Fish oil: you're using it wrong
Here's a quick summary...
- Some people don't see results from their fish oil supplementation. They are missing a few pieces of the puzzle.
- Our diets contain far too many omega-6 fatty acids. This causes inflammation, countless diseases, insulin resistance and obesity.
- Our diet contains far too few omega-3 fatty acids. Their role is to counteract the negative effects of omega-6 fatty acids.
- Omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids compete with each other for space in the cell membrane. You can't just take omega-3 fatty acids and expect to change the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids without worrying about your excessive omega-6 intake.
Do it right and you are indestructible
When used properly, fish oil can make your cardiovascular system virtually indestructible, fight virtually any inflammation, improve your insulin sensitivity and turn you into a lean, fat-burning machine.
Unfortunately, many people don't do it right and therefore don't experience these great things. They take the capsules, but they usually don't feel any difference. The problem is that they lack a fundamental understanding of how fish oil, or more specifically omega-3 fatty acids, work. This lack of universal effects has led some doctors to question the benefits of fish oil. But they, along with many other people who take fish oil or omega-3 fatty acid supplements, have missed a lot of crucial points.
The "good deal" has messed up our body chemistry
To understand what's being messed up, we need to look at the fascinating story of how we got to the point where we need fish oil capsules in the first place. It all goes back to a seemingly unrelated fact: leaves rot quickly, but seeds don't.
If you're a food manufacturer, you want to make food from plant ingredients that have a long shelf life. Rotting vegetables mean less money in your pocket, so plant breeders look for plants or parts of plants that go bad more slowly and have the longest possible shelf life. That means seeds and grains. The reason leaves spoil so quickly is because they contain a lot of omega-3 fatty acids, while long-lasting seeds and grains contain a lot of omega-6 fatty acids, which serve as an energy supply for the developing seedlings. Pretty much every food sold in a box or other package is made from one of the three or four most commonly used grains. Salad dressings, oils for cooking, peanut butter, snacks of any kind, and anything packaged in plastic and decorated with a human-shaped bear is full of omega-6 fatty acids. Grains are cheap and available in large quantities, which is why we feed them to any animal we want to eat later. Cattle normally eat grass their whole lives, but we stuff them with grain to make them fatter. Not only does this make them sick and necessitate the use of antibiotics, but it also alters their fatty acid profile, turning them into four-legged, ruminant omega-6 bombs.
Even the fish we once prized for its omega-3 content is being raised on pellets made mostly of soy, turning even fish into something no better than any plastic-wrapped, cheesy Frankenfood you'll find in the frozen section of your supermarket. Even chickens are not safe from these fatty acid atrocities, as they too are fed pellets made from grains instead of a balanced diet of seeds and omega-3 rich grubs and insects. And of course this fat practice also affects our dairy products and eggs. These foods no longer contain usable amounts of omega-3 fatty acids. In fact, it's estimated that 9% of the calories in the average American diet come from a single omega-6 fatty acid - linoleic acid - most of which comes from soybean oil. It's a pellet-based Soylent Green world - but what the heck, it's good business.
It's probably what killed your grandfather
As a result of all this good business, the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids in these animals has gotten completely out of whack. It's somewhere in the range of 10, 20 or 25 to 1, where it should be in a range of about 3 to 1. And of course, we are what we eat, which is why our ratio is not that different from the animal foods we eat.
Similarly, we can't ignore the "fat equals heart attacks" theory that was put forward in the seventies. People began to avoid fat from animal sources and switched to using seed oils. The problem, however, was that, at least at that time, animal fat still contained respectable amounts of omega-3 fatty acids, whereas seed oils contain little or no omega-3 fatty acids.
Furthermore, people went from eating butter to eating margarine, which is a one-two punch of high concentrations of omega-6 fatty acids and high concentrations of trans fatty acids, the latter of which is a completely different kind of nutritional demon. If your father or grandfather died prematurely of a heart attack, it probably had something to do with it.
100 of the greatest plagues of mankind
Omega-6 fatty acids are the building blocks for a class of pro-inflammatory chemicals that cause red blood cells to form clots, but it's the pro-inflammatory modifiers that should worry you. Inflammation is insidiously and intimately linked to at least 100 of humanity's greatest plagues including heart disease, stroke, cancer, Alzheimer's and every damn autoimmune disease known to science. But inflammation also plays a major role in obesity, as it can exacerbate existing insulin resistance.
Scientist Joseph Hibbens believes that the billions we spend on anti-inflammatory drugs (such as aspirin, ibuprofen and acetaminophen) are a direct result of our diets containing too many omega-6 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids, on the other hand, slow down the blood clotting process and they keep the pro-inflammatory chemicals associated with omega-6 fatty acids in check. In addition, they increase the insulin sensitivity of cells by increasing the permeability of the cell membrane, which stimulates metabolism and protects against obesity.
It would certainly benefit the human race if we could keep the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids in the range of 3 to 1 - the ratio intended by nature. This is the reason that most people who mean well with their health take fish oil capsules (wild fish eat algae - a plant material that contains a lot of omega-3 fatty acids).
Omega-6 fatty acids displace omega-3 fatty acids
However, there is one simple piece of the puzzle that most people overlook: Omega-6 fatty acids and omega-3 fatty acids seem to compete with each other for space in the cell membrane and for the attention of different anti-inflammatory and pro-inflammatory enzymes.
You can't just take a few fish oil capsules and expect everything to sort itself out without reducing your omega-6 intake at the same time, as the omega-6 fatty acids present will push the omega-3 fatty acids away. Every time someone tries to attack the omega-6 fatty acid bulwark, it's like the 300 Spartans trying to take on the entire Persian army - and we all know how that turned out.
4 ways to solve the problem
1. you should definitely try to increase your omega-3 intake with a high quality fish oil, but you also need to reduce your omega-6 intake at the same time. You can do this by doing the following:
- Avoiding most foods that are sold in a box or polyethylene bags, as these are generally foods that are made from grains to have a long shelf life (i.e. high concentration of omega-6 fatty acids).
- Avoid oils such as sunflower oil, soybean oil, corn oil, safflower oil and cotton oil and instead use versions of safflower oil and sunflower oil that are rich in oleic acid/oleic acid.
- Avoid fried foods and foods from restaurants, as these are almost always fried in oil rich in omega-6. You can actually be pretty sure that most restaurant food contains too many omega-6 and too few omega-3 fatty acids.
- Choose beef from grass-fed cattle.
2. remember that the ratio of the two fatty acids is more important than the total amount. If you eat more omega-6 fatty acids, you should also eat more omega-3 fatty acids.
3. whenever possible, eat green plants instead of foods made from seeds.
4. tell your doctor that he can keep doing his little cholesterol tests if it makes him happy, but that you want a blood test to determine your ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids to assess your true risk of cardiovascular disease ##.
By TC Luoma | 11/18/15
https://www.t-nation.com/supplements/fish-oil-youre-using-it-wrong