What is Best for You: Omega 3 or Omega 6 Fats?
Sunflower oil
In my nutrition classes to groups of diabetics and people with heart disease, I get questions such as “Should I use olive or sunflower oil for cooking?” “For years we were told olive oil was best; then we were told to switch to sunflower oil, and now we are told we need to go back to olive oil. We are a little confused”, people tell me. Well, the secret lies in the proportion of the omega fats.
Omega 3 versus omega 6
As you may probably know, Omega 6 and Omega 3 are two fats our body needs but cannot produce. Thus we need to get them from the food we eat. But for these fats to work properly in our body, we need to ingest them in the right proportion: for each portion of Omega 3 we eat, we should ingest a maximum of 4 portions of Omega 6. Anything different than this ratio, 1:4, will most likely cause inflammation and chronic disease.
Sunflower oil
Sunflower oil with less than 60% oleic acid (the fat found in olive oil) has an Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio of 180:1 (180 portions of Omega 6 and 1 portion of Omega 3). If you prefer to use sunflower oil in your kitchen, buy the one that has over 70% of oleic acid; it has a proportion of 17:1 (17 portions of Omega 6 and 1 of Omega 3). Not the best ratio, but much better than 180:1.
Olive oil
Olive oil has a relation of 13:1 (13 portions of omega 6 and one portion of omega 3), a much better ratio than sunflower oil. And although this ratio still may sound high, let us remember that the main fat in olive oil is monounsaturated, a fat with very little omega 6. This means that although the ratio is 13:1, there is a low amount of Omega 6. It is the polyunsaturated fats that are loaded with Omega 6 fatty acids.
Why is important to keep the correct ratio between omega3 and omega 6?
Because ingesting too many omega 6 fatty acids and not enough omega 3s causes inflammation, the root of chronic disease such as cardiovascular disease, rheumatoid arthritis, joint pain, cancer, diabetes, and many others. As you may have noticed, these diseases have been on the rise for several decades by now but, have you asked yourself what are the reasons for this deterioration of our health? Let’s review first what inflammation is and then we’ll see one major step you can take to prevent this damaging health condition besides using olive oil over sunflower oil.
What is inflammation?
Inflammation is a response of our immune system to injury, irritation, or infection. Through inflammation our body attempts to remove the cause of the injury by producing pain, swelling, redness and heat. The pain has the purpose to let us know about the injury and the swelling to protect the damaged part by preventing its movement. Inflammation is classified as acute or chronic.
Inflammation
Acute inflammation
It is the initial response of the body to injury. It usually happens over a few days. We need acute inflammation to take place in order to heal the damage experienced by our organism.
Chronic inflammation
Prolonged inflammation, known as chronic inflammation, is a never ending response of the body to injuries or infections. Although inflammation is needed to heal injury, chronic inflammation can lead to serious chronic diseases. In fact, more and more studies are coming out proving that inflammation is linked to heart disease, cancer, diabetes as well as Alzheimer’s and several kinds of dementia.
Factors that cause inflammation
- Physical injuries
- Toxins and chemicals in our air, water and food
- Poor nutritional habits
- Bacterial or viral infections
- Allergies
- Medications
- Diseases of the immune system
- Physical and emotional stress
As you can see, reducing chronic inflammation seems to be crucial to prevent a wide range of chronic illnesses that have the potential of shortening our lives.
One of my major concerns when it comes to inflammation is the quality of animal products we eat nowadays. In particular, it worries me how cows, sheep, goats and chickens, just to name a few, are fed and the consequences this type of feeding is having on our health. And I am not referring here to the amount of hormones and antibiotics these animals are gulping down; we’ll talk about this subject some other time.
The reason why this subject worries me is because the way our livestock is fed, creates an unbalance in their fats that is having a major implication in our health.
Farm practices: the way they were
Many years ago, cows went out to dine in the field and had a feast chewing grass; as for the chickens, they were quite content stuffing their faces with grass, worms, or anything they could get a hold of out there. These “foods”, grass, worms, and the like, provided farm animals the right balance between Omega 3 and Omega 6 fats, also known as fatty acids, which should be, as we have seen, 1:1 or at the most, 1:4. Thus, when we ate their meat, milk, butter, cheese, eggs, etc., we also ingested the Omega 3-Omega 6 balance that farm animals got from eating according to nature, a way that promotes health in our organism.
Modern farm practices
But what is happening nowadays? Because of the large demand for cattle, chickens, etc., livestock is fed with mixtures of corn, soy, and who knows what else, that have lots of Omega 6 and barely any Omega 3 fatty acids. As a result, when we eat products coming from animals fed this way, we end up with very little Omega 3 fats and a lot of Omega 6. This unbalance of fats causes inflammation in our bodies.
Are there any solutions to this imbroglio?
There are many, such as changing the way livestock is feed, but it does not seem probable that this change will happen for the time being. In the meantime, to cover our flanks when dealing with something as precious as our health, I have to advocate for organic animal products, although I know they cost more.
Organic farm practices
Organic livestock are left loose in the fields, eating grass, warms, and anything they find around. If animals eat grass, their meat, milk and eggs will have the perfect equilibrium of Omega 3 and Omega 6, near 1:1. But if they eat junk food and we keep eating their meat and products, the resulting disequilibrium in our body could reach up to 1:40 or more (one part omega 3 and forty parts omega 6). Again, a disproportion of Omega 3 versus Omega 6 can lead to inflammation and as a result, to chronic disease.
Final Thoughts
Although I don’t advocate too often in my articles for buying organic products because I understand they are more expensive than non-organic, when it comes to animal products we should give priority to organic since any other way could generate diseases that not only may shorten our lives but it may cause us, or our love ones, a lot of pain and grief.
To your health!
Emilia Klapp, R.D., B.S.
www.TheDiabetesClub.com
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