1. Introduction: current omega 6:3 ratio
2. Effects of a high omega 6: omega 3 ratio
3. Why the ratio is just a guide and why daily totals are more important
4. 10 inflammatory foods list
5. 5 best foods for your daily omega 6:3 ratio
6. What everyday foods contain the ingredients from the "10 inflammatory foods" list?
7. Conclusion
Introduction: current omega 6:3 ratio
Now you are familiar with how omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids effect your immune system and either enhance or dampen the immune/inflammatory response. We eventually need to bring this whole thing home and that means we need to consider omega 6 and omega 3s in the context of our everyday diets. As of 2002, it is speculated that the average ratio of omega-6: omega-3 fatty acids is somewhere between 15:1 and 16.7:1 (2). It is thought that our early ancestors consumed a diet with a ratio of around 1:1 (2). Yikes! So here we have a striking comparison, but how could it be that we are consuming so much more omega 6 today than we were then? Before we get into the specifics of the foods, I want to point out a few statistics regarding the omega 6: omega 3 ratio.
Effects of a high omega 6: omega 3 ratio
A high omega 6:3 ratio is thought to promote many of our Western diseases including cardiovascular disease, cancers, autoimmune diseases, and inflammatory diseases (2). A low omega 6:3 ratio has inhibitory effects on these diseases (2). Let's look at a few. (All of the ratios below are omega 6: omega 3 ratios)
A 4:1 ratio was associated with a 70% decrease in death from cardiovascular disease as secondary prevention
A 2.5:1 ratio reduced rectal cell proliferation (growth) in colorectal cancer patients, a 4:1 ratio had no effect
A lower ratio in women decreased risk of breast cancer
A 2-3:1 ratio decreased inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis patients
A 5:1 ratio was beneficial for asthma patients, a 10:1 ratio had adverse effects (2)
To further the story, and unbalance omega 6: omega 3 ratio is pro-thrombotic (promotes clot formation) and pro-inflammatory, contributing to diabetes, obesity, and atherosclerosis (3). As you can already tell, not all fats are made equal.
What's the moral of the story? The lower the omega 6: omega 3 ratio, the better the outcome in many of these disease states. Remember, disease and inflammation generally go hand in hand.
Why the ratio is just a guide and why daily totals are more important
We just went over how the omega 6:3 ratio is extremely important. Let me use a little analogy here to help further explain the omega 6:3 ratio when it comes to choosing foods. Let's pretend that we are bartering with a farmer, and he gives me a turkey and wants 20 apples and 10 oranges in exchange. That's a 2:1 ratio of apples to oranges right? He wants twice as many apples as he wants oranges. Okay. Now, let's say I have 4 apples and 2 oranges. Well, that's also a 2:1 ratio of apples to oranges isn't it? But just because my ratio is right, it doesn't mean that the farmer is going to accept only 4 apples and 2 oranges, he asked for 20 apples and 10 oranges! While the ratio is correct, the amount required is not correct.
The same thing applies to choosing foods that have the right omega 6:3 ratio. Let's say that you have a nice piece of salmon and want to put either 1 tablespoon of soybean oil on it or 1 tablespoon of butter. They are roughly the same calorie wise. The soybean oil has an omega 6:3 ratio of 7.4:1. Okay, it has 7.4 times more omega 6 than omega 3, that's fair. The butter has an omega 6:3 ratio of 8.7:1, meaning it has 8.7 times more omega 6 than 3. At first glance you might think "ah, David told me that the lower the ratio, the better, so soybean oil is the better choice." Let me stop you right there and explain this further.
1 tablespoon of soybean oil has 6807mg of omega 6s and 917mg of omega 3s. This is where the 7.4: 1 ratio comes from. You divide 6807 by 917 and you get 7.4. 1 tablespoon of butter has 382mg of omega 6s and 44mg of omega 3s. This is where the 8.7:1 ratio comes from. Now, back to our original example of deciding which fat we are going to put on our 4 ounce salmon fillet. A 4 ounce salmon fillet has 256mg of omega 6s and 2896mg of omega 3s with a ratio of 1:11.8.
Now, let's suppose we add the soybean oil to our salmon fillet. The total amount of omega 6s of the whole meal is 7063mg and the total amount of omega 3s for the meal is 3813mg, with a total ratio of 1.85:1. Let's suppose that we add the butter to our salmon fillet. The total amount of omega 6s for the meal is 638mg and the total amount of omega 3s for the meal is 2940, with a ratio of 0.22:1 (also 1:4.6). The omega 6:3 ratio is 8.5 times better when you use the butter instead of the soybean oil because of the total amount of omega 6s and 3s that are consumed, not just the ratio! While you are getting 1.29 times more omega 3s with the salmon and soybean oil, you are also getting 11 times more of the inflammatory omega 6s that promote all of the inflammatory/disease processes that we talked about earlier!
Meal 1: (with soybean oil) Meal 2: (with butter)
Total omega 6: 7063 Total omega 6: 638
Total omega 3: 3813 Total omega 3: 2940
Omega 6:3 ratio: 1.85: 1 Omega 6:3 ratio: 0.22:1
The moral of the story is that just because the ratio of an individual food is okay, you need to look at the total effect that a normal serving of that food will have on your daily omega 6:3 intake. Lucky for you, I took the work out of it and constructed a chart that determines the impact of a particular food on your overall daily omega 6 and 3 ratio.
10 inflammatory foods list
Now that I have given you a fair amount of information on the background of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, let me turn this into some applicable, down to earth, take away information that you may consider implementing in your daily life.
The way that I went about calculating these foods was first by determining the healthy amounts of omega 6s and 3s that a human should consume (4). Some scientists predict that the average ratio of omega 6: omega 3 in ancestral populations was close to 0.79:1, with 8840 mg/day coming from linoleic acid (omega 6) and 12600 mg/day coming from alpha-linoleic acid (omega 3) (3).
By understanding the normal daily intakes of hunter-gatherer ancestors, we can get a better understanding of what a normal serving of many of our modern foods have on our daily total recommended dietary intakes. For instance, 1 tablespoon of grapeseed oil has 9395mg of omega 6 fatty acids, well over the 8840 mg/day of the daily intake of our ancestors while only having 13.5mg of omega 3s, a far cry from the suggested 12,600mg/day of our ancestors. It is also important to note the serving size of particular items. Beets have a particularly poor omega 6:3 ratio of 11.5:1. Woah, you might think this is something to avoid. Again, there are only 49.3mg of omega 6s and 4.3mg of omega 3s in a half a cup of beets. Despite the ratio, you still have room for another 8,790.7mg of omega 6s for the day. I ranked the following foods based on their impact on the daily total of recommended omega 6s and 3s. Those who had the greatest negative influence (had a large percentage of daily omega 6s and a small percentage of the daily omega 3s) are considered the worst, while those with the greatest positive influence (had a large percentage of daily omega 3s and a small percentage of daily omega 6s) are considered the best. Below are 10 inflammatory foods for your daily omega 6:3 ratio with #1 being the worst (based on the limited amount of foods that I compared).
1. Safflower oil
1. Grapeseed oil
3. Corn oil
4. Soybean oil
5. Sunflower seeds
6. Walnuts
7. Peanut oil
8. Soybeans
9. Peanuts
10. Pecans
5 best foods for your daily omega 6:3 ratio
Below are 5 great foods for your daily omega 6:3 ratio with #1 being the best (based on the limited amount of foods that I compared)
1. Mackerel
2. Wild Caught Salmon
3. Herring
4. Sardines
5. Oysters
What everyday foods contain the ingredients from the "10 inflammatory foods" list?
When you are shopping at the grocery store, look on the back of packaged items and read the ingredients. You will be surprised to see how many ingredients are on the label that you have never heard of. While you are reading, look for the items listed under the "10 inflammatory food list" like soybean oil, peanut oil, or vegetable oil. My guess is that you'll be very surprised!
Here is a start to foods that will likely contain some of these inflammatory foods, depending on the brand and quality of the product.
Peanut butter (added oils)
All salad dressings and vinaigrette (soybean or canola oil)
Mayonnaise (even the ones touted to be made with olive oil or avocado oil, read the ingredients!)
Chips (potato and tortilla chips)
Vegetable dips Breaded and fried foods (fried in some form of vegetable oil)
"butter" from almost any restaurant (it's usually not butter)
Sauteed vegetables in a "salad bar" setting or take out (Chinese food, etc)
Pizzas & subs
Prepackaged and frozen meals
Canned soups
Mixed nuts and peanuts
Vegetable spreads, "I can't believe it's not butter", etc
Pre-made food like potato salad, tuna salad, salmon salad, or macaroni salad
Conventionally raised beef, pork, poultry, and seafood. (these animals are fed corn, hence the corn oil on the list is what the fat from these animals is!)
Conclusion
Let's bring this blog series home. Our Western diet is loaded full of omega-6 fatty acids. We extensively covered their role in immune function, inflammation, and many diseases. Our ancestors are thought to have had an omega 6:3 ratio of close to 1:1, whereas our modern diet is around 15-16.7:1. (2). By learning about the omega 6:3 ratio, you are better able to make well-informed decisions regarding the inflammation promoting properties of foods. Furthermore, by understanding the total impact a serving of an everyday food has on your total daily ratio of omega 6 and omega 3s, you are better able to understand the effects of your dietary choices on promoting the inflammatory or anti-inflammatory pathways. Just that the omega 6:3 ratio may be the same for two foods, the concentrations of the total omega 6s and omega 3s must be considered when determining the nutritional benefits of a food. Ten inflammatory foods in terms of greatest influence on daily omega-6 consumption include safflower oil, grapeseed oil, corn oil, soybean oil, sunflower seeds, walnuts, peanut oil, soybeans, peanuts, and pecans. Five foods that have the greatest influence on the anti-inflammatory daily omega-3 consumption include mackerel, wild caught salmon, herring, sardines, and oysters. Everyday foods that contain the inflammatory omega-6 foods include but are not limited to salad dressings, peanut butter, mayonnaise, chips, dips, breaded foods, butter substitutes, pizza, prepacked and frozen means, canned soups, mixed nuts and peanuts, pre-made foods like potato and macaroni salad, as well as conventionally raised meats like beef and pork due to them being fed corn. The next time you are at the grocery store, look for some of these ingredients on the back of the packages!
1. Calder, PC and Grimble RF. 2002. Polyunsaturated fatty acids, inflammation and immunity. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 56(3):S14-S19.
2. Simopoulos, A.P. 2002. The importance of the ratio of omega-6/omega-3 essential fatty acids. Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy. 56(8): 365-379.
3. Simopoulos, Artemis P. 2016. An Increase in the Omega-6/Omega-3 Fatty Acid Ratio Increases the Risk for Obesity. Nutrients. 8(3): 128.
4. Self Nutrition Data. Retrieved: May 22, 2019. From: https://nutritiondata.self.com/
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