Like vitamins, EFAs are essential to health. Older literature, in fact, refers to them as vitamin F. Vitamins and EFAs are essential because: We must have them to live and to be healthy.
Our bodies cannot make them from other substances.
We must obtain an adequate supply from external sources—from food or from supplements.
Deficiency results in gradual deterioration of cells and tissues, and ultimately, in death.
Increasing the intake to adequate levels reverses the signs brought about by deficiency.
This definition of essentiality reflects the fact that essential nutrients perform key functions in our cells and tissues that the body cannot live without. EFAs play their essential roles by: Helping to form the membrane barrier that surrounds our cells and intracellular factories (organelles).
Determining fluidity and chemical reactivity of membranes.
Increasing oxidation rate, metabolic rate, and energy levels.
Serving as starting material for hormone-like regulating molecules (prostaglandins) that govern cell activities on a moment-to-moment basis.
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