{"id":23448,"date":"2025-09-19T17:45:33","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T21:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valuecare.wpgamma.com\/?p=23448"},"modified":"2025-09-19T17:45:33","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T21:45:33","slug":"what-are-omega-3-fatty-acids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valuecare.wpgamma.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/19\/what-are-omega-3-fatty-acids\/","title":{"rendered":"What Are Omega 3 Fatty Acids?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest Post Courtesy of the\u00a0Xtend-Life<\/a>\u00a0Blog<\/p>\n

Remember the old Clint Eastwood movie, \u201cThe Good, The Bad, and The Ugly?\u201d\u00a0Well, if we were to compare fats to characters in a movie, I\u2019d call the omega 3s, the \u201cGood.\u201d\u00a0 Where does the name \u201comega 3<\/a>\u201d come from? Omega and 3 refer to the location of the first double bond between carbons in a long chain of carbon-to-carbon bonds.\u00a0 There are two \u201cessential fatty acids.\u201d They are termed essential because your body cannot make them from other substances; in other words, you must consume them or you will suffer a deficiency*. In this way they are like vitamins. The two essential fatty acids are one omega 3, alpha-linolenic acid (ALA<\/a>), and one omega 6, linoleic acid (LA).\u00a0 There are many kinds of\u00a0omega 3<\/a>\u00a0fatty acids, the two most commonly known are eicosapentaenoic acid or EPA and docosahexaenoic acid or\u00a0DHA<\/a>, both are found primarily in cold-water fish.\u00a0 Another\u00a0omega 3<\/a>\u00a0is\u00a0ALA<\/a>. It is found primarily in a few seeds like flaxseeds, hemp, some nuts and a few grains.\u00a0 There are many omega 6 fatty acids as well, including linoleic acid (LA) found in many vegetable oils, gamma linolenic acid (GLA) most commonly found in\u00a0Evening Primrose<\/a>\u00a0Oil, dihomo-gamma-linolenic acid (DGLA) trace amounts are found in meat, and arachidonic acid (AA) which is found in all meats.\u00a0 Each of the substances listed above have specific functions in the body, some good, some not so good. I\u2019ll cover their functions in the body in later articles in this series. It\u2019s important to know that each of the\u00a0omega 3<\/a>\u00a0fatty acids can be converted into other omega 3s and the same is true with the omega 6 fatty acids (omega 6 fatty acids can be converted into other omega 6s).\u00a0 In other words, if you consume little or no fish (good source of EPA and\u00a0DHA<\/a>) yet eat alpha-linolenic acid (ALA<\/a>) in the form of\u00a0flax seed<\/a>\u00a0oil, your body can convert the\u00a0ALA<\/a>\u00a0into EPA and\u00a0DHA<\/a>\u00a0but not very readily.\u00a0 This point will be discussed in detail in future articles in this series. Even though omega 3s can chemically change into other omega 3s they cannot do so very efficiently.\u00a0 For example, the short chain\u00a0omega 3<\/a>\u00a0fatty acid called alpha-linolenic acid can convert to both EPA and\u00a0DHA<\/a>\u00a0but not efficiently enough to prevent deficiency conditions.<\/p>\n

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\nWhat Are Omega 3 Fatty Acids?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guest Post Courtesy of the\u00a0Xtend-Life\u00a0Blog Remember the old Clint Eastwood movie, \u201cThe Good, The Bad, and The Ugly?\u201d\u00a0Well, if we were to compare fats to characters in a movie, I\u2019d call the omega 3s, the \u201cGood.\u201d\u00a0 Where does the name \u201comega 3\u201d come from? Omega and 3 refer to the location of the first double […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[153,138],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-articles","category-health-and-vitality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valuecare.wpgamma.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valuecare.wpgamma.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valuecare.wpgamma.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valuecare.wpgamma.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valuecare.wpgamma.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/valuecare.wpgamma.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23448\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valuecare.wpgamma.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valuecare.wpgamma.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valuecare.wpgamma.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}