So, I have read that Americans tend to have an unnaturally and detrimentally high ratio of omega-6s to omega-3s. Citation: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/e...t=Citation

Sometimes, there's a Zone recipe where I really don't want to add the extra bit of fat. For something like olive oil on a salad or avocado on chili, I definitely like the monounsaturated fat source. But sometimes, there will be a recipe, like say a fruit smoothie that includes nuts, where I don't really get anything out of that particular fat source.

When that happens, often I will substitute fish oil softgels for the ingredient in question. So instead of adding 3 macadamia nuts to my smoothie I'll just take 3 fish oil pills. I figure that since our diet is already so high in omega-6s, largely due to our grain-fed livestock, the more fat that I get from fish oil, the better, right?

So can I sub fish oil for monounsaturated fats? Or is this a bad idea?

As long as you stick close to the appropriate daily dose of fish oil for your specific needs (counting the oil you subbed as part of your daily dose) it should be fine.

Remember that the fat you add in the Zone is mostly monounsaturated fat (almonds, olives, avocados, macadamia nuts etc), so it won't be increasing the amount of "bad fats” in your diet. If you read a Zone book, you'll learn all about how to use fats wisely in the Zone, which ones to include in your diet and which ones to avoid, why we use eth fats we do in the Zone, the details of including fish in your diet, etc.

Thanks Sue, does Mastering The Zone also have info on fish oil? Or just The Omega Rx book?

No, you won't find much info about fish oil in MASTERING THE ZONE. The the Zone books with the most up-to-date fish oil info are TOXIC FAT and THE ANTI-INFLAMMATION ZONE.