Omega-6s: Supplement or Skip?
A Bite-Size Read for Your Health and Your Waistline
You’re in the supplement aisle of the health food store. Your doctor mentioned she’s keeping an eye on your cholesterol and your friend said he’s been taking omegas so here you are looking at this wall of bottles. What’s the difference? Ah! This one says Omega 3–6–9. That’s gotta be good. More is more, right? Not so fast!
Yes, Omega fatty acids are important. Omega-6s, in particular, provide energy to the body. They are also important for regulating our genes, promoting immune health, and supporting blood clotting. Similar to Omega-3s, they are critical for brain function and normal growth and development. Omega-6s have also been found to help stimulate skin and hair growth, maintain our bone health, regulate our metabolism, and maintain our reproductive system. Although this needs more research, there’s some evidence Omega-6s can help with symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis and dermatitis such as eczema, psoriasis, and skin conditions.
Omega-6 fatty acids are also one of our healthful fats. They’re unsaturated fats, which means that they’re liquid at room temperature. And Omega-6s, like Omega-3s, are essential, which means that our body cannot make it. That means we have to get Omega-6s through food or supplementation. There are four types of Omega-6s. LA ( linoleic acid), ARA (arachidonic acid), GLA (gamma-linoleic acid), and CLA (conjugated linoleic acid). If you read my article on butter, you may remember CLA!
Omega-6 fatty acids are found in sunflower seeds, safflower, soy, sesame, corn, oils, nuts, seeds, meat, poultry, fish, and eggs. According to the Food and Nutrition Board in the US Institute of Medicine, adequate intake of Omega-6s per day is 17 grams for males and 12 grams for females. To put it in perspective, 100g of walnuts gives us 37g of Omega-6, corn oil, 49g, mayonnaise, 39g, sunflower seeds, 34g, soybean oil, 50g. Whoa! Bottom line, we get plenty of Omega-6s without even trying.
Here’s the catch, for general health, we need a balance of Omega-6s and Omega-3s in the body. The ratio of Omega-6s to Omega-3s should be between 2 to 1 and 4 to 1. I will say a lot of people advocate for lower than that because there’s some evidence that our cavemen ancestors kept the ratio at 1 to 1. Today however, studies show people who eat a typical American or Western diet eat many of the foods listed above, and have a dramatically different ratio than what is recommended — often ranging from 15 or 17 to 1. I’ve heard some say even as high as 40:1. This means that we’re dramatically out of balance.
To top it off, some forms of Omega-6s are precursors to pro-inflammatory factors in the body. Thus, excess consumption of Omega-3s is associated with an increase in inflammatory diseases. Virtually all diseases and symptoms stem from inflammation; it stands to reason, we’re essentially increasing the potential for every symptom, illness and disease. This includes cardiovascular disease, type two diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, macular degeneration, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, cancer, psychiatric disorders, and autoimmune disorders. Needless to say, all things we don’t want.
So the moral of this story is: We get plenty of Omega-6s in our everyday nutrition. You do not need to go out of your way to eat them or supplement with them, especially if you’re already eating nuts, seeds, eggs, animal protein or processed foods. Instead, we want to focus on improving the ratio of Omega-6s to Omega-3s which means potentially supplementing with only Omega-3s and focusing on Omega-3 rich foods. If your Omega supplement has both, we’re not shifting the ratio. Let’s be shifters!
