Essential Fatty Acids along the Women’s Life Cycle and Promotion of a Well-balanced Metabolism

Abstract

Abstract: Linoleic acid (ω-6 LA) and α-linolenic acid (ω-3 ALA) are essential fatty acids (EFA) for human beings. They must be incorporated through diet and then extensively metabolized, a process that plays a fundamental role in health and eventually in disease. Given the numerous changes depending on age and sex, EFA metabolic adaptations require further investigations along the women’s life cycle, from onset to decline of the reproductive age. Thus, this review explains cycle stages and their involvement in diet intake, digestion and absorption, microbiota role, metabolism, bioavailability, and EFA fate and major metabolites. This knowledge is crucial to promote lipid homeostasis according to female physiology through well directed health strategies. Concerning this, the promotion of breastfeeding, nutrition, and physical activity is cardinal to counteract ALA deficiency, LA/ALA imbalance, and the release of unhealthy derivatives. These perturbations arise after menopause that compromises both lipogenic and lipolytic pathways. The close interplay of diet, age, female organism, and microbiota also plays a central role in regulating lipid metabolism. Consequently, future studies are encouraged to propose efficient interventions for each stage of women´s cycle. In this sense, plant-derived foods and products are promising to be included in women’s nutrition to improve EFA metabolism.