What are Essential Fatty Acids, and why we need them.
Essential Fatty Acids, or EFAs as they are commonly referred to, are important healthy fatty acids that cannot be constructed from within a single organism. For this discussion the organism that we refer to is none other than the human body. So to be perfectly clear, the human body cannot make the all-important fatty acids by itself. For this reason we must find a way to take the essential nutrients through diet as well as supplementation.
The two basic groups of essential fatty acids are the ω-3 (or omega-3 or n−3) and ω-6 (omega-6, n−6). Studies have shown that fats from both of these families are not only essential, but they are actually healthy too! The human body can convert one omega-3 to another omega-3, but cannot however create an omega-3 from omega-6, or from the saturated fat group.
An interesting fact about the essential fatty acid family is that when they were discovered in 1923, EFAs were designated as Vitamin F. After a few years passed, in 1930 Burr and Miller showed that they we be better classified as fats than as vitamins.
The human body and the essential fatty acids work together to server multiple purposes. Following are some of the many important functions which EFAs serve. These functions include the balance between dietary ω-3 and ω-6 which strongly affects function. They are then modified to make the isofurans, neurofurans, isoprostanes, hepoxilins, epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs) and Neuroprotectin D, the lipoxins from ω-6 EFAs and resolvins from ω-3 (in the presence of aspirin, downregulating inflammation.), the endocannabinoids (affecting mood, behavior and inflammation), and the classic eicosanoids (affecting inflammation and many other cellular functions).
A question that many ask is why these fatty acids are essential, and why exactly are they healthy. Both the arachidonic and the linolenic acids were termed essential during the middle half of the 20th century. The reason for this was because the two were more or less able to suffice the growth requirements of rats that were given fat free diets. Since the 1950s there has also been many discoveries as to why the essential fatty acids are truly essential. Some studies have even shown evidence that gamma-linolenic acid, GLA has been shown to inhibit the breast cancer promoting gene of Her2/neu.
Some of the different sources that you can get your needed EFAs are, in addition to supplementation, shellfish, fish, flaxseed (linseed), soya oil, hemp oil, canola (rapeseed) oil, pumpkin seeds, leafy vegetables, chia seeds, and walnuts. By taking these foods or supplements, your body and the essential fatty acids work together to help out in your body's metabolic process. There is even much evidence to support the fact that low levels of EFAs, or even the incorrect balance of types of EFAs may possibly be one of many factors in many debilitating illnesses such as osteoporosis. Another noteworthy distinction that the EFAs hold is that most of the polyunsaturated fats in the human diet are EFAs, of which they play a very vital role in the growth and death of cardiac cells.
We hope that this has been informative and that you will find a way to incorporate essential fatty acids into you diet, either through diet or through supplementation. You'll be happy that you did!
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