Vitamin F Guide

Essential fatty acids, or EFAs, are fatty acids that humans and other animals must ingest for good health because the body requires them but can't make them from other food components. The term refers to fatty acids required for biological processes, and not those that only act as fuel.

There are only two EFAs: alpha-linolenic acid, an omega-3 fatty acid, and linoleic acid, an omega-6 fatty acid.[1][2][3] Some researchers consider gamma-linolenic acid (omega-6), lauric acid (saturated fatty acid), and palmitoleic acid (monosaturated fatty acid) conditionally essential.[4]

They were originally designated as Vitamin F when they were discovered as essential nutrients in 1923. In 1930, work by Burr, Burr and Miller on rats showed that they are better classified with the fats than with the vitamins.[5]...