What are the richest fat fish?
That of fatty fish is perhaps the only category of food for which the adjective "fat" is perceived as an added value by many consumers. The awareness of the nutritional value of fish fats is now widespread, representing the only common sources of essential fatty acids of the omega-three EPA and DHA series.
In general, all specimens with lipid percentages greater than 10% are considered fats; however, as always, when talking about nutritional values the password is variability. Let's think for example of the influence of the environment in which they live (wild or farmed fish), but above all of the period of capture of the specimen; in autumn, for example, the lipid percentage tends to be very high because the fish have accumulated lipid stocks for the winter; vice versa, at the end of the spring reproductive period, much lower lipid percentages are recorded.
Nutritional value: not only omega-3
Fatty fish, compared to lean ones, represent a better source of fat-soluble vitamins, such as A, E and D (fatty fish and its oil represent the most generous food source of vitamin D, important for fracture prevention bones in the elderly). Also worthy of note is the content of vitamin B1, B2 and B12, as well as the classic minerals of which this food is rich (iodine in fresh sea fish, phosphorus, sodium, calcium and selenium). On the other hand, the higher lipid percentage makes these fish more difficult to digest, less conservable and more caloric than the others; not surprisingly, the offers of supermarkets often concern the fattest species like salmon.
Digestibility decreases along with other nutritional qualities if the fatty fish is not very fresh or preserved in oil. In the event that he has lived in contaminated water, the greater the risk that the animal has accumulated fat-soluble toxic substances, such as dioxin. As for the storage periods, the scaled, eviscerated, washed, carefully dried animal subjected to rapid freezing (domestic freezing) can be kept for a maximum of 40-60 days
As for the omega-three content, this is generally higher:
- in fatty fish compared to lean fish;
- in sea fish compared to freshwater fish;
- in wild fish compared to the breeding one (which is often fed with vegetable flours, rich in omega-six series fatty acids);
- in fish that live in cold waters compared to those that stay in warm waters.
| FOOD (100 g) | Omega 3 | ω-6 | ω-6: ω-3 | |||
| DHA (g) | EPA (g) | LNA (g) * | totals (g) | totals (g) | - | |
| Salmon oil | 18.232 | 13, 023 | 1, 061 | 35.311 | 1, 543 | 0.04: 1 |
| Cod liver oil | 10, 968 | 6, 898 | 0, 935 | 19.736 | 0, 935 | 0.05: 1 |
| Sardine oil | 10.656 | 10, 137 | 1, 327 | 24.093 | 2, 014 | 0.08: 1 |
| Caviar | 3, 801 | 2, 741 | 0, 017 | 6, 789 | 0.081 | 0.01: 1 |
| Mackerel | 1, 401 | 0, 898 | 0 | 2, 670 | 0.219 | 0.08: 1 |
| Coho salmon (wild) | 0.656 | 0, 429 | 0, 157 | 1, 474 | 0.206 | 0.14: 1 |
| Coho salmon (breeding) | 0.821 | 0, 385 | 0.075 | 1, 281 | 0.349 | 0.27: 1 |
| Anchovy or alice | 0, 911 | 0.538 | 0 | 1, 478 | 0, 097 | 0.07: 1 |
| Tuna | 0, 890 | 0.283 | 0 | 1, 298 | 0.053 | 0.04: 1 |
| Herring | 0.862 | 0.709 | 0, 103 | 1, 729 | 0, 130 | 0.08: 1 |
