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Essential Fatty Acids

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Nutrition and Health in a Developing World

Part of the book series: Nutrition and Health ((NH))

Abstract

The purpose of this review is to highlight the role of essential fatty acids in diverse biologic processes and metabolic pathways that are relevant to both health and disease, throughout life; to describe the effect of essential fatty acids on pregnancy outcome, growth, and neurological development in infancy and early childhood and to review studies linking essential fatty acids to different chronic diseases in adults. Dietary sources of essential polyunsaturated fatty acids, their conversion to other n-3 and n-6 fatty acids, their amount in breast milk, availability in infant nutrition and specific needs of these fatty acids in developing countries, are addressed. Recommended essential fatty acid requirements during pregnancy, infancy, and childhood and in undernourished or less privileged populations are detailed, with an emphasis on nutritional interventions that may impact essential fatty acid status.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, Kaplan Medical Center, Rehovot, Hebrew University—Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel

    Esther Granot

  2. Institute of Human Nutrition, Departments of Pediatrics and Epidemiology, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, USA

    Richard J. Deckelbaum

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  1. Esther Granot
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Correspondence to Esther Granot .

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  1. World Food Programme , Rome, Italy

    Saskia de Pee

  2. School of Public Health, University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman, Tucson, Arizona, USA

    Douglas Taren

  3. World Food Programme, Nutrition Division , Rome, Italy

    Martin W. Bloem

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Granot, E., Deckelbaum, R.J. (2017). Essential Fatty Acids. In: de Pee, S., Taren, D., Bloem, M. (eds) Nutrition and Health in a Developing World . Nutrition and Health. Humana Press, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43739-2_14

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