Many of the Omega 3's are critical in the body. This blog will focus on docosahexaenoic acid or DHA because it is a crucial part of cell membranes and is 20 percent of the brain by volume. There is a crucial question for vegetarians regarding how they get adequate amounts of this fatty acid because it is mainly obtained through diet. The richest sources are in fish oil and organ meats.
This is ongoing research but it appears that people lacking this omega 3 are likely to suffer from depression and other brain diseases although simply taking oral fish oil has not proven to be effective by itself.
In herbivores DHA is synthesized from α-linolenic acid from plants. It appears that for humans the same process for adults is roughly zero.
A future post will be about balancing omega 6 to and omega 3
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