Why Do I Have Chronic Inflammation? The Omega-3 vs. Omega-6 Story

Most people on the planet struggle with their health. Often it's never officially diagnosed, but it shows up as that general sense of not feeling great: fatigue, digestion that doesn't work right, skin problems, allergies, getting sick over and over, and even chronic and autoimmune disease.

Most health problems are built on inflammation. Sometimes it's subtle but persistent, or fully chronic. The kind you can live with, but really don't want to live with.

There's no shortage of reasons inflammation and health problems develop, from unmanaged stress all the way to our diet.

But our diet is the thing we put into our bodies an average of three times a day, and every single bite affects our inflammation levels, our gut bacteria, our genetics, our hormones, our metabolism, and so much more.

So what happens when the foods we eat are creating inflammation? How did that happen, and how do we balance it out?

Omega-3 and omega-6 are essential fatty acids that the body can't produce on its own but desperately needs, which means we have to get them from an outside source.

And what determines how they're absorbed and how they affect us is mainly the balance between the two.

Up until about 100 years ago, the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio was around 1 to 4 or less.

In other words, for every 4 bites of omega-3, one bite of omega-6.

Today, however, the Western diet delivers an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of about 20:1 in favor of omega-6.

That's a lot, and it's a serious problem.

It creates an inflammatory response and low-grade chronic inflammation.

Just to keep things straight:

Foods with omega-3: certain fish, eggs, sometimes meat (if the cow ate grass), organic soybeans, and chia seeds.

Foods with omega-6: most nuts and almonds, tofu, eggs, tahini, and seeds.

So some foods have both, some have only omega-3, and some have only omega-6.

The point is the balance.

Over the last century, the major addition to the Western diet has been, once again, seed oils (omega-6) that got added in, while at the same time our intake of omega-3-rich foods dropped. Together, that created a significant negative balance tilted toward omega-6.

Overconsumption of linoleic acid, mainly from industrial omega-6 seed oils, combined with a lack of long-chain omega-3 in the diet, creates a pro-inflammatory, pro-allergic state.

It appears that lowering the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio, especially by cutting back on seed oils and increasing omega-3 intake, may be an effective strategy for reducing inflammation, allergies, and autoimmune responses.

Omega-3 from fish was consumed by our ancestors for millions of years. Estimates suggest that during the Paleolithic era, omega-3 intake was very significant.

Omega-3 is used by the body to resolve and reduce inflammation, while omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids mainly serve to amplify it. Given that most of the population is deficient in omega-3, there's a growing need to raise awareness about the importance of increasing omega-3 intake.

It doesn't all have to fall on seed oils, either. Sometimes it's the enormous amounts of nuts, seeds, processed grains, tofu, and tahini that get us there easily, especially when we're not eating foods from the sea, which are rich in omega-3.

The story always comes back to processed foods.

Humans couldn't produce seed oils in the past, because there were no substances or machines that could create oil from a food that has no natural fat in it.

It's no coincidence that the oils that come from nature are rich in antioxidants.

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