Grant: Project Grant

While omega-3 fatty acids are an essential part of the diet one omega-3, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), is very controversial. DHA has been called nutritionally essential, non-essential and everything in between. We believe that a major reason for this controversy is a lack of objective measures to understand DHA status. We have recently discovered that when feeding DHA to animals or humans there is a "backlog" in some of the precursor molecules that can be used to synthesise DHA. This "backlog" is essentially a negative feedback system telling the body to stop making DHA because there is enough. Thus, we aim to test, in people who do not eat DHA (certain vegetarians and vegans) when DHA causes this backlog. We will then test if other omega-3 fats can contribute to the DHA requirement. This work would resolve a more than 30-year old debate and could be used to start setting worldwide requirements for DHA, possibly affecting the health of billions.