Omega 6:3 ratio page 2

[choppedliver]

Avocadoes are a "PUFA bomb" according to Ray Peat and he seems to advise avoiding them. What's the n-6/n-3 balance in avocadoes? I didn't realize it was lopsided in favor of n-6. My take is that all naturally-occurring n-6 PUFA (avocadoes, wild-caught fish, pastured chicken, pasture-bred pork) can't be that bad; it's the n-6 PUFA in processed foods that are egregious (e.g., bread, dairy, processed flour products). I think the focus on n-6/n-3 imbalance is being second-guessed unduly when all you're eating is fish, chicken, pork, and unroasted/unsalted nuts. This is dramatically different than eating flour-based products, ice cream, and other SAD staples. In the latter case, you may need fish oil supplementation; in the former, I tend not to think so.

There seems to be more widsom in ancestral eating habits than in taking modern science literally. Sure, once digested, these items all dissolve into common denominators we refer to as n-3/n-6 PUFA. Supposedly the double carbon bonds make them unstable. But really, is that all there is to it?

Where are all those that ate non-fatty fish, pork, birds, avocadoes, nuts, etc. that fell easy victim to cardiovascular disease or cancer? A 10:1 imbalance may not be all that unhealthy if that imbalance is coming from such items, than when you're eating n-6 PUFA from gluten grain-based and vegetable oil products.

I just sorted my list by omega 6 content... Turns out most of it is coming from the avocado I ate, not the chicken. I thought those guys were healthy. No? Eat just a bit notnthe whole? Eat 3 and die happy?

[GeorgiaPeach]

So I can ditch the fish oils all together?

[dbalch]

I think if you get a good quality, liquid fish oil to take every day, you don't need to worry about it being technically supplementation. It's still food, it's from a very primal food, and it shouldn't contain additives that could do harm to you. Honestly, if that's the only supplement that you take, you are way ahead of the curve. Way back in caveman times, all of our meat would have been free-range, grass-fed, etc. The higher levels of omega 3 in them were enough then. Nowadays unless you want to eat exclusively fish and grass-fed ruminants (cows, bison, etc.), taking a fish oil supplement really just "makes up" for what is missing from the meat we can get our hands on. As long as you aren't partaking of the high omega 6 foods (and that seems to be the case), you shouldn't have any problem!

If you feel good at the fat %age that you are currently hitting, no need to change anything.

I eat almost exclusively local grass fed meats and wild caught fish, although I don't eat as much fish as I should, maybe only twice a month.

Would it be your opinion that I don't need an Omega 3 fish oil supplement?

[paleo-bunny]

Real omega 3 is always better than taking it in supplement form.

Primal is about eating real foods.

[GeorgiaPeach]

Paleotrack.com has carrots having more o6 than chicken breast. Is that right? I'm simply talking tenths of a gram here, but still. Coconut oil... Is that considered high in o6? I'm obsessing over nothingit seems, but I do find it interesting comparing them all.

[Forgotmylastusername]

Avoiding bad oils and eating fish a few times a week is good enough for me. I have a bottle of Cod liver oil as well but I probably only take a small spoonful a week.

[EyeOfRound]

Just wanted to say thanks for alerting me to that paleotrack site. I've been using Fat Secret to track my macronutrients, but it doesn't provide information about EFAs. Now, if only paleotrack had as many foods in the database as Fat Secret!

[youmustvotenato]

i think eggs are a great source of iodine

[CDC]

i find paleo track very limited and hard to deal with...i keep trying but there are not many foods in data based and if you need to enter your own you miss on micro nutrients and things like omega 6 and 3 ratios...

i never can get my ratio correct based on paleo track and eat pure primal..so i just take fishoil, not even sure how much to take because i dont quite understand how much you need to get proper ratio

[Catrin]

I like Cronometer as it breaks things down like Paleotrack - but to an even more detailed level. It also shows ratios (both O3/O6, and Zinc/Copper). Recipes are as easy to enter as any other site and I don't mind that a lot of the nutritional content is for raw food - to me that makes it easier to entire my recipes and figure out what I am doing. It works for me. So much so that I now have the paid version.