Omega-6 fats were once criticized as unhealthy, but researchers for the American Heart Association have concluded that they are in fact beneficial to the heart.

Kind of hard to keep up with this shifting landscape, isn’t it?

From www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/no-need-to-avoid-healthy-omega-6-fats

It turns out that the body converts very little linolenic acid into arachidonic acid, even when linolenic acid is abundant in the diet. The AHA reviewers found that eating more omega-6 fats didn’t rev up inflammation. Instead, eating more omega-6 fats either reduced markers of inflammation or left them unchanged. Many studies showed that rates of heart disease went down as consumption of omega-6 fats went up. And a meta-analysis of six randomized trials found that replacing saturated fat with omega-6 fats reduced the risk of heart attacks and other coronary events by 24%. A separate report published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that pooled the results of 11 large cohorts showed that replacing saturated fats with polyunsaturated fats (including omega-6 and omega-3 fats) reduced heart disease rates more than did replacing them with monounsaturated fats or carbohydrates.

In order to evaluate the effects of diet on extreme longevity, there are five types of evidence that must be considered, according to Valter Longo. One of the most important pillars is epidemiological, which tells youwhat people who generally lived a long and healthy life have eaten. And, more often than not, it is a diet low in saturated animal fat. To be clear, we are talking about healthy and active centenarians not people lying on a bed in a hospital connected to a bunch of tubes.