do that for a whole episode.
What We Actually Talked About
Dr. Lyons and I didn't stay in the weeds of theory — we tried to keep it practical, the kind of thing you can actually use next time you're deciding what to put in your cart or your freezer.
Wild vs. farmed, without the fear-mongering. This isn't a simple "wild good, farmed bad" conversation, and I don't pretend it is. We talked about what actually differs between the two, and why the answer depends on more than just the word on the label.
Mercury, in context. What matters is which species, how often you're eating them, and what the real data says instead of the scariest headline you saw last week.
Labeling that doesn't tell you the whole story. "Wild-caught," "sustainably sourced," "fresh" — these words get used loosely, and I walked through what to actually look for instead of taking a package at its word.
Why frozen isn't a downgrade. This might be my favorite part of the episode. Fish frozen at peak freshness, right where it's caught, often beats anything sitting on ice at a counter for days. I explained exactly how that process works and why it protects both quality and nutrition.
Getting your family to actually eat more fish. Because knowing seafood is good for you doesn't mean the people at your dinner table are excited about it — myself included some nights.
Give It a Listen
If any of this sounds like a conversation you've had in your own head while standing in a grocery aisle, I think you'll get a lot out of it. You can find the full episode, E308: The Truth About Seafood: Wild, Farmed, Mercury & Omega-3s, on Wellness Your Way with Dr. Megan Lyons, wherever you listen to podcasts.
And if it leaves you wanting to skip the guesswork altogether — well, that's kind of the whole point of what we do here. Wild, never farmed, frozen at its peak, and shipped straight from our family's boats to your door.
