Eating healthy, whole foods can often seem like a balancing act for our patients: choose healthier fats, choose green leafy vegetables and avoid processed foods. Although reading nutrition labels and cooking wholesome meals may be more time-consuming than stopping at a drive-thru for a burger, fries and soda, we encourage you to do these extra steps to keep your body in balance and reduce your risk for chronic diseases.
Part of this balancing act includes incorporating equal levels of omega-3s and omega-6s into your healthy diet. Prior to the golden age of processed foods, let’s call it, our meals naturally balanced these two fatty acids. Now, Western diets have omega-6 to omega-3 ratios as high as 15:1 or 16.7:1, according to the Center for Genetics, Nutrition and Health.
Omega-3, which you likely associate with being a part of a healthy diet, is responsible for inhibiting inflammatory reactions, and controlling cell growth, immune function and blood clotting. There are few sources of omega-3 in our modern diet, but it can be found in:
• Salmon and other cold water, oily fish
• Walnuts
• Flaxseeds
• Omega-3 fortified foods, such as eggs
Omega-6 is equally important to essential body functions, but not in the amounts the average American ingests. Omega-6 increases inflammation (which can be a positive response in certain situations) and helps the body with cell growth and blood clotting – functions omega-3 suppresses as necessary. It is found in:
• Refined vegetable oils, such as soybean oil, found in snacks, sweets and crackers
• Seeds
• Nuts
This fatty acid now dominates Western diets with an estimated 20 percent of the average American’s daily calories coming from soybean oil.
Some researchers associate this dietary imbalance with the increase in chronic diseases among Western societies. Multiple studies have shown lower or close to even proportions of omega-6 to omega-3 are associated with beneficial effects for patients with rheumatoid arthritis, asthma and women with breast cancer. Other research analyzed by the National Institutes of Health shows that study participants who consumed high levels of omega-6 had a 17 percent higher risk of dying from disease during a seven-year time period compared to 11 percent among the study’s control group.
Even though there are many concerns over too much omega-6, completely eliminating it from your diet would be detrimental to your health. Incorporating healthy, omega-3-rich foods into your nutritious meals, however, is an easy change that can have a positive impact on your health and well-being.
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