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I was reading another thread and started thinking about 03/06 ratios on Paleo. In general, is it something most of you worry about or take into consideration? In our house, we eat a lot of eggs and bacon as well as chicken thighs with skin. We eat a lot of ground beef and steak as well but not quite enough fish. Overall we both feel great but I wanted to get an idea of what everyone else thinks.

Thanks!

Jamie

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its critical........ – The Quilt May 25 2011 at 3:23
Lower you total PUFA consumption first and then adjust ratio. – Ikco May 25 2011 at 7:59

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It's a good question.

When you think about it, if your n-3/n-6 ratio is close to 1:1 - 1:2 with calories coming from PUFA's being less than 5% it is probably a good marker that you have your diet dialed in really well.

The systemic inflammation that a high n-3/n-6 ratio causes is definitely a key factor in most 'diseases of civilization'.

I need to go and stew on my next comment to be really sure, but I think it would be fair to say that the process of getting your n-3/n-6 ratio to 1:1 - 1:2 would optimise most of your diet - the only thing left lingering in my mind is sugar consumption.

Personally, to bring my n-6 consumption down as much as possible I have stopped regularly eating chicken, buy mostly (90%) pasture fed ruminants instead, if I eat nuts I eat macadamias due to there high saturated fat content and I'm really anal about having anything processed, because it usually contains a lot of vegetable franken oils.

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Key point being total calories from PUFA. – Ikco May 25 2011 at 7:58
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It's pretty important, but one of the keys is reducing overall PUFA consumption, not just adding more fish oil to compensate for a high dose of n6. If you avoid veg & seed oils, stay away from processed junk and restaurant fried food, you are doing pretty good vis-a-vis the SAD. I don't worry too much about the n6 in the bacon/chicken/eggs - and I eat much the same as you. I take a little fish oil (2g/day) and a little cod liver oil (teaspoon every other day or so).

I do think there is some benefit to getting the n3 from actual fish as opposed to pills. I try to eat some salmon a couple of times per week. I may actually cut back on the fish oil when I run out of pills as I'm not happy about the sustainability of the fish oil industry.

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Take a look at the actual O6 content of the food you're eating. I just plugged some numbers in for chicken.. 0.7g O6 in one serving of skinless chicken breast, 2.8g O6 in one chicken thigh with skin. 1g O6 in one slice of thick cut bacon.

To maintain 5% total PUFA and 1:1 O3:O6 on a 2500 calorie diet, you want no more than 7g of O6 and 7g of O3.

Personally, I avoid chicken... especially dark meat and skin. Chicken fat has a bad O3:O6 ratio, and dark meat/skin is high in fat. Bacon I do in moderation.

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