Sunday, September 5, 2010

Balancing o-6 and o-3 fats.

It is becoming apparent that it is extremely important to lower the consumption of omega-6 PUFA fat to equal the amount of omega-3 unsaturated fatty acid. Omega-3 fat is an unsaturated fat found in plant and animal sources. I restrict my intake of vegetable sources of nutrients in favor of animal sources. Omega -3 fatty acids from animal sources are most abundantly found in fatty fish such as mackerel, sardines, salmon and tuna. More about this can be found by reading this article at about.com "Why Omega-3 Fat is Good for You and How to Include it in Your Diet".

Omega-3 fatty acid is also found in butter and cream from pastured cattle, not grain fed, and eggs from pastured hens. The ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 is much closer to the ideal ratio of 1-1 in fat from cattle and pigs in pastured animals eating the diet they evolved to eat, not grain and bean fed animals. The meat from wild game is also closer to the ratio of 1-1.

Dr. Andrew Weil has a good article on Balancing Omega-3 and Omega-6, Balancing Omega-3 and Omega-6? - Dr. Weil

Nuts and seeds do have omega-3 fatty acids in them. Good article with a 0-6 to 0-3 ratio chart for a few foods including some fish, vegetable oils, seeds and nuts at Peak Performance Online.

Elimination of commercial salad oils and products that contain processed vegetable oils from ones diet would be beneficial to ones overall health. Good alternatives to processed oils are Virgin Coconut oil, Virgin avocado oil and Extra Virgin olive oil.