Dietary fat has always been a hot topic of debate.

From the emergence of the Atkins diet several decades ago to the fat free craze in the early 90s, dietary fat has been embraced by many and shunned by others.

Its safe to say that at least amidst all of the confusion, there is agreement among most experts that quality is crucial and we have to shift our focus away from just “fat is good” or “fat is bad.”

Sure, there is still some debate about quality fat some say butter is the new health food and coconut oil is a healthy saturated fat.  But whats true?  And why cant we all just get along?

Well, there is one thing we all can get along about and thats that artificial trans fat is dangerous.  It increases your risk of heart disease.  It may be tied to causing an increase in dangerous belly fat, which makes it doubly bad and so much more.

But what if theres something even worse than trans fat?  And its not some unique fat that is rare in the American Diet.  In fact, its often where trans fat often comes fromhydrogenated soybean oil

This time, though its not just the hydrogenated part were concerned with, however.  Its the soybean oil itself.  And while you may not use soybean oil regularly to cook with, trust me, it permeates our food supply. 

Why such alarm for such a common oil used in so many food products? 

The fat within soybean oil is mainly an omega-6 fat. 

Lets backup.

Omega-6 fats are essential fats, meaning we have to get them from the diet.

But we get way, way, WAY too many.

And this is dangerous for many reasons.

1. It increase inflammation throughout the body.
2. Inflammation is the underlying issue for most diseases.
3. Too much omega-6 fats “block” the crucial omega-3 fats.  Some experts suggest omega-3 fat needs are 11 times higher when someone has a high intake of omega-6!  Again, remember omega-6s are already very high in Western diets.

I can go on, but those 3 bullets are pretty telling of why too many omega-6 fats can be dangerous.  If omega-3 fat needs are 11 times higher with too much omega 6, yet as a whole most dont eat enough omega-3s as it isyou can see our concern!  And this is why soybean oil (which is mostly an omega-6 fat) is high up on the “dangerous” list.  If you think you dont eat much of it, check out this picture courtesy of famed Omega-3 Researcher, Dr. Joe Hibbeln.  This graph represents a 1000% increase where 0.2 lbs/person/year was produced to 1909 where 25.0 lbs/person/year was produced in 1999. 

• So were not eating enough omega-3s.
• Were eating way too many omega-6s (meaning were also hurting omega-3 status)
• And soybean oil is one of the major omega-6 culprits in the Western Diet.  Sure, there are others, but this fat permeates the foods we eat. 

The question now becomeswhat do we do about this?

No surprise here eat less prepackaged, prepared foods.  But not just the obvious pastries, Twinkies, Ding Dongs, etc

how about MOST prepackaged salad dressings?  EVEN if they say “made with olive oil,” that solely means theres a splash in there somewhere.  I can assure you that if you have a prepackaged salad dressing in your fridge right now, high up on the list (usually 2nd) is soybean oil.

Salad dressing certainly isnt the only culprit, though a common one.

Most prepackaged foods are loaded with soybean oil, often pushed as a “healthy” alternative to other fats.

But considering a recent report suggested omega-3 fat deficiency causes 96,000 deaths per year (only behind high salt intake for dietary causes of death) and above trans fat intake

...and high omega-6 diets “block” omega-3 benefits, requiring even higher amounts, you can see why we suggest soybean oil is so dangerous.

Now, well write more about this next week but there are actually a lot of foods that are very high in omega-6 fats that you may not even be thinking about, sometimes often pushed as great options.  English muffins, tofu, sunflower seeds, sunflower seed butter, chick peas, peanuts and many, many more

If youre curious about your personal levels within your body, you can get an Omega-3 Test to find out your levels. I just had mine done and Kara will have hers, too.  Fortunately my blood looks pretty good, but still not in the “optimal” level, which means Im continuing to tweak and improve to get it there. 

Simply adding more omega-3s on top of a horrible diet isnt the answer.  Thats like putting a band aid on the problem.  You cant go to McDonalds, take your Nordic Naturals fish oil, and think youre doing something good.

We need to look at how we can decrease omega-6 fats as well.

Nix the six.  Eat the 3s! 

Looking for even more information on omega-3 fats and 50 other dietary supplements?  Check out

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