Planning Meals with Heart-Healthy Omega 3 and 6 Levels

After my husband's recent heart attack we have had to plan and prepare meals much more carefully than we ever used to. Does this mean that we are destined to eat nothing but "rabbit food," grilled chicken, and oatmeal? Not at all.

We came home from the hospital three weeks ago with several dietary requirements concerning fat and sodium, but we were also instructed that the fatty acid Omega 3 should be greater than 1600 mg/ day.

With some research I learned that Omega 3 must be kept in balance with Omega 6, and the Omega 6 value, on average over time, should be no more than five times the average of Omega 3. This is due to the fact that although both are essential for health (and must be consumed because the body cannot make them independently), the conversion of the Omega 3 chains is slowed by the Omega 6 compounds. ¹

Armed with these requirements and new knowledge, I began tracking these components of everything we ate in a spreadsheet. It quickly became apparent that controlling the fat and cholesterol was very easy. To be sure, if you have been used to chowing down on potato chips and ice cream, you will have to learn more about basic nutrition. But simply cooking more things at home, and sticking to the USDA food pyramid will easily control the fat in your diet.

However, it can be a challenge to keep the Omega 3 and 6 in balance.² And we have come to the conclusion that we cannot meet the requirement of an average of 1600 mg/day of Omega 3 without adding fish oil supplement capsules. We are currently eating fish every third day, which is about as often as we can face seafood. If you really love fish, you may be able to meet that minimum without taking a supplement.

The real puzzle is that most of the things people eat have a much higher than 1:5 ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6. This includes, surprisingly, some things that are really good for us. Oatmeal, that well-known cholesterol reducer, is terrible in this respect. It's ratio is 1:22! Many other healthy foods have ratios close to 1:10. So, in order to maintain the correct balance, foods which have a significantly better ratio than 1:5 become very important in the quest to meet this requirement. Some claims have been made that plant Omega fatty acids will cause inflammation³, but if your primary source of the Omegas is from fish, most people will not experience problems.

There are several fruits and vegetables which have very good ratios of Omega 3 to Omega 6. Listed below are several, in order from those with the best of the best ratios, to lowest (although they are still very good). I've only included ones that are better than 1:3.

serving (mg Omega 3:Omega 6 = ratio) average over time should be less than 1:5

4 oz spinach (154:29.2 = 1:0.19)
1/2 c papaya cubes (17.5:4.2 = 1:0.24)
1 oz slice flax seed bread (200:52 = 1:0.26)
1/2 c cauliflower (19:5.5 = 1:0.29)
1/2 c brussel sprouts (131:60 = 1:0.45)
1/2 c mashed butternut squash (49:28.5 = 1:0.58)
other squashes (winter or summer) have similar ratios
1/2 c green beans (20:13 = 1:0.65)
1/2 c broccoli (9.2:7.5 = 1:0.81)
1/2 c mashed pumpkin (10:8.6 = 1:0.86)
3 average strawberries (52.8:72.9 = 1:1.4)
1 banana (37:65 = 1:1.8)
1/2 c blackberries (67.5:134 = 1:2)
1 guava (61.6:158 = 1:2.5)

And for the grand finale, walnuts are amazing. They provide 1328 mg of Omega 3 in just 2T of chopped nuts, and yet they maintain the 1:5 ratio of balance with Omega 6.
2 T chopped walnuts (1328:5570 = 1:4.2)

We are just learning how to juggle all these components of our menus. This list is certainly not exhaustive, but it has been an encouraging beginning to find many things on this list that we like. And we have been able to average an overall ratio of 1:3.6 with diet alone, even though we are very new to all this. It can be done!

1. Wikipedia- Omega-3 Fatty Acid

2. Nutrition Data provides standard food label values plus dozens of other values for virtually any food, including some name brand prepared foods

3. Omega 3 - How Our Food Manufacturers Distort Omega 3 Labeling