One to two 150g servings per week of New Zealand King Salmon would supply sufficient omega-3’s for an average person’s needs.
For a person with existing cardiovascular disease a higher intake of omega-3’s of 1g/day has been shown to be beneficial, and or people with rheumatoid arthritis about 3g/day of omega-3’s are recommended.
Consequently, eating New Zealand King Salmon more often per week would help supply sufficient omega-3’s in the diet and may be a healthy alternative.
With a fat content of 34.7g per 150g serving, the salmon is quite high in fat and would provide about 87% of the RDI for fat of 40g/day, as well as about 20% of the energy required per day. However many people have energy requirements greater than the reference 8400kJ/day (2000kcal/day).
Also to put the 40g per day in context with actual current fat consumption, the daily per capita availability of fat in the Oceania nations in 1990 was 138g (mainly from meat), which comprised38% of the dietary energy, a level considered too high for optimum health.
In 1995 the median fat intake for Australians aged 19 years and over was 74.5g per day. Replacing meat in a meal, with its high saturated fatty acid content, with salmon would be a healthy alternative.
The level of cholesterol in New Zealand king salmon, with 72mg per serving, may be of concern to some consumers. However, recent research has shown that dietary cholesterol has a relatively small effect on plasma (blood) cholesterol, although an intake of less than 300mg per daycholesterol is usually advised.
The omega-3 fatty acids in New Zealand King Salmon were very stable and are well preserved during different cooking methods (poaching, steaming, microwaving, pan frying, oven baking anddeep frying), although there can be some uptake of the frying oil by the fillet when deep frying.
It ispossible that the high levels of natural antioxidants in the salmon flesh, such as astaxanthin andvitamin E, help protect the omega-3 fatty acids during cooking.
