Omega-3 and Omega-6 – A Healthy Balance

These days, all omega-3s tend to be lumped together as “good fats” and all omega-6s as “bad fats.” This good-bad thinking is probably because omega-6 fats can either prevent inflammation or contribute to it depending on how we metabolize them, and because we tend to eat far too many 6s in our diet, and too few 3s. Unlike omega-6s, omega-3s only prevent inflammation, but the increased inflammation is what contributes to the very diseases omega-3s have been shown to help. But the reality is that both 3s and 6s are essential to our bodies, not in abundance, but rather in the optimal ratio.

Concerning that ratio, researchers agree that the optimal ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 is somewhere between 2:1 and 4:1. Yet the typical American diet provides a ratio of anywhere between 15:1 and 20:1!

This imbalance, tipped disproportionately in favor of omega-6 over omega-3, stems in part from a diet laden with animal fats, such as corn-fed beef, and other corn-derived products, and lacking in seafood, seeds, and nuts. The availability of omega-3s is made worse by our over-reliance on packaged, fast and fried foods high in hydrogenated oils, or trans fats. These are the only truly “bad” fats and are not found anywhere in nature. In our bodies, trans fats can shove the healthy fats out of cell membranes, wreak havoc with cell function, and interfere with the conversion of dietary fats into healthy eicosanoids (compounds derived from polyunsaturated fatty acids).

The food industry creates these hydrogenated trans fats by pumping extra hydrogen atoms into their molecular configurations, to create malleable, melt-in-the-mouth, yet solid-at-room-temperature products. Along with prolonging the shelf-life of all sorts of processed foods — cookies, crackers, bread, spreads, sauces, fried foods and snack foods — trans fats have an even darker side. They’ve also been shown to raise LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and increase the risk of heart disease.

If the words “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated” are listed in a product’s ingredients, do yourself a favor and don’t buy it! And because federal regulations permit a product’s label to claim “Zero trans fats” if its trans-fat content is less than half a gram per serving, be sure to check that the serving size listed hasn’t been minimized to ridiculously small proportions.