How many teaspoons of sugar in salmon?

Salmon is an oily fish, and oily fish is one of the foods Dr Unwin’s common foods chart names in its side panel of foods in the very low glycaemic range. The South Asian foods chart names fish in a similar note. Neither prints a figure, so the one here was calculated.

The input comes from USDA FoodData Central: farmed Atlantic salmon, cooked by dry heat, contains 0.0g of carbohydrate per 100g (SR Legacy, FDC ID 175168). Without any carbohydrate, the glycaemic load is 0 regardless of GI, so no GI appears on this page.

Fish muscle stores energy as fat and protein. The small amount of glycogen, the animal form of stored carbohydrate, in living muscle is used up after the fish is caught, which is why cooked fish, like cooked meat, shows no carbohydrate in food composition tables.

The USDA entry is for farmed fish. Wild salmon is leaner, and the species differ, but none contains carbohydrate. Smoked salmon is cured with salt and sometimes a little sugar, salmon cooked in a teriyaki, honey or maple glaze takes on the carbohydrate of the glaze, and salmon fishcakes contain potato or breadcrumbs. None of those is covered by the zero here.

Salmon’s omega-3 fats, protein and vitamin D are nutritional properties that a glycaemic load does not describe.

Chicken and beef were calculated the same way: chicken breast and ground beef.