Question: essential fatty acids can be used by the body to synthesize?
Answer: Humans can synthesize longer omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids from the essential fatty acids linoleic acid (LA) and α-linolenic acid (ALA), respectively, through a series of desaturation (addition of a double bond between two carbon atoms) and elongation (addition of two carbon atoms) reactions (Figure 3) (4, 5).