And it's even higher than the current intake of the average American:



http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/glea...th/health3.html

My current inclination is to do the opposite of anything the AHA tells me I should do. All those organizations...

I'm surprised this thread hasn't gotten more attention. I'm one whose eyes usually glaze over when trying to read scientific studies and such, but it seems that vegetable oil of any sort is probably not a natural food for our body. It's one thing to eat whole nuts and seeds and olives for that matter, quite another to throw away the bulk of the food item just to squeeze oil out of it. The natural exception would seem to be lard and suet, no?

Sounds like a crock of ....

See this blog for some really good blog posts on Omega 6 levels and heart disease.

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/

What is the American Heart Association’s Agenda? —It Sure Ain’t Science or Public Health
Controversy and debate are an expected (and welcome) part of the scientific process. But the American Heart Association’s recent advisory urging Americans to gobble up their omega-6 fat is an unconscionable disservice, to both the scientific process and the public health.

Old School Cholesterol Dogma versus Science
On January 27, 2009 the American Heart Association (AHA) issued an advisory touting the benefits of eating plenty of omega-6 fats. Here's the problem--AHA made sweeping statements that are not supported by the research, while ignoring landmark studies, which don’t support their views [Harris]. While the cholesterol myth has finally been put to rest as the cause underlying heart disease (it's inflammation and beyond), it would seem that heart healthy eating would need some refinement.

Yet, the American Heart Association's key rationale for promoting omega-6 polyunsaturated fats, is because of their ability to lower blood cholesterol, when eaten in the place of saturated fats. (Keep in mind that one out of every two people with heart disease has a normal blood cholesterol level.) Furthermore, the AHA asserts that if Americans were to lower their current omega-6 fat, their heart health would suffer.

Omega-6 fat intake has sky-rocketed in the last century, so it would seem that we should see a dramatic lowering of heart disease in the USA, yes? No. The incidence of cardiovascular disease has increased in parallel with the increase in linoleic acid intakes in many countries [Ghosh]. Linoleic acid is the most commonly eaten omega-6 fatty acid. Notably, people who have died from heart disease have higher blood levels of the omega-6 fat, arachidonic acid, as shown below [Okuyama].


Do read the rest of the blog here

Omega Fatty Acid Balance Can Alter Immunity And Gene Expression
Floyd Chilton and colleagues wanted to examine whether theses fatty acids might have other effects, and developed a dietary intervention strategy in which 27 healthy humans were fed a controlled diet mimicking the w6/w3 ratios of early humans over 5 weeks. They then looked at the gene levels of immune signals and cytokines (protein immune messengers), that impact autoimmunity and allergy in blood cells and found that many key signaling genes that promote inflammation were markedly reduced compared to a normal diet, including a signaling gene for a protein called PI3K, a critical early step in autoimmune and allergic inflammation responses.
This study demonstrates, for the first time in humans, that large changes in gene expression are likely an important mechanism by which these omega fatty acids exert their potent clinical effects.