What is Omega-3?

Omega-3 and Omega-6 Long Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids

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Both the Omega-6 and Omega-3 fatty acids belong to a group of polyunsaturated fats called 'essential' because they are necessary to life and to health yet we cannot make them in the body - they must be obtained from diet. They cannot be inter-converted and both must be present in the diet in a proper balance for good health.

Their differences lie in their chemical structure and their roles in the body.

As polyunsaturated fatty acids, both the Omega-6 and the Omega-3 families have more than one double bond in the carbon chain. All fatty acids in the Omega-6 family contain their first double bond between the 6th and7th carbon atoms (counted from the methyl (CH3) terminal carbon atom and the Omega-3 family of fatty acids have their first double bond between the 3rd and 4th carbon atom.