Sunflower or Olive Oil?

Hello to all of you,

When I decided to spend a few months in Spain, my home country, I was under the impression that very few people would care either about my nutrition teachings on the Mediterranean Diet or about my book, “Your Heart Needs the Mediterranean Diet” for that matter. People in this region, so my thinking went, must be familiar with all these concepts, being Spain the cradle of the Mediterranean Diet. But, surprise, surprise! That’s not what is happening.

During my nutrition classes to groups of diabetics or people with heart disease, I keep getting questions that still amaze me. One question that I get over and over is: “Should I use olive or sunflower oil?” People justified their question by explaining to me that: “for years we were told olive oil was best; then we were told to switch to sunflower oil, and now we are told we need to go back to olive oil. We don’t know who to trust any more”. Well, can you blame them?

 

 

So, besides apologizing on behalf Nutrition Experts by explaining to them that Nutrition is a young science and as a result is going through changes as more research is made available to us, I tell them the many reasons why they need to use olive oil (You can check them out in my article “Which Olive Oil Is Best for You?”). I also tell them that sunflower oil is not the best choice because of the unbalance of its Omega 6 and Omega 3 fatty acids.

 

As you may probably know, Omega 6 and Omega 3 are two fats our body needs but cannot produce, so we need to get them from the food we eat. But for these fats to work properly in our body, we need to ingest them in the right proportion: for each portion of Omega 3 we eat, we should ingest a maximum of 4 portions of Omega 6. Anything different than this ratio, 1:4, will most likely cause inflammation and chronic disease.

Sunflower oil with less than 60% oleic acid (the fat found in olive oil) has an Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio of 180:1 (180 portions of Omega 6 and 1 Omega 3). If you insist on using sunflower oil in your kitchen, look for one with over 70% oleic acid; it has a proportion of 17:1 (17 portions of Omega 6 and 1 of Omega 3).

 

Olive oil has a relation of 13:1 (13 Omega 6 and 1 Omega 3), a much better ratio than sunflower oil. And although this ratio may still sound high, let’s remember that the main fat in olive oil is monounsaturated, a fat with very little Omega 6. This means that although the ratio is 13:1, there is a low amount of Omega 6 in it. It is the polyunsaturated fats that are loaded with Omega 6 fatty acids.

Have a happy and healthy day.

Emilia Klapp, BS, RD
www.MediterraneanDietfortheHeart.com