Greetings, it's Eric Bakker, the naturopath. Thanks for coming back to our channel. We're going
to talk about fatty acids, essential fatty acids, and non-essential fatty acids. We've got quite
a lot of topics to cover. So the topic of this video, or the question is omega 3 versus omega 6.
What are the characteristics of them? And what are the differences? And explain a bit about these
two types of fatty acids. Omega 3, we call them essential fatty acids, meaning that you really
need to get this in your diet on a very regular basis. It's a very important essential fatty acid.
And it's found primarily in fish. I've just got my notes here. Fatty fish, particularly salmon,
mackerel, sardines, anchovies, tuna, that kind of stuff. But you're also going to find it in smaller
amounts in walnuts, for example. You're going to find it in eggs, especially if they're enriched.
Some foods are actually enriched with omega today because people don't really eat seafood,
flax seeds, flax seed oil, soybeans, tofu. It's found in a bunch of different things.
Walnuts is one source, but we must remember that basically, if we're going to really want to get
high quality omega 3 in our diet, we need to get plenty of EPA and DHA. So let me just explain what
these are. There are three main fractions of omega 3. You've got the alpha linolenic acid or ALA.
You've got the docoshexaenoic acid or DHA. And you got the eicosapentaenoic acid or EPA.
So ALA, EPA, DHA, they're the three primary fractions of omega 3.
So remember, animals or fish is one of your prime sources.
You can also get some omega 3 from grass fed animals, grass fed beef, apparently.
So, the alpha linolenic acid, well, ALA is generally found in non kind of meat sources.
All right, as I said, like walnuts or flaxseed oil, so ALA can be converted into EPA or DHA,
but the process is very, very slow and retarded. It's only
a few percent at best. It's like less than half a percent apparently of DHA conversion occurs from
ALA. So it's very small. So when people tell you that plant based sources of omega-3 are very rich
and full of EPA and DHA, well, the real truth of the matter is that conversion from ALA
to EPA and DHA is not so great in the body. But when you eat, take a fish oil, for example,
you're getting straight EPA and DHA. So you've got a more ready access to those two fatty acids.
So we'll talk later about the benefits of omega-3 in terms of your health. I think I've done other
videos on that anyway. So omega 6 primarily you're getting from plant based sources, soybeans, corn,
safflower, sunflower oil, nuts, and seeds, but also meats, poultry, fish, eggs. You can
get it in various other sources. So the key thing here is we've got different types of fatty acids.
Linelaic acid, arachidonic acid, gamma linoleic acid or GLA, which is an omega 6 fraction.
I've found GLA particularly good for premenstrual pain with women.
I used it quite a lot, vitamin B6, magnesium and GLA I found, which is found in borage seed oil
quite a bit. It's a very good one. Evening primrose is very high in GLA and omega 6.
So these are great fatty acids to have, but the omega 6 is not essential. Whereas the mega
three really is. So in the case, really of, if you're going to look at the omega 6 fatty acids,
linelaic acid is the most common omega 6 fatty acid. But the problem with this is it can be
readily, converted to stuff called arachidonic acid, which is pro-inflammatory. So too much
omega 6 in the diet is pro-inflammatory. I'm not trying to give you hand signals or something,
but it's just too much. And we're really worried in the Western world,
and particularly that people have too many of these seed oils in their diet, too much omega 6
at the expense of too much omega 3. So a little bit EPA in omega 3, it stimulates production of
[inaudible 00:04:34] or chemical messages that favor the buildup of anti-inflammatory cytokines.
Okay. So basically messages that the immune system
or chemicals that the immune system can make the can reduce inflammation
are more predominant with the omega 3, but too much omega 6 in the diet, as I said,
the linelaic acid converts to a arachidonic acid, and that can stimulate inflammation up.
So ideal ratio is about one part omega 6 to one part omega 3. But in the Western world, we've
often got one part omega 3, 15, 16, 20, even 30 times more Omega 6 in the diet than the omega-3.
And hence the sharp increase in inflammation. But a lot of people talk about cancers, diabetes,
heart disease, all these things can occur from the wrong kind of fats in the diet. So that's a bit
about the difference between omegas. I hope you got something out of that. Thanks for tuning in.