Food Sources Of Essential Fatty Acids

A healthy diet includes essential fatty acids, which are a type of fat that the body cannot make for itself and needed for normal bodily processes. Thus, not only are essential fatty acids not bad for you, they are very good for you. Essential fatty acids include omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, which differ by their molecular structure. These fatty acids help promote heart health and lower cholesterol and it is recommended that you eat 7 to 11 g of these essential fatty acids each week. There are several different foods that are rich in essential fatty acids.

Flaxseeds

Flaxseeds have both omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. The omega-3 fatty acid in flaxseed is alpha-linolenic acid, often abbreviated ALA. ALA in these seeds is not easily digested from whole seeds, but you can grind them in a spice or coffee grinder before eating them. You can eat both the ground seeds or the flaxseed oil or combine them with other foods in order to get a healthy amount of essential fatty acids. A 1-oz. portion of flaxseeds contains 1.8 g of essential fatty acids, and flaxseed oil contains an impressive 6.9 g per 1 tbsp.

Fatty Fish

Fish that live in cold waters have a large amount of the omega-3 type of essential fatty acids. The omega-3 fatty acids in fatty fish include docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA, and eicosapentaenoic acid, or EPA. The American Heart Association recommends that you eat two servings of fatty fish a week to get enough omega-3 essential fatty acids. Fish that are rich in essential fatty acids include trout from lakes, bluefish, mackerel, salmon, albacore tuna, and sardines. Mackerel is the best source of essential fatty acids, providing 2.2 g per 4-oz. portion. The following types of fish provide the indicated amount of fatty acids per 4-oz. serving: sardines have 1.8 g, salmon and bluefish provide 1.7 g and tuna has about 0.3 g.

Green Vegetables

The omega-3 fatty acid ALA is also found in some types of green vegetables. These vegetables include kale, spinach, collard greens, and dandelion greens. In 1/2-cup of each of these vegetables, there is about 0.1 g of essential fatty acids. These are the best sources of fatty acids among vegetables, but other types of greens do offer trace amounts of fatty acids: green and red leaf lettuce, Boston lettuce, turnip greens, beet greens and mustard greens.

Nuts

Nuts, such as walnuts, are also great sources of the essential fatty acid ALA. In a 1-oz. serving size, walnuts provide 2.6 g. Walnut oil is also available, and has 1.4 g of essential fatty acids in 1 tbsp. Additionally, pecans provide 0.3 g of essential fatty acids and pistachios have 0.1 g per 1-oz. serving. Thus, if you would like to get a good source of essential fatty acids from nuts, walnuts are your best choice.

Vegetable Oils

Certain vegetable oils are great sources of ALA. These include oils from soybeans, canola an olive oil. Per tablespoon, soybean oil has 0.9 g of essential fatty acid, canola oil has 1.3 g, and olive oil has 0.1 g. A convenient way to use these oils is to use them in place of saturated fats, such as shortening or butter, for cooking. Freshness is the most important factor in preserving the amount of essential fatty acids. Cooking does not seem to reduce the amount of fatty acids in the oil.