The Omega 3 to 6 Ratio: Why It Might Not Matter

The Omega 3 to 6 Ratio: Why It Might Not Matter

Producer Potts 0:17

I have heard a lot in the wellness space about the ratio of omega threes to omega six, and it seems to boil down to just avoiding Omega six as much as possible and making sure to get enough omega threes. However, I have heard you say that the ratio is not as important as we used to think. Can you please give us the rundown on these fats and let us know what we really need to be paying attention to.

Dr. Sarah 0:42

I would love to let’s start with what the science is to support the idea of a ratio, because that’s one of the things that really propels all of the myths around vegetable oils online, is that there are mechanistic studies, so rodent studies and cell culture studies that show at least a possible explanation for why vegetable oils won’t be bad. It just so happens that when we look at human studies and look at what happens in a much more biologically complex system. Not only do those mechanistic studies or the thought that we might have from looking at them sort of fail to translate to humans, we see the opposite. So omega threes and omega sixes are two different types of fats and all of our cell membranes. So like that, the outer layer of every single cell in our bodies is made up of fat, omega threes and omega sixes can sort of embed in that cell membrane. They do, right? We have omega threes and omega sixes as some of the types of fats that make up that whole cell membrane. But what’s really cool about omega threes and omega sixes is that they can actually be used by the cells, right? The cell just grabs them out of the cell membrane, brings them inside, and then turns them into what are called signaling molecules. So these are chemicals that cause a cascade of other things to happen, and when it comes to omega threes and omega sixes in the cell membrane, they’re turned into signaling molecules that are really, really important for the immune system. And more specifically, omega six is when they’re pulled out of the cell membrane and turned into these signaling molecules. Those are signaling molecules that tend to turn on inflammation or increase inflammation. And omega threes, when they’re pulled out of the cell membrane, those are turned into signaling molecules that either turn off inflammation, or just have, like, a very weak effect on inflammation. So we used to think that because what what’s there is what’s used by the cell, that you want those in relative balance. You want about the same amount of omega six and Omega three in the cell membrane to turn into these signaling molecules, so that you have a kind of a balance, like a little give and take teeter totter between the signaling molecules that are turning on inflammation versus the signaling molecules that are turning off inflammation, so that all of the other ways that the immune system regulates itself can work properly, right? If you the idea was that if you have way too much omega six in the cell membrane, that that would cause such a like big increase in all of the signals turning on inflammation, that the other ways the immune system can regulate itself wouldn’t matter, that you would just get an increase in inflammation.

Producer Potts 4:01

Okay, can I jump in and try to see if I can give an analogy for where my brain is going, and you can let me know if I’ve got it with my me and my weird analogies. So just to make sure I’m following you correctly, so far, I’m envisioning, do we all remember the Hungry, Hungry Hippo game at the arcade, where you would use the machine and you would try to get as many balls as you can. So essentially, if we only had two of those colors, let’s say red was omega six and Green was omega threes. The idea is, if there’s too much Omega sixes, there’s a more likelihood we would get more of that color, which we don’t want and then so it was better to have less Omega six and more omega three, so there was a higher chance we would get the good is that, like a good am I following you so far?

Dr. Sarah 4:50

That’s a fantastic analogy. Okay, good. So what is controlling what type of signaling molecules are made is what’s called substrate availability. So it is what color balls you have in your Hungry, Hungry Hippo pit, right? So if you have a lot of red balls, the omega six balls, you’re going to make the inflammatory molecules out of them. If you have a lot of green balls, the omega three balls, you’re going to make a lot of anti inflammatory signaling molecules out of them. But here’s where things get really interesting. So the omega sixes and the omega threes that are inside the cell membrane are not, in general, the same ones that we’re eating. So the omega six in the cell membrane is a type of omega six called arachidonic acid. We get that from red meat, but it’s linoleic acid in vegetable oil, so we have to convert that linoleic acid into arachidonic acid in the cell membrane first. And the main omega three that most people get in their diets is the type that we find in plants, alpha linolenic acid that has to be converted into the long chain. omega three is the type we get from seafood, or we can get it directly from directly from seafood, eicosapentaenoic acid, and docosahexaenoic acid, EPA and DHA, and so it’s the like, the basically the longer, the longer versions of these fats that’s in the cell membrane that have to be converted and we used to think you want balance in the diet, because these are converted into the the ones that are actually in the cell membrane, that are actually being changed into signaling molecule that it’s the same enzymes to do that conversion. So we used to think, oh, man, same enzymes doing that conversion. Then we we definitely want them to be balanced in our diet. It just turns out that there is control in that conversion before we’ve got these longer like fats in the cell membrane, that is not just competition. So it’s straight competition at the level of the cell membrane. It’s not straight competition at the level of getting into the cell membrane. So we don’t see a direct link between how much vegetable oil we consume and how much arachidonic acid is in like our cell membranes to be turned into these inflammatory mediators.

There’s also some extra, like layers of complication, because we don’t actually see a direct as as direct a link between arachidonic acid levels and inflammation, as this very simple picture of signaling molecules would imply, and that’s that last part is because the immune system is fantastically complex, and there are many different things regulating it than just omega sixes and omega threes. So studies in humans that have actually looked at they put humans on different diets. This much linoleic acid from vegetable oil, this much omega threes. That’s either from fish oil, like the long chain omega threes, or it’s from something like flax seed oil, and it’s the shorter omega three, right? So the different studies kind of manipulate the omega three and omega six intake in different ways. There’s also population studies that just look at how much omega threes versus omega six is you eat, and then kind of put you in different categories based on how you eat normally, rather than trying to change it in in different people, those studies when they actually look at how omega six intake and omega three intake are affecting inflammatory markers, looking at the full range of different ways of Measuring inflammation, looking at cardiovascular disease risk, cardiovascular mortality, type two diabetes risk, and all cause mortality, a general indicator of health and longevity, basically show that both omega threes and omega sixes are independently beneficial. They are both good. So we just they’re just kind of differently good. So a better way to think of it as is thinking of them as two different essential nutrients. They are both essential nutrients. Omega threes are essential and omega sixes are essential. We need them both for a huge variety of different biological processes, and we need to just start thinking of them as separate. So we want to make sure we’re getting enough omega threes for all of the important things that omega threes do, reducing cardiovascular disease risk, improving immune function, reducing risk of neurodegenerative disease. We also want to make sure we’re getting enough Omega sixes that also reduce cardiovascular disease risk and reduce risk of type two diabetes and metabolic syndrome. So we want to make sure that we’re getting enough of each of them, and there’s some really interesting studies showing that the effects of omega sixes are even more beneficial if we’re getting enough omega threes. So we want to make sure that we’re hitting right a daily value, that we’re getting what our bodies need, and then when we. Get what our bodies need, it actually unlocks an even bigger beneficial potential of these, like really awesome fats.

Producer Potts 10:10

Okay, so just a point of clarification, because I did lose the thread a little bit. So how is that different from a ratio? Can you explain that? Because I think that’s what has to me. You know that, like, it’s like Omega six, Omega three is boiled down to, you know, have less of this, eat more of that. So I know that there’s, like, a technical ratio that we used to think which now, like, is not as important. But how can you explain how we should maybe think of these. Should we be thinking of these nutrients differently and just not connected anymore? Or, like, can you maybe help clarify that for us?

Dr. Sarah 10:50

I think we can think of them as weakly connected, maybe as kind of the better way to think of it. So I mean, there’s so many different things in our bodies that multiple nutrients contribute to, right? So if we, if we look at every chronic condition has multiple associations with nutrient shortfalls that increase risk of that condition, and every nutrient has multiple health conditions, we’re not getting enough of that nutrient increases risk of that condition, and that’s because every nutrient does multiple things, and there’s often like biological systems need lots of different nutrients. So in that way, we can think of them as weakly connected, because there’s biological processes that they’re both important in. But in terms of tying our intake of one to our intake of the other, that we don’t need to do, we do not need to think of I got this much omega six, so I have to get this much omega three. So that’s, that’s the idea of ratio. So the idea of ratio is, so let’s say the the myth online is that we want to aim for about a one to one ratio of omega six to omega three. So we want to consume about the same amount of omega six versus omega three. And but how much that is doesn’t matter, as long as it’s about equal amounts. That is what the myth is. That’s, that’s the idea that the ratio matters, not the absolute amounts. So okay, I consume one gram of omega six, I have to consume one gram of omega three. If I consume five grams of omega six, I have to consume five grams of omega three. That’s that’s ratio. So both kind of go up and down together. Instead, we need to think of it like any other nutrient. There’s a daily value, there’s an amount that we want to make sure we’re getting enough of, and if we’re meeting that daily value of the nutrient, it doesn’t matter like this one, if, like, it’s think of it like a, like, a threshold, right? So once we’re above that threshold, we’re getting enough. Everything else is gravy. Everything else is is, is awesome, and it’s the getting like, less than what our bodies actually need is the problem. So think of like, I don’t get enough vitamin C, I get scurvy. I don’t get enough omega threes or omega sixes, I increase my risk of cardiovascular disease. So we thinking of that in terms of like, hitting that daily value, and then however much we want above that amount. And they each have different daily values. So we don’t need to think of them as going up and down together. We just think of each of them as having a target amount that we want to get from our diets. And I don’t remember exactly what the target amount is, but I can actually look that up. I think that would be great. Yeah. So what’s really interesting is that omega threes actually have a separate daily value based on whether it’s alpha linolenic acid, the type found in plants, and the long chain omega threes, EPA and DHA that are found in seafood. So for alpha linolenic acid, this is based on what’s called the adequate intake level, which is a little bit of a fuzzier recommendation than a recommended dietary allowance level. It just means that we need more science to be able to like make it more concrete. That’s all that means. But it’s 1.1 grams of alpha linoleic acid for adult females, and 1.6 grams for adult males, and then for EPA and DHA, the type of omega threes we get from seafood. It is a quarter of a gram for both adult males and adult females. Linoleic acid, the type of vegetable oil you’re gonna see. This doesn’t look anything like a ratio. It’s 12 grams for adult females and 17 grams for adult males. So the the daily value is already way off of a one to one ratio. But this is, this is the scientific studies. This is what they show. This is what they show, lowers risk of cardiovascular disease and type two diabetes is to be getting, you know, based. Basically about two-ish grams total of omega threes, and 12 grams for females, 17 grams for males, of omega sixes. So already six to eight to one ratio is kind of built in, but we’re not going to think about a ratio. I don’t want to confuse everyone daily values, the relative amount, not important.

Producer Potts 15:25

Okay, so just one more clarifying question. What does that mean, practically for food choices?

Dr. Sarah 15:32

So really it’s the reason why, in the conversation of ratio, which we’ve already busted. The recommendation was to reduce Omega sixes and increase omega threes. Is because it’s a lot easier to get omega six fats from the modern food supply. So for linoleic acid, it means don’t be afraid of vegetable oil. Vegetable oil is beneficial. Olive oil is still maybe tied with canola oil. I realize that’s a can of worms that we will address in another video. The like healthiest fats to consume, and that the fats from fish, but it means what I’m trying to say is, don’t be afraid of vegetable oil. Vegetable oil is fine, but you’re also getting those omega sixes from nuts and seeds, from legumes, from whole grains. There’s those types of fats in meat and seafood. It’s really easy to get enough omega sixes. So from that perspective, hit the daily value of omega sixes. Just don’t do a crazy low fat diet, and don’t worry about it is, is, is really, you really don’t need to try in terms of the omega threes, though, that does require a little bit of awareness of what foods supply those and intent. So we get alpha linolenic acid, the the plant based omega three. Some of the best food sources are flax seeds, chia seeds, walnuts. But we’re really getting some from lots of different nuts and seeds we’re getting actually, one of our best food sources is canola oil. Again, I realize I’m I’m opening a can of worms and like refusing to address it in this video, but we’re gonna have to do another video for sure. And we do actually get alpha linolenic acid from seafood. And then seafood is our best food source of the long chain omega three fats, DHA and EPA. So DHA and EPA, we pretty much only get from fish and shellfish. There’s a little bit in seaweeds and algae. So if you are vegetarian or vegan or allergic to fish and shellfish, algal oil is pretty much the only supplement form that is like, a really good source. There’s a couple of plant foods that are hard to find, like purslane, which has some but even then, you would have to be eating you’d have to be growing purslane in your garden, or you would have to live somewhere where it grows wild and know how to forage it in order to get enough to make a difference. So really, for those longer chain omega threes, we need to think about things that come out of the ocean as as being our best sources. So in terms of meeting our requirements of those important longer chain omega threes, eating seafood two to three times a week is typically sufficient, because, remember, with daily values, we don’t need to hit every daily value every day, we just need to average our intake above the daily value on a short enough time scale that we’re kind of reflecting how easy it is for our body to store those so with omega three fats, two or three times a week of seafood, we’ll easily average to meeting those requirements. And then, you know, incorporate, incorporate some some nuts and seeds into our diets. Those are beneficial for all kinds of reasons, not just because they have omega three fats, but they also have other beneficial fats, and they have beneficial fiber types, and are our best sources of vitamin E. So lots of reasons to incorporate nuts and seeds, and we don’t have to overthink it, because this is built into the Nutrivore weekly serving matrix, which recommends three servings of seafood a week and four servings of nuts and seeds a week. So as much as like all this information is fascinating and good to know, we don’t actually have to overthink it. This has already been built into Nutrivore from the start, which is just also confirmation again, that eating a nutrient focused diet, whether you call it Nutrivore or not, is good for so many more reasons than just like us. You know, meeting our nutritional needs actually means so much more in our bodies than we could even. Wrap our minds around.

Producer Potts 20:01

So thank you. Dr, Sarah, this was so great. I really appreciate you breaking this down. And if you guys didn’t know, Dr Sarah did launch on her website recently, a very in depth article busting all the myths around vegetable oils, and she talks about this omega six to Omega three ratio in there as well. I will make sure that’s here for you if you want to dive into that again. Dr, Sarah, thank you so much. Really appreciate this clarification. Thank you.