Lipid profiles for salmon

[Guest guest]

I was looking at the lipid profiles in the USDA database for wild and farmed

Atlantic salmon, and found something interesting. According to the database,

a 198g fillet of farmed salmon has 7.8g of polyunsaturated fat, 1.2g of EPA,

and 2.6g of DHA. That gives, at worst, a nearly 1:1 ratio of omega-6 to

omega-3 fatty acids. It gets better if you take the 18:3, 18:4, and 20:4

fatty acids into account, but it doesn't differentiate between n-6 and n-3

for those. Wild salmon has 5.0g of polyunsaturated fat, of which .6g are EPA

and 2.2g are DHA. Again, there's no distinction between n-6 and n-3 for the

other fatty acids, but it is worth noting that the wild salmon has about 50%

more linolenic acid (sometimes n-3, sometimes n-6) than linoleic acid

(always n-3), while the farmed salmon has about 10 times more linoleic acid.

Do the much-touted n-6:n-3 ratios take only the 18-carbon fatty acids into

account? If so, why? Aren't these just precursors to EPA, DHA, and

arachidonic acid, or are they important in and of themselves? In any case,

since the amount of these fatty acids is so low in both cases (less than 1%

of the total weight of the fillets in both cases), couldn't you just make up

the difference by eating a small quantity of flax seeds?

Also, for what it's worth, the farmed salmon had comparable levels of

vitamins and minerals (ranging from about 30% lower to a little bit higher)

except for vitamin C (wild salmon had none) and copper (wild salmon had

about five times as much). If these figures are correct, then why shouldn't

we eat farmed salmon?

Berg

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

As I understand it, the trouble with eating farm raised salmon is we

also ingest the antibiotics they got in their feed. I don't think it

tastes as delicious either.

Sheila

> I was looking at the lipid profiles in the USDA database for wild

and farmed

> Atlantic salmon, and found something interesting. According to the

database,

> a 198g fillet of farmed salmon has 7.8g of polyunsaturated fat,

1.2g of EPA,

> and 2.6g of DHA. That gives, at worst, a nearly 1:1 ratio of omega-

6 to

> omega-3 fatty acids. It gets better if you take the 18:3, 18:4, and

20:4

> fatty acids into account, but it doesn't differentiate between n-6

and n-3

> for those. Wild salmon has 5.0g of polyunsaturated fat, of

which .6g are EPA

> and 2.2g are DHA. Again, there's no distinction between n-6 and n-3

for the

> other fatty acids, but it is worth noting that the wild salmon has

about 50%

> more linolenic acid (sometimes n-3, sometimes n-6) than linoleic

acid

> (always n-3), while the farmed salmon has about 10 times more

linoleic acid.

>

> Do the much-touted n-6:n-3 ratios take only the 18-carbon fatty

acids into

> account? If so, why? Aren't these just precursors to EPA, DHA, and

> arachidonic acid, or are they important in and of themselves? In

any case,

> since the amount of these fatty acids is so low in both cases (less

than 1%

> of the total weight of the fillets in both cases), couldn't you

just make up

> the difference by eating a small quantity of flax seeds?

>

> Also, for what it's worth, the farmed salmon had comparable levels

of

> vitamins and minerals (ranging from about 30% lower to a little bit

higher)

> except for vitamin C (wild salmon had none) and copper (wild salmon

had

> about five times as much). If these figures are correct, then why

shouldn't

> we eat farmed salmon?

>

> Berg