What are Essential Fatty acids?

Not the flashiest title I know, but I think you will be happy that you took the time to find out, it may change your life, or the life of your child.

Many of you may have heard of Essential Fatty Acids (or EFA's from now on) and the potential benefit that they can have on overall health. What are they though? Basically a fatty acid is a molecule that is used by the body for a multitude of functions and in every cell of the body. They are considered "essential" because our body is not able to produce them so we need to get them from our diets.


Some of the areas that our bodies uses EFA's are the heart, the brain, the immune system and the skin. There are many more but those are some of the big ones that you may have heard about in the news or advertisements.

There are only two true families of EFA's: Omega-3 and Omega-6. The name has to do with where a certain chemical bond is located in the molecule. Sources for Omega-3 fatty acids are primarily from cold water oily fish such as salmon, herring, mackerel, anchovies and sardines, but there is also a significant amount in flaxseed oil. Omega-6 can be found in chicken, eggs, soybean oil, canola oil and whole grains. As you can probably see Omega-6 are much easier to get than Omega-3. This has lead to potential imbalances for some people. I will address that issue in a later blog.