How Much Omega 3 Is in Salmon?

A balanced diet is essential to staying healthy and living a longer life. Ensuring you get the right amounts of essential vitamins, minerals, and fatty acids is important to ensure your body thrives. 

You might consider salmon if you’d rather get the nutrients you need from your diet. A delicious source of omega-3, we’ll cover how much you’ll get in each serving. 

We’ll also talk about the benefits of omega-3 and compare them to the benefits of another newly discovered fatty acid. 

What Is Omega-3?

Omega-3 is a type of fatty acid found in certain foods. Discovered over 90 years ago, the omega family of fatty acids is a type of polyunsaturated fatty acid, which means they are oils at room temperature. 

There are three different types of omega-3 fatty acids:

• ALA — alpha-linolenic acid
• DHA — docosahexaenoic acid 
• EPA — eicosapentaenoic acid

Of these three, only ALA is considered “essential.” Essential means our bodies need it to survive but we can’t readily make it ourselves. 

Characteristics of Omega-3

Omega-3 is a fragile fatty acid. Because it’s a liquid at room temperature, it’s subject to peroxidation, which means oxygen can make it rancid. 

Although only ALA is considered essential, most omega-3 supplements (like fish oil) also contain EPA and DHA. When comparing ALA, EPA and DHA, EPA has the strongest track record of heart health benefits. Clinical trials support that only pure EPA (explicitly without DHA) has demonstrated long-term health benefits, like heart health. 

What Foods Contain Omega-3?

Meat sources of omega-3 include fatty fish like sardines, anchovies, mackerel, albacore tuna, krill, and swordfish. Cod liver oil also contains omega-3, as well as some shellfish.

Plant-based sources include walnuts, flaxseed oil, canola oil, chia seeds, and soybeans. 

Many foods contain omega-3, and it typically isn’t necessary to take a supplement to get omega-3 unless you specifically don’t consume the above foods. 

How Much Omega-3 Is in Salmon?

When considering the amount of omega-3 fatty acids in salmon, we based each amount on a six-ounce filet.

• Atlantic salmon: 2,440 mg
• Farmed salmon: 4,504 mg
• Sockeye salmon: 2,260 mg
• Wild salmon: 1,774 mg

Farmed salmon will naturally have more omega-3 than wild-caught salmon because their feed is controlled. Farmed fish generally eat feed containing soybeans and seed oils, which contribute to the rich amount of omega-3 they contain. 

Whether or not you like eating fish that have been farmed or not, and whether or not a particular type of fish is likely to contain contaminants are topics for another day, but something to consider when adjusting your diet to add more fish. 

What Are the Benefits of Omega-3?

Before you swallow that fish oil tablet (or that bite of fish), you should understand why you’re taking it. 

Omega-3 fats are known to be heart-healthy and reduce your risk of heart disease, heart attacks, and strokes. It’s worth repeating, however, that only the purest, highest-grade EPA (exclusive of DHA) has been directly linked with these heart-healthy benefits. 

That said, there are some surprising facts about omega-3 worth considering.

What Are the Side Effects of Omega-3?

To get the protection from cardiovascular disease that omega-3 promises, it’s usually recommended that you take between 2,000 and 3,000 mg per day. Unless you’re a really big fan of oily fish, it could be hard to get that amount from dietary sources of omega-3. 

That leaves you with fish oil supplements, known for producing fish burps and a less-than-pleasant fishy aftertaste. In addition, too much omega-3 can actually produce negative health effects. It’s hard to tell how much omega-3 is too much because that can vary from person to person. 

Side effects can include: 

• Low blood pressure
• Thinning of the blood
• Excessive bleeding if an injury were to occur

But there’s more. Fish oil supplements have their own Achilles heel. Remember that omega-3 can oxidize. That means it can go rancid, similar to cooking oil. 

Omega-3 integrates into your cell membranes and can also oxidize there. That means omega-3 could go bad inside your cells.

Independent researchers found that as many as 1 in 10 bottles of fish oil supplements on store shelves were rancid before consumers even purchased them. 

Additionally, you’ll find that most omega-3 supplements contain a blend of different fish oils and filler ingredients that you might not realize you’re taking. These ingredients are typically added to help preserve the shelf life of the fish oil because — you guessed it — it goes rancid so easily. 

Is Omega-3 Bad for You?

The answer isn’t as simple as yes or no. Although we’ve looked to essential fatty acids as protection against coronary heart disease, recent studies found that taking an omega-3 fatty acid supplement had little to no significant effect on cardiovascular events in people who regularly include dietary sources of omega-3 in their meals. 

Even more alarming is that a groundbreaking study found that omega-3 can actually be toxic to your cells. In this study, omega-3 was found to be toxic to four out of 12 cell types, including lung and blood vessel cells. 

Thankfully, there’s a new player on the essential fatty acid field — C15:0.

What Is C15:0?

C15:0 is an odd-chain, saturated fatty acid that is now accepted as one of three known essential fatty acids (the other two being omega-3 ALA and omega-6 LA). 

Although food guidelines from a few decades ago told us that all saturated fats were bad for us, science now supports that that is not the case.

An important class of fatty acids was discovered, called odd-chain saturated fatty acids, which includes C15:0. 

Science supports that higher levels of odd-chain saturated fatty acids are associated with better heart, liver, metabolic, and immune health. There are now calls to action to update current dietary guidelines to differentiate between good and bad saturated fats. 

Where Can You Find C15:0?

C15:0 is primarily found in trace levels in whole-fat dairy products, and some types of fish and plants. However, increasing your intake of whole-fat dairy products comes with extra calories, sugars, and high levels of the "bad" even-chain saturated fats.

A solution? Fatty15.

Fatty15 is the first and only supplement to contain FA15™, the science-backed, pure-powder, vegan-friendly, sustainably-produced, award-winning version of C15:0, the fatty acid that does a better job of supporting our long-term health and wellness than the purest form of omega-3 (EPA).*

How do we know? We let science do the work. When fatty15 as compared to the purest, highest performing omega-3, fatty15 was found to be better, broader, and safer:*

• Better. Fatty15 had 26+ more cellular benefits than omega-3.

• Broader. Fatty15 repaired 83 percent of cell types studied (versus 33 percent with omega-3 EPA).

• Safer. Fatty15 was safe for all 12 cell types at all doses. In comparison, at the highest dose, EPA was unsafe for 33 percent of cell systems. 

Further, higher levels of C15:0 have been repeatedly associated with improved heart, liver, and metabolic health.*

C15:0 (the only ingredient in fatty15) naturally binds to receptors found throughout our bodies, called PPARs (pronounced pee-pars), that help to regulate our metabolism, including our cholesterol and glucose homeostasis.* This helps to explain why daily fatty15 supplementation helped to promote healthy cholesterol and triglyceride homeostasis.*

Bottom line: The C15:0 found in fatty15 proved three times more clinically relevant benefits than the strongest form of omega-3. 

Fatty15: No Fishy Business

Salmon is a good source of omega-3, and including it in your diet can help you get plenty of this essential fatty acid. Most people get the omega-3 they need from dietary sources, which means taking a supplement often isn’t necessary. 

To increase your circulating levels of C15:0, taking a supplement can be a better choice than looking for dietary sources, which often include unwanted calories, sugars and the unhealthy, even-chain saturated fats.

Just one fatty15 capsule per day provides 100 mg of C15:0, the ideal amount to restore your levels of this fatty acid and helps support your long-term health and wellness.*

Ready to get started? Order your trial kit of fatty15 today. 

Sources:

Omega-3 Fatty Acids: An Essential Contribution | The Nutrition Source|HSPH.Harvard.edu

Farmed Salmon vs. Wild Salmon | Washington State Department of Health

Omega-3 Fatty Acids - Health Professional Fact Sheet|ODS.OD.NIH.gov

Fish and Omega-3 Fatty Acids | American Heart Association

Revealed: many common omega-3 fish oil supplements are ‘rancid’|The Guardian

Broader and safer clinically-relevant activities of pentadecanoic acid compared to omega-3: Evaluation of an emerging essential fatty acid across twelve primary human cell-based disease systems | PLOS ONE