Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Mar 01, 2025 06:00AM ● By Ocean Robbins and Nichole Dandrea-Russert
Excerpted from Powered By Plants by Ocean Robbins and Nichole Dandrea-Russert RDN. ©2024 Hay House Inc. Edited for length.
Our next nutrient of concern, omega-3 fatty acids, should be on everyone’s radar. It’s associated with seafood, so you might think that people who eat a lot of fish have nothing to worry about here. But it’s a bit more complicated than that, as we’ll soon see.
To begin with, omega-3s are part of the “essential fatty acid” family, meaning that your body can’t make them—so you’ve got to source them from your diet. They appear in the forms ALA, EPA, and DHA. The following are just a few of their benefits.
Omega-3s protect against heart disease by lowering LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood pressure. People with coronary artery disease who consume enough omega-3s have a lower risk of death than those who do not. And these fatty acids are particularly important in preventing sudden death caused by cardiac arrhythmias. They can also raise HDL (“good”) cholesterol, reduce inflammation, and prevent coronary artery blockages by inhibiting the formation of blood platelets.
Omega-3s are also critical for early brain development and lifelong cognitive health. Getting enough omega-3s is particularly essential early in life, as the brain grows and develops. Thanks to their potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects in the brain, they may also benefit people with mild cognitive impairment by slowing the rate of cognitive decline and reducing the risk of major depression. One form of omega-3, EPA, appears to reduce depressive symptoms, while another, DHA, may reduce suicidal thoughts and lower the risk of suicide.
Omega-3s are highly anti-inflammatory not just in the brain but throughout the body. In addition to combating dementia, they can help suppress inflammation that could contribute to cardiovascular disease, autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, and other serious conditions.
At the same time, your body needs omega-3 fats to keep your immune system firing on all cylinders. They’re considered immunonutrients, meaning they play an essential role in the cellular structure and signaling of the immune system. DHA is anti-inflammatory, which means it can bring down chronic inflammation in the body so the body can “rev up” in response to dangers without being in constant overdrive. It actually appears to boost the actions of the beta immune cells, leading to healthier and more calibrated immune responses.
Omega-3 fatty acids also support eye health. Having enough omega-3s circulating in your body may help prevent age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a common eye condition that can result in vision loss.
What Are Omega-3s?
Omega-3s are a type of polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA). As we’ve seen, there are three types of omega-3s: ALA, EPA, and DHA. Let’s demystify that chemical alphabet soup.
ALA (alpha-linolenic acid) fats are needed for energy and are mostly metabolized in your intestines and liver. Your body can also convert ALA into the other two long-chain omega-3s, EPA and DHA.
EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) are long-chain omega-3 fatty acids. In addition to getting EPA and DHA from the conversion of ALA, you can also get them directly from food and supplements.
You might think that since our bodies can convert ALA into EPA and DHA, we can just focus on getting enough ALA. Unfortunately, for most people, it isn’t that simple at all.
The good news is your body can likely convert EPA to DHA and DHA to EPA with pretty high efficiency. Also, many people can get enough ALA from that single tablespoon of flaxseed oil to end up with sufficient EPA and DHA, even with that inefficient conversion percentage.
How Much Omega-3 Do You Need?
The National Institutes of Health recommends that adult females consume 1.1 grams of ALA per day and that males consume 1.6 grams. Since our bodies can convert ALA into EPA and DHA, only ALA is technically essential. But since the conversion rates are low, this is a rare nutritional instance where consuming more than the recommended daily amount is probably better.
What about Fish?
Certain kinds of fish, including sardines, anchovies, herring, and salmon, are especially high in DHA and EPA. And indeed, a large body of research has linked consumption of fish with improved health incomes, at least compared to other foods in the modern industrialized diet. For instance, the ongoing Adventist Health Study has so far found that vegetarians outlive omnivores, vegans outlive vegetarians, and pescatarians—people who avoid all animal products except for fish—appear to have the longest life expectancy of all.
But there are some significant problems with using fish as your main source of omega-3s. For one thing, the rampant overfishing and destructive techniques employed by the fishing industry are depleting fish stocks and disrupting marine ecosystems. Commercial fishing industries are harvesting over 160 billion pounds of sea life out of the ocean every year—that’s nearly half a billion pounds every day. At this pace, nearly all of the world’s fisheries will collapse in the next 30 years.
On the other hand, fish farming, or aquaculture, presents its own set of problems. Despite being touted as a solution to declining wild fish populations, aquaculture often relies in part on wild fish harvested from the ocean, and it contributes to pollution, disease, and the use of harmful chemicals.
Plant-Based Sources of Omega-3s
While fish are a rich source of omega-3s, they are not the only source. For fish to contain omega-3s, they must themselves consume omega-3s from the nutrient-rich aquatic plants they eat.
There are many plant-based sources of omega-3s. Some of my favorite sources are flaxseeds (containing 6,000 milligrams of omega-3 per ounce of seeds), chia seeds (5,000 milligrams per ounce), and hemp seeds (2,600). These are easy to add to your diet. Hemp seeds are ready to go right out of the bag, while with flaxseed or chia seeds, it’s best to buy them whole and then grind some up in a coffee grinder and refrigerate the ground meal. You can sprinkle your omega-3-rich seeds on just about anything—smoothies, salads, stir-fries, pizza, or soup, to name a few.
Some nuts are also a good source of ALA. Walnuts in particular are rich in the nutrient, delivering 2,500 milligrams per ounce. And flaxseed oil, while not a whole food, is a very rich source of ALA that your body can convert to DHA and EPA. (Note that flaxseed oil must be consumed raw. It goes rancid quickly, so keep it refrigerated and buy only what you’ll use within a month or two.)
When You Might Want to Supplement
Especially if you don’t consume any fatty fish or large amounts of flax, chia, and hemp seeds, you may want to consider an omega-3 supplement. Pregnant women and people over the age of 65, who are at greatest risk of deficiency, should especially consider taking a supplement just to be on the safe side. A simple blood test can give you a baseline to see if your EPA and DHA levels are adequate.
Fish oil supplements are made from real fish and come with all the health and environmental drawbacks we’ve already looked at. Fortunately, you can find vegan omega-3 supplements that are made from algal oil. Studies tell us that they are at least as efficiently absorbed as fish oil-based supplements but without the toxins found higher on the aquatic food chain or the environmental harms.
A word of warning about EPA and DHA supplements, however. In 2023, researchers at George Washington University published a study in the Journal of Dietary Supplements. The researchers analyzed 72 omega-3 supplements and found that 32 percent of the flavored supplements and 13 percent of the unflavored ones were rancid. The rates were probably higher with the flavored ones because flavoring can mask the rancidity. Now, this is a problem because rancid omega-3s can actually be worse than useless, causing a host of new health problems.
Conclusion
It can be challenging to get enough omega-3 fatty acids in a modern diet. Fish are the most common food source, but they come with significant ethical and environmental concerns—as well as a sizable dose of heavy metals and increased risk of melanoma. If you don’t eat fish, look for ways to add nuts and seeds—especially flax, chia, and hemp—to your diet on a daily basis. Consider adding sea vegetables, and cut back on or eliminate high omega-6 vegetable oils. You can get your blood levels for EPA and DHA checked, and you might well want to take a fresh and unflavored omega-3 supplement, especially if you are pregnant or over 65. Vegan supplement options appear to be just as effective as fish oil-based supplements.
However you do it, make sure your diet includes omega-3s for a healthy heart, a well-functioning brain, and limber, pain-free joints. ❧
Recipe
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