More Food & Dining Questions

Skin of Octopus

I eat octopus all the time, but have only just stopped to wonder whether the skin is high in fat; we grill the octopus and eat it with the skin; no added oil/dressing/etc, just plain…should I remove the skin?

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Answer #1

When you grill it, the skin dries up and becomes crispy because you are rendering the fats down.

If you want your octopus to be more low fat, then yes, remove the skin, but it’s really not doing you much harm.

Answer #2

The fat content of whole, unskinned octopus is so low, removing the skin will provide negligible health benefits at best. I found this fun fact about the fat content of octopi:

‘A three ounce serving of cooked octopus contains approximately 140 kilocalories, of which about 16 calories come from fat. A three ounce serving of cooked squid contains roughly 150 kilocalories, of which about 58 calories come from fat. (By comparison, the leanest steak contains 170 calories per 3oz serving, of which 63 come from fat.) http://www.annecollins.com’

Assuming you go light on the toppings, that’s less than half the percentage of calories from fat than you would get from a turkey burger.