What is EPA and DHA please and what is the difference?

Hi Karen

EPA (eicosapentanoic acid - I think that's the right spelling) and DHA (docosahexanoic acid - again, spelling?) are the long-chain essential fatty acids that the body must get in the diet or make from omega-3 fats found in plants and seeds. If we don't get these in the diet, we become ill and eventually die.

Most people are deficient in these fats because the animals we eat are fed crappy sources of fat and no longer eat what they have become accustomed to over centuries of evolution and most people don't eat much flax, chia and canola oil.

Here's the explanation that puts it all into perspective so you'll actually understand "essential fats"...

You see, when fish and animals eat seaweed and grass (and seeds), which contain alpha linoleic acid (ALA - which is an essential, omega-3 fatty acid) it is converted in the body into the "animal forms" of these fats - EPA and DHA - the form that both animals and humans need to fulfil essential functions in the body.

Humans can eat these vegetable/seed sources also but the human body only converts ALA to EPA and DHA to a small degree. That's why eating fish and/or fish oil supplements are a far more efficient way to get the EPA and DHA because it is already in the form in which our body needs it.

Two things to consider are: 1) try to eat wild and not farmed fish as farmed fish don't eat as much of the seaweed that they were genetically designed to and so have lower EPA and DHA content. and 2) you can eat "grass-fed" beef. When cows are fed mostly grass (like they're meat to) they product quite a bit of EPA and DHA also...unfortunately, grass fed is really expensive, so you may be best off eating fatty fish or fish oil capsules.

Thankyou Mark, very informative. It can be hard and expensive to buy wild fish but I will ensure to look for it.

Many thanks