The Critical Balance of EFA's : SuperFoodsRx

Home

The SuperFoods

Wild Salmon

The Critical Balance of EFA's

Table of Contents

1.	Overview
2.	The Critical Balance of EFA's
3.	Benefits of Omega-3 Acids
4.	How Much Omega-3 Should You Eat
5.	Wild Salmon to the Rescue
6.	A Fish Story
7.	Shopping Tips

The key to EFAs—as with so many health issues—is balance. Your body can’t function optimally without a balanced ratio of EFAs. The optimum balance of essential fatty acids is a balance of omega-6 to omega-3 that is somewhere between 1to 1 and 4 to I. Unfortunately, the typical Western diet contains fourteen to twenty-five times more omega-6 than omega-3 fatty acids. This unbalanced ratio that most of us live with determines myriad biochemical events that affect our health. For example, too much omega-6 (the oil that dominates our typical diet) promotes an inflammatory state, which in turn increases your risk for blood clots and narrowing of blood vessels.

We now also know that without sufficient intake of omega-3 fatty acids, the body cannot adequately build an ideal cell membrane. Membranes that are poorly constructed are not capable of optimizing cellular health, which in turn increases your risk for a host of health problems, including stroke, heart attack, cardiac arrhythmias, some forms of cancer, insulin resistance—which can lead to diabetes—asthma, hypertension, age-related macular degeneration, chronic obstructive lung disease (COPE), autoimmune disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and depression.

Tag it: