How to balance your omega 3 and 6 ratios..?

[JohnnyIrish]

Ok I read one needs to balance their omega 6 and 3 at a ratio of 1:1 (some say 2:1). As such I'd like to know how much omega6 and omega3s I eat.. however I'm having a few problems..
1) How can one work out the math to calculate if one is on target with this?
2) How much omega 6 is in beef?


I've looked but didn't have any luck figureing this out (read: with lots of googling).

 

[simon]

Use the search tool at http://www.nutrition.gov/nal_display/index.php?info_center=11&tax_level=1&tax_subject=388 . It gives you a breakdown of all the fatty acids in the food. From this you can use wikipedia to see which fatty acids are omega-3 and omega-6 and then work out the ratio.

 

[Bible_Belt]

http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?t=134262

http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?t=101334

 

[Quagmire911]

This is one of the main reasons for taking in a lot of fish oil capsules, as it helps to balance out the ratio of 6/3.

Make sure that any beef that you are eating is grass fed, not corn fed or whatever else. There is a good website for this in America, but I can't remember the name.

 

[JohnnyIrish]

Well I know how its supposed to work. I know taking the fish oil helps to balance out the omega 6s.. what I don't know is how many omega 6s I'm eating. Sure I eat a lot of beef and that has omega 6 in it but how much? How do you calculate that? If I don't know that.. how can I know I am eating enough omega 3s right? (as they are supposed to be at a 1:1 ratio).

Simon I tried that web site and I tried using the different search features but I didn't find where it told how much omega 6s were in beef.
I found this but it doesn't show how much omega 6s

 

[simon]

Yeah it doesn't tell you directly so you will have to find the breakdown of polyunsaturated fatty acids using that search tool. Then use the list of omega-6 fatty acids at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega-6_fatty_acid to add up how many grams of omega-6 there are in the beef.

As an example, if you use the search tool at http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/ and search 'ground beef', choose 90% lean (RAW)...it shows you the breakdown of fatty acids per 100g of beef.

Total polyunsaturates per 100g is 0.344g.

Omega-6 per 100g (use wikipedia page to see which fatty acids are omega-6):

18:2 undifferentiated - 0.263g
18:3 n-6 c,c,c - 0.010g
20:4 undifferentiated - 0.034g

Total Omega-6 per 100g is therefore 0.307g


Omega-3 per 100g (using http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega-3_fatty_acid as reference):

18:3 n-3 c,c,c - 0.036g

Total Omega-3 per 100g is therefore 0.036g

Ratio of Omega-6:Omega-3 in raw 90% lean ground beef is therefore 8.5:1

 

[JohnnyIrish]

By the way, thats exactly what I was looking for/trying to figure out.
Thanks Simon!