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Essential fatty acids, or EFAs, are fatty acids that are required by humans and other animals for normal physiological function that cannot be synthesized in the body. [1] [2] As they are not synthesized in the body, the essential fatty acids – alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) and linoleic acid – must be obtained from food or from a dietary supplement.
Only two fatty acids, both polyunsaturated, are considered essential to be obtained from the diet, as the others are synthesized in the body. The "essential" fatty acids are alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), an omega-3 fatty acid, and linoleic acid (LA), an omega-6 fatty acid. [42] [43] ALA can be elongated in the body to create other omega-3 fatty ...
An omega−3 fatty acid is a fatty acid with multiple double bonds, where the first double bond is between the third and fourth carbon atoms from the end of the carbon atom chain. "Short-chain" omega−3 fatty acids have a chain of 18 carbon atoms or less, while "long-chain" omega−3 fatty acids have a chain of 20 or more.
Omega−3 fatty acids are important for normal metabolism. [ 2 ] Mammals are unable to synthesize omega−3 fatty acids, but can obtain the shorter-chain omega−3 fatty acid ALA (18 carbons and 3 double bonds) through diet and use it to form the more important long-chain omega−3 fatty acids, EPA (20 carbons and 5 double bonds) and then from ...
To illustrate the amounts of EPA and DHA in supplements, a softgel capsule containing fish oil derived from pollock might contain a total of 642 mg of total fish oil, of which 584 mg are omega−3 fatty acids, with 377 mg EPA and 158 mg DHA. 3 That same company's salmon oil softgel contains 1008 mg of total fish oil, of which 295 mg are omega ...
Fatty acid breakdown. There is a wide variety of fatty acids found in nature. Two classes of fatty acids are considered essential, the omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Essential fatty acids are necessary for humans but cannot be synthesized by the body and must therefore be obtained from food.