The Great Omega-3 vs Omega-6 Debate
It is not that we are eating too much omega-6. It is that most of us are eating too little omega-3.
You land in nearly the same place either way. But one path has you afraid of your own groceries, and the other has you adding something good to your table. I would so much rather hand you the second one.
Omega-6 is not the villain I made it out to be
Omega-6 is an essential fatty acid. That word means something specific. Your body cannot make it on its own. You have to eat it. You are supposed to have it.
It is in walnuts and almonds. It is in eggs and chicken and avocados. It is in a good share of the food in my own recipe archive, and I am not going to stand here and tell you that food is hurting you, because I do not believe it is.
When this has actually been studied, giving people more of the main omega-6 fat has not clearly raised the inflammation markers we were all so worried about. I found that reassuring when I read it. I hope you do too.
So your almonds are fine. Your eggs are fine. You can set that worry down.
What did change, and it is worth knowing
Two things happened over the last hundred years or so.
Omega-6 did go up, because inexpensive oils made their way into nearly everything on the shelf. That part is true.
But the bigger change is on the other side. Omega-3 fell way off. We mostly stopped eating small oily fish. We stopped eating organ meats. Animals moved off pasture and onto grain, which changed the meat and the eggs and the butter that came from them.
Our great-grandmothers were not thinking about any of this. They just ate what was in front of them. What was in front of them simply had more of the good stuff in it.
Why "cancelling it out" is not quite how it works
These two fats do share a road. They use the same helpers in the body to get where they are going, and they compete for the same spots in your cells. That part of the story is real.
But it is a seesaw, not a math problem. You cannot subtract one using the other. You can only change where the middle sits. And it turns out that is much easier to do by adding omega-3 than by hunting omega-6 out of every label in your pantry.
Which is honestly such a relief. Adding is so much kinder than subtracting.
About the chia pudding, and I am sorry
You may have heard that flax and chia and walnuts are your omega-3 foods. They do contain a form of it, called ALA.
Here is the part I did not know for years. Your body has to convert that plant form into the forms it actually uses, and we are not very good at that conversion. Only a small share of it makes the trip. Women do a bit better than men, which I will happily take as a small gift.
So if you have been faithfully making chia pudding every morning thinking you had this handled, I am sorry. It is still good food and I still eat it. It is just not doing the particular job you thought it was doing.
The forms our bodies actually use come from the sea. Fish, mostly. Or algae, which is where the fish get it in the first place.
Celiac disease damages the lining of the small intestine. That lining is exactly where fat is absorbed. Which means some of us, especially in the years before we had a diagnosis and through the long healing stretch afterward, may not have been taking in fats and fat-soluble nutrients the way we were meant to.
I want to be careful here, because I am not a doctor and I cannot tell you anything about your body. But it is worth knowing, and it is worth bringing to your next appointment, especially if you were unwell for a long time before anyone figured out why.
So many of us were. I think about that a lot.
What I actually do
Add, do not subtract. That is really the whole thing.
1. Eat the little fish
Sardines, mackerel, anchovies, herring. They cost less than salmon, they are lower in mercury because they are small and do not live long, and they are just packed with what we are after. I aim for a couple of servings a week.
If the thought of a sardine makes you want to close this tab, start with them mashed up. Lemon, good olive oil, a little mustard, on a cracker or a slice of cucumber. I promise it is better than you are picturing. My husband was a firm no for about a year and now he asks for them.
2. Stop worrying about your nuts
Whole foods that happen to contain omega-6 are still whole foods. Nuts, seeds, eggs, chicken, avocado. Please just enjoy them.
3. Cook with what you love
I use olive oil and butter, mostly. Not because everything else is poison, but because they taste wonderful and because the food I want to make has always been made with them. You are allowed to choose something simply because you love it. A good choice does not need a frightening story attached to it.
4. If you supplement, take good care of it
Fish oil or algae oil, so you get the forms your body actually uses. Take it with a meal that has some fat in it. Keep it in the fridge. And trust your nose. If it ever smells sharp or a little like crayons, please pour it out instead of pushing through. Fresh oil smells mild.
5. Get a number instead of guessing
This is the part that changed things for me. You can actually test where you sit instead of wondering about it.
What a test can tell you, and what it cannot
The one I use is a little dried blood spot panel that measures your ratio. I like it because I would rather have a number than a hunch. You get a starting point, you change some things, and you check again a few months later.
Two honest notes, because I want to be square with you. It is a research-grade fatty acid analysis, not a medical diagnostic. And moving a number on paper is not the same thing as feeling better. It is information. Information helps. That is all I am claiming for it.
The whole thing, short
You can stop being afraid of omega-6. Be intentional about omega-3 instead. Eat the little fish. Keep your nuts and your eggs. Cook with what you love. And if you would like to know where you actually stand, go get a number.
That is a gentler way to live than being frightened of a bag of walnuts, and I am fairly sure it is closer to the truth.
Now, the part I really wrote this for
Here is the thing nobody warns you about. Deciding to take an omega supplement is easy. Actually taking it every single day is where most of us fall apart.
I hear from women who bought a bottle with the best intentions and then quietly stopped, and felt bad about it, and did not want to tell anyone. If that is you, please hear me. You are not weak and you are not doing it wrong. Some people genuinely cannot do it straight off a spoon, and there is no gold star for suffering.
The oil you actually take beats the oil sitting in your fridge because you dread it. So let us find your way.
Two rules for every single idea below
Never heat it. No cooking, no baking, no frying, nothing stirred into a boiling pot. Heat damages these delicate fats, which wastes the oil and makes it taste worse besides. Everything here is cold or barely warm. If you can hold your finger in it comfortably, you are fine.
Take it with food. Not on an empty stomach. A meal with some fat and protein in it is the single biggest fix for the burps, and it helps your body do more with the oil.
First, let us fix the actual problem
Most people who quit do not quit because of the flavor. They quit because of what happens twenty minutes later. Try these before you go shopping for smoothie ingredients.
For the fish burps:
Take it in the middle of a meal, not before and not after. Food in the stomach is the fix.
Try it at dinner instead of breakfast. If anything repeats on you, you are asleep for it.
Keep it cold. Refrigerate after opening. Cold oil has far less smell, and smell is most of what you are tasting.
Chase it with something acidic. Lemon water, a bite of pickle, a sip of orange juice.
Stay upright for twenty minutes after.
For the texture:
Cold changes everything. Straight from the fridge it feels thinner and tastes cleaner.
Never let it sit alone in your mouth. Have the next bite or sip ready to go.
Mix it into something with body. Yogurt, a smoothie, hummus. Texture covers texture better than flavor covers flavor.
If you gag:
Cold, fast, chase. That combination beats sipping slowly every time.
Breathe out through your mouth as you swallow, then in through your nose afterward. So much of taste is smell.
If it is truly not happening, use the capsules. Genuinely. See number 8.
Give any new method a full week before you decide. Your palate adjusts faster than you would think. The thing that is awful on Monday is often just fine by Friday, and unremarkable in a month.
100 ways to take it
The simplest ways
Start here. Most people never need to go any further.
Smoothies and shakes
Blend it in at the end, on low. Frozen fruit does more covering up than any flavor can.
Yogurt, breakfast and spoonables
Anything thick and cold. Stir it all the way in so you never hit a pocket of it.
Salad dressings
This is where the oil truly belongs. Shake it in a jar, keep it in the fridge, use it within a few days.
Make once, use all week.
Cook it, plate it, let it cool a minute, then drizzle. This is the easiest habit to keep.
Shake or blend, then drink it right away before it separates.
Freezing dulls flavor more than anything else on this page. If you have tried everything, try this.
Capsules. I am saying it twice on purpose. The best method is the one you will actually do.
Refrigerate after opening. Cold keeps it fresher and tasting better.
Cap it tightly. Air matters more than time does.
Use dressings and dips within a few days, kept in the fridge.
Trust your nose. Fresh smells mild. Sharp or crayon-like means it has turned, and you should not push through that.
Never leave it in a hot car, on a sunny counter, or beside the stove.
Before you start any of this, please talk with your doctor if you take blood thinners, if you are pregnant or nursing, if you have a procedure coming up, or if you manage any health condition. And take the amount on your label. Do not increase it just because you found a way you like.
Tell me which one worked
Genuinely. If you find your way, come back and tell me in the comments so I can pass it along to the next person who is struggling. That is how this list got to a hundred in the first place.
And if you have been at this a while, I would love to hear from you. Have you ever had your levels checked? Did anything surprise you?
Faith over fear. Joy over restriction.
Steffi
Affiliate disclosure. This post contains affiliate links. I am an independent Zinzino partner and I earn a commission if you order through my link, at no additional cost to you. I am not employed by Zinzino, I do not speak for them, and nothing here has been reviewed or approved by the company. Links that earn me nothing are labeled as such.
Health disclaimer. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Nothing here is intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. I am a Nutritional Herbalist and educator, not a physician or a dietitian, and nothing on this blog is medical advice. Omega-3 supplementation can interact with blood thinners and other medications. Please talk with your own healthcare provider before starting anything, especially if you take prescription medication, are pregnant or nursing, have a procedure coming up, or manage a chronic condition. Individual results vary.
You land in nearly the same place either way. But one path has you afraid of your own groceries, and the other has you adding something good to your table. I would so much rather hand you the second one.
Omega-6 is not the villain I made it out to be
Omega-6 is an essential fatty acid. That word means something specific. Your body cannot make it on its own. You have to eat it. You are supposed to have it.
It is in walnuts and almonds. It is in eggs and chicken and avocados. It is in a good share of the food in my own recipe archive, and I am not going to stand here and tell you that food is hurting you, because I do not believe it is.
When this has actually been studied, giving people more of the main omega-6 fat has not clearly raised the inflammation markers we were all so worried about. I found that reassuring when I read it. I hope you do too.
So your almonds are fine. Your eggs are fine. You can set that worry down.
What did change, and it is worth knowing
Two things happened over the last hundred years or so.
Omega-6 did go up, because inexpensive oils made their way into nearly everything on the shelf. That part is true.
But the bigger change is on the other side. Omega-3 fell way off. We mostly stopped eating small oily fish. We stopped eating organ meats. Animals moved off pasture and onto grain, which changed the meat and the eggs and the butter that came from them.
Our great-grandmothers were not thinking about any of this. They just ate what was in front of them. What was in front of them simply had more of the good stuff in it.
Why "cancelling it out" is not quite how it works
These two fats do share a road. They use the same helpers in the body to get where they are going, and they compete for the same spots in your cells. That part of the story is real.
But it is a seesaw, not a math problem. You cannot subtract one using the other. You can only change where the middle sits. And it turns out that is much easier to do by adding omega-3 than by hunting omega-6 out of every label in your pantry.
Which is honestly such a relief. Adding is so much kinder than subtracting.
About the chia pudding, and I am sorry
You may have heard that flax and chia and walnuts are your omega-3 foods. They do contain a form of it, called ALA.
Here is the part I did not know for years. Your body has to convert that plant form into the forms it actually uses, and we are not very good at that conversion. Only a small share of it makes the trip. Women do a bit better than men, which I will happily take as a small gift.
So if you have been faithfully making chia pudding every morning thinking you had this handled, I am sorry. It is still good food and I still eat it. It is just not doing the particular job you thought it was doing.
The forms our bodies actually use come from the sea. Fish, mostly. Or algae, which is where the fish get it in the first place.
Celiac disease damages the lining of the small intestine. That lining is exactly where fat is absorbed. Which means some of us, especially in the years before we had a diagnosis and through the long healing stretch afterward, may not have been taking in fats and fat-soluble nutrients the way we were meant to.
I want to be careful here, because I am not a doctor and I cannot tell you anything about your body. But it is worth knowing, and it is worth bringing to your next appointment, especially if you were unwell for a long time before anyone figured out why.
So many of us were. I think about that a lot.
What I actually do
Add, do not subtract. That is really the whole thing.
1. Eat the little fish
Sardines, mackerel, anchovies, herring. They cost less than salmon, they are lower in mercury because they are small and do not live long, and they are just packed with what we are after. I aim for a couple of servings a week.
If the thought of a sardine makes you want to close this tab, start with them mashed up. Lemon, good olive oil, a little mustard, on a cracker or a slice of cucumber. I promise it is better than you are picturing. My husband was a firm no for about a year and now he asks for them.
2. Stop worrying about your nuts
Whole foods that happen to contain omega-6 are still whole foods. Nuts, seeds, eggs, chicken, avocado. Please just enjoy them.
3. Cook with what you love
I use olive oil and butter, mostly. Not because everything else is poison, but because they taste wonderful and because the food I want to make has always been made with them. You are allowed to choose something simply because you love it. A good choice does not need a frightening story attached to it.
4. If you supplement, take good care of it
Fish oil or algae oil, so you get the forms your body actually uses. Take it with a meal that has some fat in it. Keep it in the fridge. And trust your nose. If it ever smells sharp or a little like crayons, please pour it out instead of pushing through. Fresh oil smells mild.
5. Get a number instead of guessing
This is the part that changed things for me. You can actually test where you sit instead of wondering about it.
What a test can tell you, and what it cannot
The one I use is a little dried blood spot panel that measures your ratio. I like it because I would rather have a number than a hunch. You get a starting point, you change some things, and you check again a few months later.
Two honest notes, because I want to be square with you. It is a research-grade fatty acid analysis, not a medical diagnostic. And moving a number on paper is not the same thing as feeling better. It is information. Information helps. That is all I am claiming for it.
The whole thing, short
You can stop being afraid of omega-6. Be intentional about omega-3 instead. Eat the little fish. Keep your nuts and your eggs. Cook with what you love. And if you would like to know where you actually stand, go get a number.
That is a gentler way to live than being frightened of a bag of walnuts, and I am fairly sure it is closer to the truth.
Now, the part I really wrote this for
Here is the thing nobody warns you about. Deciding to take an omega supplement is easy. Actually taking it every single day is where most of us fall apart.
I hear from women who bought a bottle with the best intentions and then quietly stopped, and felt bad about it, and did not want to tell anyone. If that is you, please hear me. You are not weak and you are not doing it wrong. Some people genuinely cannot do it straight off a spoon, and there is no gold star for suffering.
The oil you actually take beats the oil sitting in your fridge because you dread it. So let us find your way.
Two rules for every single idea below
Never heat it. No cooking, no baking, no frying, nothing stirred into a boiling pot. Heat damages these delicate fats, which wastes the oil and makes it taste worse besides. Everything here is cold or barely warm. If you can hold your finger in it comfortably, you are fine.
Take it with food. Not on an empty stomach. A meal with some fat and protein in it is the single biggest fix for the burps, and it helps your body do more with the oil.
First, let us fix the actual problem
Most people who quit do not quit because of the flavor. They quit because of what happens twenty minutes later. Try these before you go shopping for smoothie ingredients.
For the fish burps:
Take it in the middle of a meal, not before and not after. Food in the stomach is the fix.
Try it at dinner instead of breakfast. If anything repeats on you, you are asleep for it.
Keep it cold. Refrigerate after opening. Cold oil has far less smell, and smell is most of what you are tasting.
Chase it with something acidic. Lemon water, a bite of pickle, a sip of orange juice.
Stay upright for twenty minutes after.
For the texture:
Cold changes everything. Straight from the fridge it feels thinner and tastes cleaner.
Never let it sit alone in your mouth. Have the next bite or sip ready to go.
Mix it into something with body. Yogurt, a smoothie, hummus. Texture covers texture better than flavor covers flavor.
If you gag:
Cold, fast, chase. That combination beats sipping slowly every time.
Breathe out through your mouth as you swallow, then in through your nose afterward. So much of taste is smell.
If it is truly not happening, use the capsules. Genuinely. See number 8.
Give any new method a full week before you decide. Your palate adjusts faster than you would think. The thing that is awful on Monday is often just fine by Friday, and unremarkable in a month.
100 ways to take it
The simplest ways
Start here. Most people never need to go any further.
- Straight from the spoon, cold. Right out of the fridge, one motion, chase with water.
- Shot glass, then a water chaser. A little ceremony makes it feel finished.
- A splash of water in the shot glass first. Breaks up that coating feeling.
- Cold sparkling water chaser. The bubbles clean your palate better than still water.
- Lemon wedge chaser. Bite it right after. Acid cuts oil.
- Take it mid-bite. Forkful of food, oil, forkful of food. It barely registers.
- Frozen shot glass. Keep one in the freezer. Colder glass, colder oil, less smell.
- Switch to capsules. This is not giving up. It is a different delivery. Some of my most consistent girls are capsule girls.
- Split the dose. Half at breakfast, half at dinner. Two small moments instead of one big one.
- Pinch your nose. Old trick, still works, no shame in it whatsoever.
Smoothies and shakes
Blend it in at the end, on low. Frozen fruit does more covering up than any flavor can.
- Frozen banana and cocoa. The most forgiving smoothie on earth.
- Frozen wild blueberry. Deep color, deep flavor, hides it completely.
- Mango, orange and ginger. Bright and tropical.
- Strawberry banana. The one your kids will drink too.
- Spinach, pineapple and lime. Pineapple is a workhorse.
- Cherry and cacao. Tastes like dessert.
- Peach and vanilla. Soft and mild if strong flavors put you off.
- Raspberry and lemon. Tart enough to cut right through.
- Coconut milk, pineapple, lime. Piña colada, no rum.
- Avocado, lime and honey. Creamy enough to swallow the texture entirely.
- Nut butter and banana. Fat likes fat. Very smooth.
- Chocolate, nut butter protein shake.
- Chocolate protein shake. The easiest swap if you already drink one.
- Kefir and berry. Tang plus fruit is a strong combination.
- Pumpkin, cinnamon and maple. Autumn in a glass.
- Watermelon and mint, blended with ice. Surprisingly effective.
- Apple, spinach and cinnamon. Green without tasting like a lawn.
- Make it a smoothie bowl and eat it with a spoon and toppings. Eating beats drinking for some people.
Yogurt, breakfast and spoonables
Anything thick and cold. Stir it all the way in so you never hit a pocket of it.
- Greek yogurt with honey.
- Yogurt with berries and cinnamon.
- Overnight oats, stirred in the next morning once they are cold.
- Chia pudding. That gel texture hides it completely.
- Cottage cheese with fruit and a little honey.
- Applesauce. Simple and cheap, and the one that works when nothing else does.
- Cold bircher muesli.
- Tossed over a cold fruit salad like a dressing.
- Into cold rice pudding.
- Over oatmeal you have let sit five minutes. Warm, not steaming.
- Stirred into ricotta with lemon zest and honey. Tastes like a dessert you did not earn.
- Into a smoothie bowl base with granola and coconut on top.
Salad dressings
This is where the oil truly belongs. Shake it in a jar, keep it in the fridge, use it within a few days.
- The basic one. Oil, lemon juice, a little Dijon, salt, pepper. Shake hard.
- Balsamic. Balsamic, oil, a touch of honey, garlic.
- Honey mustard. Dijon, honey, apple cider vinegar, oil.
- Lemon herb. Lemon, oil, parsley, dill, chives.
- Herbes de Provence. Oil, white wine vinegar, herbes de Provence, sea salt.
- Greek. Oil, red wine vinegar, oregano, garlic, salt.
- Creamy avocado. Blend avocado, lime, oil, water to thin, salt.
- Tahini lemon. Tahini, lemon, oil, garlic, water to loosen.
- Ginger sesame. Oil, rice vinegar, fresh ginger, a little toasted sesame, tamari.
- Green goddess. Blend herbs, oil, yogurt, lemon, garlic.
- Cilantro lime. Cilantro, lime, oil, jalapeño if you like.
- Maple Dijon. Maple, Dijon, apple cider vinegar, oil.
Make once, use all week.
- The Italian dip. Oil in a shallow bowl, sea salt, herbes de Provence, cracked pepper, a little balsamic. This one is my favorite.
- Garlic herb dip. Same idea with fresh garlic and parsley.
- Stirred into hummus right at the end. Nobody will know.
- Baba ganoush, stirred in cold.
- Whipped feta. Feta, yogurt, lemon, oil, blended smooth.
- Tzatziki. Yogurt, cucumber, garlic, dill, oil.
- Guacamole, folded in at the end.
- Pesto, made cold. Basil, garlic, nuts, parmesan, oil. Do not heat it after.
- Chimichurri. Parsley, oregano, garlic, red wine vinegar, oil. Spoon it over food already on the plate.
- Salsa verde, stirred in at the end.
- White bean dip. Blended beans, lemon, garlic, oil.
- Olive tapenade, loosened with the oil.
Cook it, plate it, let it cool a minute, then drizzle. This is the easiest habit to keep.
- Over soup at the table. Ladle, wait two minutes, drizzle.
- Over roasted vegetables once they have cooled a little.
- Over rice or quinoa, stirred through when it stops steaming.
- Over a baked potato with salt and chives.
- Over avocado toast.
- Over scrambled eggs on the plate, not in the pan.
- Over a grain bowl as the finishing drizzle.
- Over fish or chicken, once it is plated.
- Over tomatoes with salt and basil. Almost too good.
- Over cottage cheese with cracked pepper.
- Over steamed greens with lemon and salt.
- Over chili or stew at the table, with a dollop of yogurt.
Shake or blend, then drink it right away before it separates.
- Orange juice shot. Small glass, shake hard, drink fast. A classic for a reason.
- Tart cherry juice. Dark and strong enough to cover anything.
- Cold lemon water with a little honey.
- Pineapple juice. One of the best natural coverups there is.
- Blended into cold coconut water.
- Shaken into iced herbal tea. Hibiscus or berry.
- Into a cold ginger lemon tonic with sparkling water.
- Into whichever drink you already have on hand, shaken well and taken alongside a meal.
Freezing dulls flavor more than anything else on this page. If you have tried everything, try this.
- Frozen in an ice cube tray with juice, one dose per cube.
- Blended into fruit popsicles in molds.
- Frozen yogurt bark. Yogurt, oil, berries, spread thin, frozen, broken up.
- Into a freezer smoothie pack you blend in the morning.
- Into nice cream made from frozen bananas.
- Frozen into coconut milk cubes and dropped into a smoothie.
Capsules. I am saying it twice on purpose. The best method is the one you will actually do.
- Hidden in a chocolate protein shake. Cocoa is the most reliable coverup in the kitchen.
- Stirred into a fruit puree pouch and squeezed onto a spoon.
- Into berry sorbet.
- Into a small cup of chocolate milk, shaken hard.
- Into a spoonful of nut butter. One bite, done.
- Stirred into honey and taken as one sweet spoonful.
- Into a thick date shake. Dates, milk, ice, oil.
- Straight, then a strong mint right after. Resets your whole mouth.
- Change the time of day. If mornings are a battle, move it to dinner and stop fighting.
Refrigerate after opening. Cold keeps it fresher and tasting better.
Cap it tightly. Air matters more than time does.
Use dressings and dips within a few days, kept in the fridge.
Trust your nose. Fresh smells mild. Sharp or crayon-like means it has turned, and you should not push through that.
Never leave it in a hot car, on a sunny counter, or beside the stove.
Before you start any of this, please talk with your doctor if you take blood thinners, if you are pregnant or nursing, if you have a procedure coming up, or if you manage any health condition. And take the amount on your label. Do not increase it just because you found a way you like.
Tell me which one worked
Genuinely. If you find your way, come back and tell me in the comments so I can pass it along to the next person who is struggling. That is how this list got to a hundred in the first place.
And if you have been at this a while, I would love to hear from you. Have you ever had your levels checked? Did anything surprise you?
Faith over fear. Joy over restriction.
Steffi
Affiliate disclosure. This post contains affiliate links. I am an independent Zinzino partner and I earn a commission if you order through my link, at no additional cost to you. I am not employed by Zinzino, I do not speak for them, and nothing here has been reviewed or approved by the company. Links that earn me nothing are labeled as such.
Health disclaimer. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Nothing here is intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. I am a Nutritional Herbalist and educator, not a physician or a dietitian, and nothing on this blog is medical advice. Omega-3 supplementation can interact with blood thinners and other medications. Please talk with your own healthcare provider before starting anything, especially if you take prescription medication, are pregnant or nursing, have a procedure coming up, or manage a chronic condition. Individual results vary.
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