Omega-6 Oils: The Burglars of Health

If I were to tell you that one day you will be robbed of your most valued possession by someone and that I knew who this someone was, I knew where to find them, and I knew how to stop them.  Wouldn't you want to know?  Wouldn't you want to stop this person immediately and protect your possessions? Now put this in the context of health.  To me, your health should be your most valued possession. Now if I could tell you what was going to rob you of your health, or at least something that would have one of the most negative effects on your health, wouldn't you want me to tell you?  Wouldn't you want to stop it immediately? I hope so. 

Omega-6 Fatty Acids

Omega-6 fatty acids are found at high levels in grains of ANY kind, legumes, seeds, and meat and eggs from grain fed animals.  These fatty acids cause inflammation throughout the body.  When you think of inflammation, you probably think of pain.  Inflammation is more than simply a painful joint, it has widespread health consequences.  It's important to point out that inflammation is currently being looked at as the cause of numerous diseases, including the two biggest killers, heart disease and cancer. They are even linking high omega-6 levels to fertility issues in males.So can you guess who the burglar is?  It's omega-6. 

This stuff is literally killing you slowly.  The more you consume, the more your body goes into a chronic, low-level inflammatory state.  This chronic inflammatory state is causing cumulative damage to all the systems of your body.  When the damage is done, you have a full blown disease.  Diseases that "run in your family" will be expressed because of this inflammation. 

Omega-3: The Protector

Omega-3 fatty acids are found in fruits, vegetables, meat and eggs from grass-fed animals, cold water fish, and nuts(in varying concentrations).  Omega-3 fatty acids protect the body from the inflammatory onslaught that omega-6 causes.  Consuming omega-3 fatty acids is like hiring a security guard for your health.  It basically protects you from everything omega-6 fatty acids cause. It's the yin to the omega-6's yang.  You want to prevent disease?  Increase your intake of omega-3.

The Ratio of Health

There is actually an omega-6:omega-3 ratio.  Before humans began consuming grains and suffering from chronic disease such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, the ratio was about 1:1.  The ratio in the western world today is about 16:1.  That means people are consuming 16 times the amount of omega-6 than they should be.  Don't you think that's crazy?  The fact that we KNOW this ratio is unhealthy, but do very little, if anything, to correct it.  We know the burglar, we know where to find him, we know how to stop him, so let's stop him!

Rid Your Cabinets of Disease!

After you read this, I want you to go to your cabinet and throw out all the vegetable oil you have.  The ONLY oils you should have in your cabinet are olive oil, macadamia nut oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, and flax seed oil.  There are a couple others but let's not get complicated here. I don't even bother with canola oil (follow this link to find out why.) Look at your food labels, especially your salad dressing.  Chances are it has soybean oil or some combination of soybean and olive oil.  In other words, it's bad.

Next, I want you to try your best to buy only grass-fed or free-range animal products.  This includes grass-fed beef, free range chicken and eggs, and pastured pork.  Cows eat grass, not corn.  They feed cows grain to get them fat, what do you think it's doing to you?  Need help finding a good source for healthy meat?  EatWild.com has a great search option for local farms.  I actually buy my eggs from the farmer's market on Fridays, they taste much better than supermarket eggs.  Grass-fed is a bit more expensive but it's well worth it if you can afford it. 

Finally, use quality omega-3 supplement.  I don't want to name specific stores but if you bought it at a supermarket, large pharmacy, or franchise nutrition store then you probably didn't get the most bang for your buck.  Physicians have access to higher quality omega-3 products and can point you to a high potency brand.  If your doctor just says to go to one of the stores above, then just contact me and I can point you in the right direction. I have a couple different companies I trust due to their excellent quality and highly concentrated omega-3 oils.