I got the following message recently, out of the blue:
Astounded by [your] advice, Ω-3 up - Ω-6 down= no sunburn during +3hr LSD [Long, Slow Distance run]!
This was, I presume, in response to a few tweets on this topic, which I had been discussing with a few other people.
My correspondent wishes to remain anonymous, for reasons you'll see below, but I was curious to see what his experience actually was, and why he decided to look into this. He agreed to let me post the exchange we had.
[Edited for readability; PUFA = PolyUnsaturated Fatty Acids; Ω-6 = omega-6 fats from seed oils, Ω-3 = omega-3 fats from fish or certain seeds.]
I do have a question for you though, what did you do to cut back on omega-6, and how long did it take for you to notice a difference?
Thanks for this!! Well I started to look and consume less n-6 after reading your posts!!I used to get some serious sunburn on my long runs. So upped n-3 and consumed less n-6... It's actually pretty amazing to run without a shirt, for three-plus hours and have NO sunburn at all!!! That's why I enjoy your posts!
I think Noakes here in South Africa has done a great job, but you are one of the few that emphasize PUFA/n-6 as an issue...I see many people here in SA do Banting, but use copious amounts of sunflower oil...Noakes should address this...
My old man similarly was on Noakes banting diet, but they were extremely high on n-6, so I showed them your tweets... They are doing stellar now... With my dad as with me it took as long as 6 months to see a difference, but I should add that we lowered n-6 and also upped n-3, with krill oil.
Your tweets have resulted in our entire town cutting back on PUFA's. In fact, I told some guys about your tweets and I said that I would rather be high carb and low PUFA/n-6 than low carb and high PUFA/n-6.
Thanks so much for the reply! You should come visit and run Comrades here some time!!
Reports like this are what makes doing this work worthwhile. Thanks for letting me know!
I'll see if I can pass this along to Professor Noakes, as I'm sure he'd be fascinated to hear this report as well.
Original post on November 28, 2017.
I used to get sunburn and terrible prickly heat on my arms and on my head, to the point where I had blisters on my scalp under my hair and it was very painful and itched like crazy. It would start around mid-June and stay until the end of August and was getting worse as I aged. I am in Spain, which is no bueno for this condition.
I switched to carnivore one October (lost a lot of weight) and the following summer I had no reaction to the sun at all.
A few years later a friend started making bacon at home, so I ate a lot (it was great) but a few months later the sunburn and prickly heat started to come back. I dropped the bacon and within a few weeks it was gone again.
I took as much omega 6 out my diet as possible but didn’t focus on adding in omega 3. Took about 18 months for me to properly notice that I didn’t burn anymore. I’m naturally “Scottish blue” in colour! I realised I hadn’t burned as a child in the 70s and 80s but then had burned most of my adult life when I had to start cooking for myself when the prevailing wisdom was for low fat/vegetable oil diets. It seems mum did know best cooking with butter and lard and beef dripping!