Omega-6 Fat Syndrome

The last reason that omega-3 fats affect so many different aspects of your body and, ultimately, your health involves their interaction with another key group of fats, omega-6 fats. We consume omega-6s in soybean oil, cottonseed oil, safflower oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, margarine’s, and salad dressings.

I contacted a prominent omega-3 fat researcher at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He began the interview by asking me a rhetorical question: “Do you know why omega-3 fats affect so many parts of our body and so many diseases?” He continued, “It’s because too much omega-6 fats in our diet prevent omega-3 fats from doing their normal course of work in our body.” Then he proceeded to describe how he balanced the fat in his own diet by cutting out omega-6 fats, food by food. Wow.

If you have never heard of omega-6 fat, you are not alone. When people hear the term omega, they often assume omega-6s are beneficial and related to omega-3 fats. While both groups of fats work together very closely, they have opposite effects in the body, like a seesaw. And as with children on a seesaw, the actions of one affect the other. If these fats are not balanced in your diet, they can dramatically affect your health. That’s the problem. The American diet is bombarded with unhealthful levels of omega-6 fats, which impede the benefits of omega-3 fats.

Omega-6 Fats Promote Disease

The problem with eating too much omega-6 fats is that they are disease promoting. In fact, the NIH’s Essential Fats Education program makes a profound declaration on its website: excessive omega-6 fats in the diet trigger a rise in health problems, including heart attacks, blood clots, arthritis, asthma, menstrual cramps, headaches, and
tumor metastases.

Eating too much omega-6 fat is a predicament affecting most Westernized countries, not just the United States. This quandary has been documented in many cultures and is referred to as a health paradox or omega-6 fat syndrome.

Most Omega-6 Fats Are Found in “Healthy” Oils

The paradox is that omega-6 fats have been indiscriminately promoted as “heart-healthy fats.” Many well-meaning health organizations touted “heart-healthy” oils (including corn oil, soybean oil, and margarine) to lower blood cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease. Consumers were (and are) urged to replace artery-clogging saturated fats in their diet with heart-smart polyunsaturated oils, which consist primarily of omega-6 fats.

Unwittingly, this health advice triggered people to eat more of the fats that work against the omega-3s. The so-called heart-healthy omega-6 oils displaced other fats in many people’s diets. Grocery store shelves overflowed (and still do) with foods containing “heartsmart” oils. But it turns out that the idea of eating polyunsaturated fats to prevent heart disease was based on an incomplete picture; emerging studies have shown otherwise.

Countries including Israel embraced heart-healthy eating by eating more polyunsaturated oils (omega-6 fats). Israel is especially notable because it consequently has one of the world’s greatest intakes of omega-6 fats. But with the increase of omega-6 fats came an increase in Western diseases such as cancer and diabetes.

Researchers used the term omega-6 fat syndrome to describe the cause of chronic illness plaguing an unusually healthy group of people in Okinawa, a region of Japan. The scientists discovered that Okinawans were eating too much omega-6 fat at the expense of omega-3 fat, and this imbalance was at the root of their new chronic health problems.

We Eat Fat That Did Not Exist 100 Years Ago

Today, we eat fats that didn’t exist a century ago, including cottonseed oil. Check the ingredients list on some of your favorite foods. More often than not, it will be listed, as it’s among the top four oils consumed in the United States. Our foods are now filled with omega-6 fats because of technology and pressure to eat more heartsmart fats.

Farming Practices Increase Omega-6 Fats in Meats and Plant Foods

Lastly, agricultural practices have dramatically altered the content of omega-6 and omega-3 fats in our diet. Plant foods used to have higher omega-3 fat levels, which had a positive trickle-down effect on the rest of our diet. In the bygone days of cattle grazing, cows used to nibble on plants containing omega-3s. And in the you-are-what-you-eat manner, these cows incorporated omega-3 fat into their own body. Voilà: the cows yielded milk and meat containing omega-3 fats, which in turn would be eaten by consumers. Today the amount of omega-3 fat in commercial beef is virtually undetectable. Instead, feedlot animals eat a grain-based diet, which offers little in the way of omega-3 but is higher in omega-6. Consequently, their meats are also higher in omega-6 fat.

We Need to Fix the Omega Fat Imbalance

Indeed, the typical Western diet delivers a double whammy: insufficient omega-3 fats and too many omega-6 fats. The consequence is many chronic diseases, from osteoporosis to inflammation disorders, which we can’t cure simply by reaching for a fish oil supplement. If you have too much omega-6 fat in the diet, it interferes with the benefits of omega-3 fats! A healthy balance of omega-6 fats and omega-3 fats in our diet is a key health factor that has been ignored for too long. Whereas our ancestors ate equal proportions of these fats, today the omega-6 fats in the American diet outnumber omega-3 fats by 10- to 20-fold!

Vegetarians are not off the hook, because studies show that they eat even more omega-6 fat in their diets than the typical person who eats meat. At the other extreme, those indulging in bacon and cream cheese in the name of weight loss, dieting Atkins style, also have a problem. These fats—saturated fats—also compete against the omega-3s.

The research is quite stunning, showing that omega-3 fats play a key role in preventing many illnesses and conditions:

• Inflammation
• Stroke
• Allergies
• Cancer
• Alzheimer’s disease

They may also be effective in treating:

• Depression
• Attention deficit disorder
• Dyslexia
• Cystic fibrosis
• Asthma
• Arthritis

Lastly, omega-3s have been shown to play a key role in:

• Brain development and function
• Learning and IQ

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