How Much is 6 Ounces of Salmon? A Detailed Look at Serving Sizes and Prices

Summary of Important Health Benefits of Grassfed Meats, Eggs and Dairy

Lower in Fat and Calories. There are a number of nutritional differences between the meat of pasture-raised and feedlot-raised animals. To begin with, meat from grass-fed cattle, sheep, and bison is lower in total fat. If the meat is very lean, it can have one third as much fat as a similar cut from a grain-fed animal. In fact, as you can see by the graph below, grass-fed beef can have the same amount of fat as skinless chicken breast, wild deer, or elk.[1] Research shows that lean beef actually lowers your “bad” LDL cholesterol levels.[2]

Data from J. Animal Sci 80(5):1202-11.

More calories are burned when you eat meat from animals that were fed grass instead of grain. (Fat has 9 calories per gram, compared with only 4 calories for protein and carbohydrates. The greater the fat content, the greater the number of calories. So, a 6-ounce steak from a steer that was fed grass may have 100 fewer calories than a 6-ounce steak from a steer that was fed grain. If you eat a typical amount of beef (66. 5 pounds a year), switching to lean grassfed beef will save you 17,733 calories a year. You won’t even have to change what you eat. If everything else in your diet remains constant, you’ll lose about six pounds a year. If all Americans switched to grassfed meat, our national epidemic of obesity might diminish.

To make grass-fed beef more familiar to customers, farmers have been looking for ways to add more marbling to the meat over the past few years. But grass-fed beef, even these bigger cuts, has less fat and calories than beef from cattle that were fed grains.

Extra Omega-3s. Meat from grass-fed animals has two to four times more omega-3 fatty acids than meat from grain- fed animals. Omega-3s are called “good fats” because they play a vital role in every cell and system in your body. For example, of all the fats, they are the most heart-friendly. People who have ample amounts of omega-3s in their diet are less likely to have high blood pressure or an irregular heartbeat. Remarkably, they are 50 percent less likely to suffer a heart attack.[3] Omega-3s are essential for your brain as well. People with a diet rich in omega-3s are less likely to suffer from depression, schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder (hyperactivity), or Alzheimer’s disease.[4]

Another benefit of omega-3s is that they may reduce your risk of cancer. In animal studies, these essential fats have slowed the growth of a wide array of cancers and also kept them from spreading.[5] Although the human research is in its infancy, researchers have shown that omega-3s can slow or even reverse the extreme weight loss that accompanies advanced cancer and also hasten recovery from surgery.[6,7]

Omega-3s are most abundant in seafood and certain nuts and seeds such as flaxseeds and walnuts, but they are also found in animals raised on pasture. The reason is simple. Omega-3s are formed in the chloroplasts of green leaves and algae. Sixty percent of the fatty acids in grass are omega-3s. When cattle are taken off omega-3 rich grass and shipped to a feedlot to be fattened on omega-3 poor grain, they begin losing their store of this beneficial fat. Each day that an animal spends in the feedlot, its supply of omega-3s is diminished.[8] The graph below illustrates this steady decline.

Data from: J Animal Sci (1993) 71(8):2079-88.

When chickens are housed indoors and deprived of greens, their meat and eggs also become artificially low in omega-3s. Eggs from pastured hens can contain as much as 10 times more omega-3s than eggs from factory hens.[9]

It has been estimated that only 40 percent of Americans consume an adequate supply of omega-3 fatty acids. Twenty percent have blood levels so low that they cannot be detected.[10] Switching to the meat, milk, and dairy products of grass-fed animals is one way to restore this vital nutrient to your diet.

The CLA Bonus. Meat and dairy products from grass-fed ruminants are the richest known source of another type of good fat called “conjugated linoleic acid” or CLA. When ruminants are raised on fresh pasture alone, their products contain from three to five times more CLA than products from animals fed conventional diets.[11] (A steak from the most marbled grass-fed animals will have the most CLA ,as much of the CLA is stored in fat cells.)

CLA may be one of our most potent defenses against cancer. In laboratory animals, a very small percentage of CLA—a mere 0.1 percent of total calories—greatly reduced tumor growth. [12] There is new evidence that CLA may also reduce cancer risk in humans. In a Finnish study, women who had the highest levels of CLA in their diet, had a 60 percent lower risk of breast cancer than those with the lowest levels. Switching from grain-fed to grassfed meat and dairy products places women in this lowest risk category.13 Researcher Tilak Dhiman from Utah State University estimates that you may be able to lower your risk of cancer simply by eating the following grassfed products each day: one glass of whole milk, one ounce of cheese, and one serving of meat. You would have to eat five times that amount of grain-fed meat and dairy products to get the same level of protection.

Vitamin E. In addition to being higher in omega-3s and CLA, meat from grassfed animals is also higher in vitamin E. The graph below shows vitamin E levels in meat from: 1) feedlot cattle, 2) feedlot cattle given high doses of synthetic vitamin E (1,000 IU per day), and 3) cattle raised on fresh pasture with no added supplements. The meat from the pastured cattle is four times higher in vitamin E than the meat from the feedlot cattle and, interestingly, almost twice as high as the meat from the feedlot cattle given vitamin E supplements. [14#] In humans, vitamin E is linked with a lower risk of heart disease and cancer. This potent antioxidant may also have anti-aging properties. Most Americans are deficient in vitamin E.

Data from: Smith, G. C. “Adding vitamin E to cattle’s food to make beef last longer on store shelves and in boxes for sale in the United States and other countries ” Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523-1171.

Summary References

1. Rule, D. C. , K. S. Brought on, S. M. Shellito, and G. Maiorano. “Comparison of Muscle Fatty Acid Profiles and Cholesterol Concentrations of Bison, Beef Cattle, Elk, and Chicken. ” J Anim Sci 80, no. 5 (2002): 1202-11.

2. Davidson, M. H. , D. Hunninghake, et al. (1999). “A long-term, randomized clinical trial comparing the effects of lean red meat vs. lean white meat on serum lipid levels in people with hypercholesterolemia who live on their own” ” Arch Intern Med 159(12): 1331-8. The study’s conclusion was that diets mostly consisting of lean red meat or lean white meat had similar effects on lowering LDL cholesterol and raising HDL cholesterol. These effects lasted for 36 weeks of treatment. ”.

3. Siscovick, D. S. , T. E. Raghunathan, et al. (1995). “The Link Between the Amount of Long-Chain n-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids You Eat and the Risk of Sudden Cardiac Arrest ” JAMA 274(17): 1363-1367.

4. Simopolous, A. P. and Jo Robinson (1999). The Omega Diet. New York, HarperCollins. My previous book, a collaboration with Dr. Artemis P. Simopoulos, devotes an entire chapter to the vital role that omega-3s play in brain function.

5. Rose, D. P. , J. M. Connolly, et al. (1995). A study looked at how eating foods with eicosapentaenoic or docasahexaenoic acid affected the growth and metastasis of breast cancer cells in naked mice. ” Journal of the National Cancer Institute 87(8): 587-92.

6. Tisdale, M. J. (1999). “Wasting in cancer.” J Nutr 129(1S Suppl): 243S-246S.

7. Tashiro, T. , H. Yamamori, et al. (1998). “n-3 versus n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids in critical illness. ” Nutrition 14(6): 551-3.

8. Duckett, S. K. , D. G. Wagner, et al. (1993). “Effects of time on feed on beef nutrient composition. ” J Anim Sci 71(8): 2079-88.

9. Lopez-Bote, C. J. , R. Sanz Arias, A. I. Rey, A. Castano, B. Isabel, J. Thos (1998). “Effect of free-range feeding on omega-3 fatty acids and alpha-tocopherol content and oxidative stability of eggs. ” Animal Feed Science and Technology 72: 33-40.

10. Dolecek, T. A. and G. Grandits (1991). “Dietary Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Mortality in the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial (MRFIT). ” World Rev Nutr Diet 66: 205-16.

11. Dhiman, T. R. , G. R. Anand, et al. (1999). “Conjugated linoleic acid content of milk from cows fed different diets. ” J Dairy Sci 82(10): 2146-56. It’s interesting that the cows made a lot less CLA when they ate hay made from the same grass as the pasture that had been machine-harvested. This happened even though the hay was made from the same grass. The fat that the animals use to produce CLA is oxidized during the wilting, drying process. For maximum CLA, animals need to be grazing living pasture.

12. Ip, C, J. A. Scimeca, et al. (1994) “Conjugated linoleic acid. A powerful anti-carcinogen from animal fat sources. ” p. 1053. Cancer 74(3 suppl):1050-4.

13. Aro, A. , S. Mannisto, I. Salminen, M. L. Ovaskainen, V. Kataja, and M. Uusitupa. “Inverse Association between Dietary and Serum Conjugated Linoleic Acid and Risk of Breast Cancer in Postmenopausal Women. ” Nutr Cancer 38, no. 2 (2000): 151-7.

14. Smith, G. C. “Adding vitamin E to cattle’s food to make beef last longer on store shelves and in boxes for sale in the United States and other countries ” Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523-1171.

Some of the Absolutely Best Beef

Thanks to people who cared about the land, their animals, and their customers, we were able to find some of the BEST beef in 2017! Here’s to more great eating adventures in 2018! Happy New Year!!

Roman ~ Hope, NJ

Thank you Beaver Brook Ranch for the selection of meat provided. Purchased 1/4 package and you can tell this is high quality meat. My wife and I like that we can pick the amount of meat we want, and the packaging is just right for our small family. You can count on us as future customers. Stefan and his dad Helmut were a pleasure to deal with!.

Larry ~ Columbia, NJ

We are so happy that we bought a 1/4 cow! The owners are very knowledgeable and helpful, the meat tastes great, and we know we are giving our family the best! Thank you!!

Heather ~ Pen Argyl, PA

6oz salmon portions from Macknight’s

FAQ

Is 6oz of salmon too much?

How big is a 6 oz portion of fish?

How much Oz is a piece of salmon?

How big is a 3 oz portion of salmon?

How big is a 6 oz salmon fillet?

A 6 oz salmon fillet is roughly the size of two standard deck cards together. A 6-ounce portion should be about 5 ½ inches long and 3 inches wide for wild Alaskan sockeye or coho salmon. If purchasing farm-raised Atlantic salmon, your portions may vary slightly as these are larger varieties than their wild counterparts. [ 1]

Is it safe to eat 8 oz of Atlantic salmon 4 to 5 times a week?

Despite being considered a very nutritious meat, agencies such as the United States Environmental Protection Agency do not recommend eating salmon more than twice a week due to several types of contaminants present in the fish, especially if it is salmon from aquaculture.

How many calories are in 6 ounces of boneless cooked salmon?

There are 236 calories in 6 ounces of boneless Cooked Salmon. Calorie breakdown: 29% fat, 0% carbs, 71% protein. There are 236 calories in 6 ounces of boneless Cooked Salmon. Get full nutrition facts and other common serving sizes of Cooked Salmon including 1 oz, with bone of (yield after bone removed) and 1 oz of boneless (yield after cooking).

How many oz of salmon should a person eat?

6 oz of salmon should be enough for two people. The recommended serving size for fish is 3-4 oz per person, so 6 oz would be a reasonable portion for two people. What is the ideal serving size of salmon? The ideal serving size of salmon is between 3-4 ounces.