There are 3 critical factors to track regarding omega fatty acid intake:
- The total AMOUNT of omega-3 intake and omega-6 intake
- The RATIO of the omega-3 to omega-6 to each other
- The nature and QUALITY of the omega-3s and 6s being consumed
The total AMOUNT of omega-3 intake and omega-6 intake: a closer look
Often, we have too little of both omega-3 and omega-6 compared to saturated fat.
Many people get some omega-6, but few actually get enough good quality omega-6. Aim for linoleic acid (LA) omega-6 essential fatty acids (EFAs) to make up 5-10% of total dietary calories. That’s 100-200 calories for someone eating 2,000 daily calories. Each gram of fat has 9 calories, so that means that a person eating 2,000 calories daily needs 11-22 grams of LA omega-6 EFAs daily.
Most people are much too low in omega-3. Adequate intake (bare minimum) for the omega-3 EFA alpha-linoleic acid (ALA) is around 1.1 grams for women with high estrogen, and 1.6 grams for men and women with low estrogen. Each gram of fat has 9 calories, so that’s 9.9 to 14.4 calories coming from ALA omega-3 essential fatty acids. Of course, that’s the baseline, and to get the right omega-6 to omega-3 ratio, you’ll need to pay attention to how your intake of each lines up. (If you are aiming for a 4:1 ratio of omega-6 to omega-3, for example, and got 16 grams of omega-6 today, bump your omega-3 intake up to 4 grams).
2 tablespoons of Flora Udo’s Oil will provide 6 grams of LA omega-6 and 10.5 grams of ALA omega-3.
10.5 grams easily meets our omega-3 minimum goals, so diet doesn’t need to add any. But the omega-6 provides only 54 calories, so more calories of omega-6 are needed from the rest of the diet to reach the “5-10% of total calories from omega-6” goal. To get this, your food will probably need to have at least 10 g of polyunsaturated fat. Most polyunsaturated fats on food labels are omega-6 (fish is the exception).
The RATIO of the omega-3 to omega-6 to each other
Typically, people have a ratio that is much too low in omega-3. A 20:1 ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 is common in North America.
Ideally, we want to get a ratio that’s closer to 1:1 of omega-6 to omega-3. Recommendations vary between 4:1 and 1:4. The colder the climate you or your ancestors spend time in, generally, the more omega-3 you’ll benefit from.
2 spoons of Udo’s Oil is higher in omega-3 than omega-6, but after I finish eating for the day, I will probably have had more omega-6 and might finish the day closer to equal or 1:1.
This may be great for me, or it may be relatively lower in omega-6 than considered ideal. We find at Flora that after years of being extremely deficient in omega-3, this slightly higher omega-3 to omega-6 ratio often works to balance people out, and our customers can eat this way for years without developing signs of omega-6 deficiency. One of the reasons for this is likely due to the next point: quality.
The nature and QUALITY of the omega-3s and 6s being consumed
For cardiovascular health, any undamaged omega-3 is helpful. As long as you get enough omega-3, it can be any combination of the 3 omega-3 forms, including ALA, but also EPA or DHA. We might want to make sure some is DHA, if we have cognitive challenges, but for the health of all cells, we need to get enough of the essential fatty acids (EFAs - LA omega-6 and ALA omega-3), so at least some of our omega-3 intake should be ALA form for that reason.
Beyond that, where the fatty acids came from and how they were processed, extracted, and handled is the most important factor – it makes an enormous difference.
Because these fats integrate into every cell and regulate the function of the endothelium in your blood vessels, if they were damaged or altered during any of those steps, they might cause malfunction instead of function in your body. That’s why there are so many studies showing omega-6 intake causes inflammation – they used cooked, damaged, highly processed oils in the study, chosen because they were easily available or stable, but made stable through damaging heat and chemical treatments.
People tend to do well on Udo’s even if they get relatively little omega-6 from it; one reason could be that all the omega-6 it provides is intact, healthy, unaltered, and usable by the body.
To have an undamaged and unaltered omega oil, start with select uncontaminated sources that don’t contain impurities that need to be burned off. Then extract small amounts of extra virgin oil via cold small batch expeller pressing, instead of ultrahigh temperature cooking and pulverizing to maximize production. Make sure the oil stays unexposed to air, light, heat, and plastic, and leave it unrefined and natural, instead of using solvents, refining it, using defoaming, degumming, and deodorizing chemicals to mask its natural smell, taste, colour or signs of rancidity or damage.
About the Author: Dana Green Remedios is a triple-board certified Registered Holistic Nutritionist, transformational coach, Flora Product Specialist and healthy living spokesperson. She is a passionate educator who assists people to break through blocks to better mind, mood and menopause mastery. Her work has appeared on Well&Good, MindBodyGreen, Wellness on Purpose, and elsewhere, and hundreds of thousands of people have sought out her answers to nutrition questions on Quora.
