I want to back up a quote I used in this comment to Melinda. Melinda posted a link to an article that said most Americans aren’t getting enough omega-3. The National Institutes of Health say Americans are getting enough omega-3.

From National Institutes of Health, Omega-3 Fatty Acids. (Omega-3 fatty acids are essential fatty acids meaning the human body can’t make them, they have to be obtained from the diet.):

Classical essential fatty acid deficiency in healthy individuals in the United States is virtually nonexistent [5]. During periods of dietary-fat restriction or malabsorption accompanied by an energy deficit, the body releases essential fatty acids from adipose-tissue reserves. For this reason, clinical signs of essential–fatty-acid deficiency are usually only found in patients receiving parenteral nutrition that lacks PUFAs. This was documented in case reports during the 1970s and 1980s [5], but all current enteral and parenteral feeding solutions contain adequate levels of PUFAs.

That reference number 5 is:

Institute of Medicine, Food and Nutrition Board. Dietary reference intakes for energy, carbohydrate, fiber, fat, fatty acids, cholesterol, protein, and amino acids (macronutrients). Washington, DC: National Academy Press; 2005.

Which says on page 470:

“… a deficiency [of omega-3 fatty acids] is basically nonexistant in noninstitutionalized populations (Appendix Table E-11).”