1. Modern diets tend to be high in omega 6 fatty acids.
High omega 6 levels in diet can lead to inflammation of tissues and other health problems. Many nuts, rains and vegetable oils are high in omega 6.
2. Modern diets are commonly low in omega 3 fatty acids.
Omega 3 fatty acids tend to be anti-inflammatory. The omega 3's are thought to be helping avoid a wide range of diseases like cancer, asthma, depression, cardiovascular disease, ADHD and autoimmune diseases such as arthritis.
Salmon and other "fatty fishes" are known for their high omega 3 fatty acid content and are promoted as a means of balancing omega 6 to 3 ratio in our diets.
3. Both omega 6 and omega 3 fatty acids are important for human health.
The preferred ratio is considered to be between 2:1 to 4:1. However, the ratio can be 16:1 in American fast food diets prepared with vegetable oils.
4. Lamb has the healthiest omega 6 to 3 ratio.
Lamb has the best omega 6 to 3 ratio of about 3:1 compared to other commonly eaten land animals. None of the listed animals including lamb comes close to providing omega 3 as high as Salmon.
The ratio of omega 6 to 3 taken from http://nutritiondata.self.com
My notes:
1. Pork and Chicken have extremely high omega 6 to 3 ratio compared to lamb.
2. Salmon has significantly higher omega 3 compared to omega 6. But if the preferred ratio for omega 6 to 3 is between 2:1 to 4:1, then is lamb a better long-term food choice than salmon for someone who's already following a low-omega 6 diet by giving up on vegetable oils, grains and nuts?
Technical note: Under US federal regulations, only the term 'lamb' is used for any ovine animal ('ovine' means any animal resembling sheep), whether male or female (Source: wikipedia). In the context of this article, lamb, sheep, goat, mutton seem to be interchangably used.
The above article was written by Janet McNally on March 1, 2015 in Graze, a magazine on grazing.
http://www.grazeonline.com/landsalmon
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