“After 20 years of nutritionists emphasising the importance of the the omega-3 to omega-6 people have started taking some notice but still most people are unaware of how important that ratio is, what it means for their health, how to balance that ratio and how flax seeds and flax oil can help achieve that. Here I am presenting the facts in a concise article.”
Flax seed oil and the omega-3 / omega-6 ratio
Not just trans fats are bad for you - too much omega-6 oils are not good either
The balance between omega-3 and omega-6 is important for both health and anti-aging
Extra virgin, cold-pressed olive oil vs extra virgin, cold-pressed flax oil
That’s all good but with what oil do I fry? It’s simple: you don’t. Frying is a horrible cooking method, even air-frying.
Is there a danger of overdoing it with more omega-3s by having flax oil?
Will flaxseed oil get rid of my cellulite?
LipoTherapeia® Plus: Have a skin tightening/cellulite treatment with London’s cellulite experts
The Cellulite School™: Get advanced training in cellulite reduction and skin tightening
Not just trans fats are bad for you - too much omega-6 oils are not good either
In today’s Western world people consume not only too much saturated, hydrogenated or fried fats/oils, which are widely accepted as unhealthy.
Such oils*, especially hydrogenated and fried fats/oils, are known to cause anything from heart disease to cancer to arthritis and of course overall aging, including skin aging and cellulite.
Something which is generally unknown to most people is that we also consume too much omega-6 polyunsaturated oils, which are found literally everywhere: from processed foods, condiments, pastry and desserts to meat and chicken.
Horrid soy, cottonseed, corn and similar highly processed oils rich in omega-6 fatty acids, are literally everywhere. Even if you consume cold pressed sunflower or similar quality omega-6 oils (rare to find and not many people do), all this excess of omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) disrupt the balance between omega-3 and omega-6 in the body and bring it to as high as 20:1 - as opposed to a healthy ratio of 4:1 omega-6 vs omega-3 fatty acids.
(* People on the ketogenic diet seem to do well on saturated fats. However, for all other mixed carb-fat diets, saturated fats are not healthy in high amounts. And of course, fried / trans oils, of any kind, are detrimental to health.)
The balance between omega-3 and omega-6 is important for both health and anti-aging
This imbalance of omega-6 vs omega-3 is known to be pro-inflammatory and contributes to aging.
The solution to balancing the ratio of omega-6 vs omega-3 in the body lies in replacing omega-6s:
With omega-9 monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA, the best options of which are extra virgin olive oil, olives and avocados) for the bulk of your unsaturated fatty acid needs (rapeseed oil is not a good idea, as among all the omega-9 fatty acids it also contains erucic acid, which is a very unhealthy fatty acid)
With omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, in order to bring the balance of omega-6 to omega-3 close to 4:1 - even 6:1 will suffice, as long as you move away from 20:1 or 10:1. The best foods for this purpose are flaxseeds (linseeds), chia seeds, flaxseed oil and, to a lesser extent, walnuts. Of all these, flax oil is the abundant source of omega-3 PUFA, specifically alpha-linolenic acid (ALA).
With some highly unsaturated omega-3 fatty acids (HUFA) from oily fish (basically salmon, sardines, mackerel, anchovies and halibut - never canned, of course) and fish oil capsules or liquid. However, an excess of omega-3 HUFA is not good for the body either and should not be exclusively used to balance the omega-6s. So we still need the ALA from flax, chia and walnuts (BTW tuna does not contain any appreciable amount of omega-3s, contrary to marketing BS).
Extra virgin, cold-pressed olive oil vs extra virgin, cold-pressed flax oil
If I was to compare extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) and flax oil I would say that flax oil wins hands down in terms of healthiness:
Extra virgin olive oil contains an average of 65% MUFA (oleic acid), 25% saturated fats (palmitic and stearic), 10% omega-6 PUFA (linoleic acid, LA) and no omega-3 PUFA (alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). As oleic acid is a neutral oil, olive oil is great for general use, in both cooking and salads - and tastes amazing!
Extra virgin flax oil contains an average of 20% MUFA, 10% saturated fats, 15% omega-6 PUFA and 55% omega-3 PUFA. Flax oil can only be used in salads or on bread, as cooking would oxidise and destroy it.
I have always used olive oil for cooking and salads and avoided flax oil for salads or on bread because it was impossible to find a non-bitter flax oil (bitter flaxseed oil is oxidised and thereby damaged), even by “quality” health supplement brands. Whatever I tried was old and bitter - and thereby unhealthy.
Luckily I have recently stumbled upon Flaxfarm, which produce fresh, unoxidised flaxseed oil in small batches every week. That oil is mild, herbal and slightly sweet, as flax seed oil should be. Since then I have now replaced EVOO for flax oil in all my salads or on bread and, of course, I never cook with it. Yes, EVOO tastes better than flax oil but the health benefits of flax oil are immense - plus tastebuds adjust to new tastes.
The same company also sells high-lignan flax oil, which has more health benefits, although some may not like the darker colour and nuttier taste (it tastes like ground flaxseeds).
(Please note that I and LipoTherapeia have no affiliation with this company - I am just a very satisfied customer and impressed by the quality and freshness of their products and would like to spread the word.)
Walnuts in salads and flax seeds in protein shakes also contribute towards my omega-3 PUFA intake (LNA, alpha linolenic acid), and salmon and the occasional sardines do so for my omega-3 HUFA intake (DHA, docosahexaenoic acid and EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid).
The aim of all these measures is to reduce the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio, keep omega-9 at a good level and minimise saturated fats, i.e. maintain an as natural as possible fat intake, which in turn can help prevent inflammation, whole body ageing, skin ageing and cellulite (the human being only started consuming so much saturated fat in the last few decades due to industrialised farming).
That’s all good but with what oil do I fry? It’s simple: you don’t. Frying is a horrible cooking method, even air-frying.
Many people ask: If you mainly use unsaturated fatty acids (omega-3, -6 and -9) how do you fry or cook at high temperatures? The answer is I rarely do and you should not do either. Fried food is literally as bad as food rich in hydrogenated / trans fatty acids, so just don’t do that, if you want to avoid inflammation, ageing and indeed cellulite.
The four times a year that I fry, I only use butter ghee (which unlike normal butter does not brown / burn, a sign of denaturation and oxidation) or extra virgin olive oil, used once (which is very expensive). I never fry at extreme temperatures (not higher than 180ºC and of course I would never use coconut oil for frying as, contrary to popular belief, it smokes and oxidises in zero time.
Is there a danger of overdoing it with more omega-3s by having flax oil?
As omega-6s are found in so many foods, just by eating normally and adding some flax oil on salads and bread will not upset the omega-6 to omega-3 balance.
The majority of fatty acids we consume in food are:
Omega-6s (we consume way too much of them)
Omega-9s (they are neutral, so you can have as much as you want of them, as long as you don’t put on any weight)
Saturated (not very good for all non-keto diets)
Omega-3s are a small minority in Western diets, and hence the need for consuming linseeds, linseed oil, chia seeds and walnuts to restore the balance.
Unless you go crazy on flaxseed oil, you’re fine. In any case, it’s not good going crazy on anything - balance is the key.
Will flaxseed oil get rid of my cellulite?
No, it won’t, but it is one of the many things we can do to help prevent and reduce cellulite skin aging and overall body aging.
LipoTherapeia® Plus: Have a skin tightening/cellulite treatment with London’s cellulite experts
At LipoTherapeia we have specialised 100% in skin tightening and cellulite reduction for more than a quarter of a century and 24,000+ sessions.
This is all we study and practise every day and have researched and tried hands-on all the important skin tightening equipment and their manufacturers.
As strong, deep acting radiofrequency and deep-acting, high-power ultrasound cavitation are the technologies of choice for skin tightening and cellulite reduction, we have invested in the best RF/ultrasound technologies in the world.
(Of course, we keep looking for new technologies every day and if/when a better technology materialises we will be the first to provide it. However, we will never follow the latest ineffective gimmick, just because it’s good marketing to offer the latest hyped up - yet ineffective and/or unsafe treatment.)
Furthermore, over the last two decades we have developed advanced RF and cavitation treatment protocols in order to make the most of our technologies, for maximum results, naturally and safely.
And for even better, faster results, we now combine our RF/ultrasound treatments with high-power red/infrared light LED treatment.
Our radiofrequency/ultrasound/LED treatments are comfortable, pain-free, downtime-free, injection-free, 99.5%+ safe and always non-invasive.
(No unsafe and ineffective RF microneedling or HIFU and no safe but ineffective acoustic wave therapy, superficial RF (bipolar/tripolar/multipolar etc), low power RF/cavitation, electrical muscle stimulation, lymphatic massage, cupping, dry brushing and no ridiculous bum bum creams.)
Our focus is on honest, realistic, science-based treatment, combined with caring, professional service, with a smile.
We will be pleased to see you, assess your cellulite, skin laxity or fibrosis, listen to your story, discuss your case and offer you the best possible treatment.
Check prices and book an expert cellulite / skin tightening treatment at our London clinic.
Look Inside Your Skin™ with a Cellulite Ultrasonography™ scan, exclusive to LipoTherapeia in London, and assess your cellulite, skin laxity, post-liposuction fibrosis and more
We are proud to be the first and only cellulite clinic in the world to offer Cellulite Ultrasonography™ to our clients, for accurate assessment, better treatment and enhanced results. Since 2022 we have assessed and provided valuable insights to hundreds of clients to better understand their specific case, see how their skin looks from inside and make informed decisions.
You can now book your Cellulite Ultrasonography™ session and assess your:
Cellulite
Skin laxity
Lipedema
Subcutaneous fat levels
You can also assess the presence and severity of fibrosis and adhesions after:
Liposuction in all its forms, including vaser, smart lipo, bodytite, abdominoplasty/tummy tuck, thigh lift, arm lift, lipedema surgery etc
Cellulite surgery, such as cellulaze, cellutite, cellfina, subcision etc
Face-lift surgery
Non-surgical procedures, such as RF microneedling, extreme intensity HIFU, extreme intensity RF, extreme intensity ultrasound etc
Everything will be shown and explained to you clearly and you can see and understand how the different structures inside your skin affect your appearance.
If there is scar tissue / fibrosis, those will be clearly seen and you can differentiate between fibrosis, water retention or unremoved fat after all types of cosmetic surgery or harsh non-surgical procedures such as RF microneedling, extreme intensity HIFU etc.
(DISCLAIMER: Please note that this service is for your informational purposes only and does not constitute medical diagnosis or advice.)
The 45’ appointment includes full assessment and consultation and optional treatment plan for cellulite reduction and/or skin tightening.
If you do wish to have treatment with us, the ultrasound scan, assessment and consultation will be used to optimise your course of treatments and maximise your results.
The Cellulite School™: Get advanced training in cellulite reduction and skin tightening
Why train with The Cellulite School™?
We all know that training in cellulite reduction and skin tightening is as basic as it gets. It is typically a 4-6 hour training, involving only basic instruction from the manufacturer on how operators can use the machine; lots of myths, erroneous information and misconceptions; and some basic health and safety on how to use the machine.
There is no proper, real training in the science or cellulite, skin tightening, radiofrequency, ultrasound and all related technologies is non-existent - worldwide.
Do you want to deeply understand radiofrequency, ultrasound cavitation, LED phototherapy, cellulite and skin tightening?
Get proper training based on 25-year theory and practical application of cellulite reduction and valuable insights from 24,000+ sessions and 4,200+ clients.
Now you can get instant access to our expertise and save yourself literally thousands of pounds, dollars or euros of expensive mistakes and thousands of hours of study, research and practical application by attending one of our half-day, 1-day, 2-day or 3-day professional consultancy / training courses.
Understand deeply - and get properly trained in - the science of radiofrequency, ultrasound cavitation, LED phototherapy, cellulite and skin tightening and confidently offer your clients the safest, strongest and most effective treatment possible.
Service available via Zoom or at our central London practice.
Learn more or check prices and book training at our London clinic or via Zoom.