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Hi. Anyone gone from eating lots of PUFA's (Nuts, Chicken) >10% of total Cals to 5% or less? And if so have you noticed any changes mentally or physically? Feeling better? No different? Worse? I understand there are lots and of factors that influence how we feel. I'm currently trying to keep my intake at 5% or lower. Thanks.

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This is my latest refinement of my diet. And i started out thinking Canola oil and flax oil were great for me! – Daninidaho Mar 19 2011 at 23:58
Chicken? This is because they're fed corn/soy etc.? I guess organic chicken isn't much better because I think they're fed the same, just "organic." I had no idea chicken was a PUFA issue. Yet another thing to eliminate from my diet. Ug. – Lauren Jul 10 at 19:13
It's not just how they're fed, though pastured chicken is somewhat better. Different animals have different kinds of fat in their meat. Chicken and pork have significant Omega 6. Beef, lamb, and seafood are better. You could always eat skinless chicken breast (bleah, I know, but has almost no fat) and cook it with healthy fats. – PrairieProf Jul 10 at 21:33

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it made it alot easier for me to maintain my weight without exercise, or actually lose weight even when eating more calories. i generally feel better on PUFA less than 4% daily calories= more active, clearer thinking, less groggy, and reduced appetite. i'm of the opinion that keeping daily PUFA content under 4% is actually more important than watching calories (along with keeping fructose levels low, might i add). plus, meat, veg, and fat are way more satisfying than the same amount of calories in nuts.

to answer your question, it's hard to get over the hump when first switching to lower PUFAs, but i have a general feeling of well-being that's greater than before.

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Hard to say, I made a lot of changes simultaneously including dropping O6 intake dramatically. I was on the high end of intake since I bought into the propaganda and preferred vegetable oils over butter.

Even if you don't feel better as a direct result, at least your liver and arteries will be happier.

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The first time I dropped PUFA to 4% I completely eliminated chicken from my diet (I don't eat much pork or nuts). I stopped menstruating, which concerned me, so my doctor prescribed some hormone pills to jump start my cycle. That time my cycle was 49 days long as compared to my usual 27. No problems after that...then I got less strict for about six months (on the PUFA and the fructose) gained weight as well. December 26th, after some awful binges and cravings, I went back very strict on the low PUFA again (took me a little longer this time to eliminate sugar) the same thing happened again. My last cycle was 42 days long. However this time I did not get any hormone pills and just let nature take its course. Beware, those last two weeks before my period were horrible feeling: bloating, irritability and four pounds of water weight gain in a day. I do not plan on ever increasing my PUFA intake (or should I say eat a lot of factory chicken?) again as I have learned my lesson. All of this is anecdotal of course, I suppose it could be something else that caused late cycles besides the elimination of chicken, but that is the only thing I had changed in my diet in both cases.

edit: oh, and I am not underweight by a long shot! Have 10-15 pounds of body fat to lose so it wasn't due to low body weight, and I am under age 40.

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I used to not be able to eat a lot of sugar. I would feel bad after drinking, say, 2 cans of Pepsi. I would get accelerated heart rate.

Ever since I stopped eating vegetables oils, margarine, and mayo, I seem to be able to process sugar a lot better. I'm able to eat in a day 2 quarts of home squeezed OJ, 4 apples (not the small ones), 6 bananas, and a few teaspoons of condensed milk without a problem.

I know many of you don't like sugar, but I've been having no problems with it ever since I cut out PUFAs. If I "cheat" and eat something that was fried with vegetable oils my tolerance to sugar diminishes for 24 to 48 hours.

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I don't feel any different, but if I start eating nuts and chicken then I will get acne.e That's what I did at first with paleo, but I haven't had chicken in months, and I eat pretty much only macadamias now. So I guess you could say I feel less self confident when my pufa content goes up...

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Thanks for the feedback. I have some mild acne and razor burn that won't seem to go away. Maybe this will help. – Daninidaho Mar 20 2011 at 0:53
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I like this question. I gave myself an ulcer and I think it was, in part, from a low-omega 6 diet. In the preceding period, I was also consuming sulforaphane supplements, low-dose aspirin, green tea, turmeric, whey and coconut oil -- and I think each had a role in ripping my stomach to shreds, but I also think the low omega 6 diet played a role in setting the stage. Aside from mechanistic speculation (deminsihed mucosal defense), my evidence includes the fact that borage oil helped greatly on several occasions when I had flair ups.

In addition to consuming a low omega 6 diet, most of the omega 6 I consumed was co-ingested with CLA and/or omega 3s, which inhibit elongation of linoleic acid by D6d. As I said, consuming GLA from borage oil really seemed to help a lot.

I now try to get at least 6-8 grams of omega 6 per day and my stomach has been solid for a bit, despite reintroducing coconut fat (now inthe form of coconut milk) and curry.

PS I've repetedly tested negtive for h pylori.

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wow, yeah, that aspirin will put holes in your stomach. Some people are more sensitive to it than others. I can never take it again. There is also some genetic variation in GLA conversion. – Bread-Eating Beelzebub Apr 4 2011 at 4:33
Interesting, this is the first I've read of someone recommending an increase in omega-6. Are there others out there who advocate this? – patrick3000 Apr 4 2011 at 14:41
Patrick, 6-8 grams is still in the 2-3% of calories range, so it's still a quite low omega 6 diet. I think I had accidentally gone too low for too long and found the floor. I was probably having 4-6 grams per day, co-ingested with CLA and/or omega 3. That seems to be too low for me. Melissa, I've not tried aspirin since the problem arose but have tried sulforaphane (broccoli extract) supplements are few times and it seems that little is more effective at inducing gastritis than these little glutathione-boosting pills; not sure why (irritating?); I've thrown them out at this point. – Jay Apr 4 2011 at 16:05
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Pufas are inflammatory and are no bueno. You want to feel incredible, feed your brain and body? Eat more saturated fat, Avocados, Grass fed (NO GRAIN FED OR VEGGIE (SOY) FED) beef, coconut oil, mct oil.

As soon as I raised the saturated fat in my diet to around 40-65% of my daily intake coming from saturated fat, I stopped getting tired. I feel incredible, my brain functions more quickly and efficiently. It's a beautiful feeling.

And mind you, Saturated fat has NO negative effect on your heart, that's a load of bologne.

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Avocados are rather high in PUFA, with a terrible 6/3 ratio. Everything else you wrote was great though! – foreveryoung Jul 10 at 18:10
Avocados are not high in PUFA. 100g has9.8g MONOunsaturated fat and 1.8g poly. Even if the ratio of n6:n-3 is high, the total amount of PUFA is small. If someone's worried about PUFA, avocado is not the first thing I'd look to limit. nutritiondata.self.com/facts/… – Amy B. Jul 10 at 18:26

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