Q from AgreeableCoffee:
Hi, I read in the book about using olive oil as a salad dressing. I looked up its Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio and found that its around 13:1 (Self Nutrition Data). That would seem like a bad thing - too much Omega 6. What am I missing? Wouldn't it be better to just not have any dressing on your salad? Thanks
A: When I look at food items, I mainly focus on lowering the omega 6 content that I take because the omega 3 from most foods are negligible. I also don't look at the ratio of omega 3 to omega 6 in individual foods, because the absolute amount of omega 6 is the most important. Most of the omega 3 will be from supplementation, not from diet.
I only look at the omega 3 to omega 6 ratio when I determine how much fish oil I need to take to counteract the omega 6 from my diet.
The entry on nutritiondata.self.com for olive oil is: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fats-and-oils/509/2
In 1 Tablespoon olive oil, the Omega 3 content is 103mg (0.1g), the Omega 6 content is 1318mg (1.3g).
In comparison, soybean oil is a common base in many salad dressings (http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fats-and-oils/507/2).
In 1 Tablespoon soybean oil, the Omega 3 content is 917mg (0.9g), the Omega 6 content is 6807mg (6.8g).
Soybean oil has about 5 times more omega 6 than olive oil.
1) Olive oil is a good substitute for other common salad dressings, with only 1.3g omega 6 per tablespoon.
2) If you want to lower the omega 6 as low as possible, and can eat salads without any oil-based dressing, then yes, omitting olive oil would be ideal.
Thank you, that clears it up for me.