Omega 6 Fat Ain't Always Pretty

Nutrition

Sat, May 31 2008

Balancing omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids in your diet is crucial. Too much omega 6 can lead to irregular heart beats, blood clots, and it can even promote certain types of cancer.

Ain't a pretty picture, is it? Just when you tought you had the whole healthy and bad fatty acid mumbo jumbo down, you read this. Even more discomforting might be the fact that omega 6 is extremely overabundant in the Western diet. The primary contributors of omega 6 to our diet are corn, sunflower oil and sesame oil, and as you may know, corn is king in the United States.

An excellent post further explaining the omega 6 issue was written by Lisa Nelson, registered dietitian, at eNutritionServices.

The typical American diet is very high is omega 6 fatty acids. A main source of omega 6 fatty acids is corn oil, which is very prevalent in our society. Other sources include sunflower oil, safflower oil, soybean oil, sunflower seeds, pine nuts, pistachio nuts, and pumpkin seeds.

The ideal ratio between omega 6 and omega 3 fatty acids should be 1:1 or 4:1. A typical diet in the U.S. is 11:1 to 30:1. This poor ratio is linked with heart disease, among several other health issues.

I refer to Lisa as a source because sometimes you just gotta listen to what the dietitians have to say. At the end of the day I'm just another random guy blogging about a healthy lifestyle. Don't take a random guy's word for it when it concerns your health. You can subscribe to Lisa's mailing list, read her articles or ask her questions at eNutritionServices.

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Comments (4) add comment

Details...
written by fatbastard , June 02, 2008

It is funny how we (or should I say I) like to file information in big folders. I see Omega and Fat and think, "Oh, that is the good stuff." It is a challenge to keep up with the details, but a challenge worth the effort. Thanks for the info!

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written by Nico , June 02, 2008

It's crazy I know! To be honest, I forget about omega 6 all the time. I see "vegetable oils" in the ingredients list and think "hell yeah, healthy essential oils!". Yet often it's all omega 6... it's as if nothing's healthy anymore.