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People talk a lot about balancing omega 3s and omega 6s but we only ever think to take an omega 3 pill to raise our omega 3 levels to the appropriate ratio instead of what we should be doing for our health which is decreasing the amount of omega 6 in our diets instead. Also, a lot of this stuff comes from oils when you can use water to cook vegetables instead. Oil should be used as little as possible as it’s so calorie dense and often high in omega 6s.
Supplement companies are not your friends and they rarely have your best intentions in mind unfortunately. Reductionist science focuses on individual nutrients instead of a wholistic approach, which can lead to higher levels of omega 3s and 6s while maintaining the correct “ratio”. In reality we need less omega 6, not more omega 3. But they can’t sell you less of something, just more of another!
It’s true that an increase in Omega 3s in the diet (with the goal of bringing the omega 6 to omega 3 ratio closer to 1:1) can help weight loss and health BUT instead of paying for another pill from these despicable companies who profit off misinformation, we can simply reduce omega 6s instead.
“Because a high omega-6/omega-3 ratio is associated with overweight/obesity, whereas a balanced ratio decreases obesity and weight gain, it is essential that every effort is made to decrease the omega-6 fatty acids in the diet, while increasing the omega-3 fatty acid intake. This can be accomplished by changing dietary vegetable oils high in omega-6 fatty acids (corn oil, sunflower, safflower, cottonseed, and soybean oils) to oils high in omega-3s (flax, perilla, chia, rapeseed), and high in monounsaturated oils such as olive oil, macadamia nut oil, hazelnut oil, or the new high monounsaturated sunflower oil”
source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4808858/
I agree with and know that a lot of what you said is correct. For me, it’s just much easier to supplement omega-3 than it is restrict omega-6 across my entire diet. That convenience is really valuable to me. I do a generous tablespoon of ground chia seeds stirred in water daily for my omega-3s, as opposed to a capsule.
Also, if you’re a vegan, there are somethings you should probably take via supplements, B12 being the most notorious example; pretty much every vegan (and many omnis) should take B12 supplements. (B12 is produced by bacteria and doesn’t occur in plants.) Being supplement-wise is important as a vegan. There are a lot of scams out there, but avoiding supplements altogether is ill-advised and in the case of B12 likely deleterious to one’s health.
Edit: There aren’t citations to this but the reasoning is pretty sound; for anyone interested in more discussion about the value of supplementation for vegans (they’re pro): https://philosophicalvegan.com/wiki/index.php/Natural_vs_Supplementation
Absolutely B12 should be taken by vegans. This is not something I would ever recommend against. There’s a difference between supplementing something you can’t get vs. supplementing out of convenience.
I take a B12 supplement daily and encourage all vegans to do so. Supplementing with B12 when there’s no way for vegans to get B12 isn’t the same reductionist science as supplementing Omega 3 because it’s easier than reducing Omega 6.
B12 is a necessity for healthful living while omega 3 pills are not (though I absolutely cannot disagree with their convenience) as there are other ways to achieve the omegas balance you desire. Reductionist science gives us this “convenient” pill to take (and market to us) instead of affecting the understanding of the industry (or individuals) into reducing omega 6s overall so everyone can be even more healthy.
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