The AHA recommends getting an adequate intake of omega-6 through diet, rather than from supplements.
“It’s not really possible to get too much omega-6. Don’t be concerned with this idea that you’re going to give yourself heart disease,” says Dennis Goodman, MD, clinical associate professor at the University of San Diego and the former chief of cardiology at Scripps Memorial Hospital. “The evidence is much more in favor of the fact that omega-6 lowers your risk of heart disease. A theoretical disadvantage has never been shown clinically.” (Read more about how dietary fats can help—or harm—your heart.)
But not all experts agree with the AHA’s recommendation. The American diet is already packed with omega-6, says Fred Pescatore, MD, the author of The Hamptons Diet and the medical director of Medicine 369, a complementary medical center in New York. “Our foods are full of corn oil and grapeseed oil, both of which contain a ton of omega-6s,” he says. “We really need to be increasing our omega-3 intake.”
Dr. Pescatore says the high ratio of omega-6s to omega-3s in the American diet is one reason for the higher rates of cardiovascular disease compared to Japan, where a low ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 is more common.
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