Published 23rd June 2025
Omega-7 fatty acids: What are they, and do you need supplements?
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You’ve likely heard of omega-3s, the essential fatty acids found in oily fish. And you might have heard of omega-6s, another form of essential fatty acids famously found in seed oils.
But have you heard of their lesser-known cousins, omega-7s? Recently, there’s been an uptick in interest in these fatty acids, thanks to supplement manufacturers.
So, what are they, and should you be taking supplements? If you’d like answers to these questions, you’re in the right place.
We don't buy the hype — and neither should you
Our new app reveals what the food labels won't, using data from the world's largest nutrition study run by ZOE. (Only available in the US)
What are omega-7 fatty acids?
Unlike omegas 3 and 6, omega-7s are not essential. This means that, although your body does need them, it can create them itself.
The two most common dietary omega-7s are:
Palmitoleic acid: Found in animal fats (including human fat), vegetable oils, marine oils, macadamia nuts, and sea buckthorn.
Vaccenic acid: Found in red meat and dairy.
Omega-7s are found in particularly high levels in fatty tissue and your liver, but they’re present throughout your body.
Because omega-7s are non-essential, and because they make up only a tiny part of our diet, they’ve received relatively little scientific attention compared with omegas 3 and 6.
Do you need more omega-7?
Although your body can make omega-7s, it’s possible that some people have lower levels than they need.
But scientists don’t know what the optimal levels are, so there’s no way to know currently.
Additionally, we don’t know whether high levels of omega-7s might be bad for health in some way: More of something healthy isn’t always more healthy. For instance, you need vitamin A, but if you have too much, it will make you sick.
While omega-7 supplements are generally considered safe, experts don’t know whether they will help or hinder you. As we will see, the research to date is a mixed bag when it comes to health effects.
As we mentioned, there hasn’t been much research into omega-7s and health, especially in humans. However, some of the studies are worth examining, as they provide a fascinating glimpse into the complexity of metabolism.
Omega-7 and inflammation
Some supplement manufacturers claim that omega-7 supplements might reduce inflammation, but there’s little evidence to back this up.
One lab study on human cells concluded that omega-7 might reduce signs of skin aging by tackling inflammation and helping maintain collagen levels. But this study only used skin cells, so we don’t know how it would work in the real world.
Another study recruited 50 people with chronic musculoskeletal discomfort. For 3 weeks, participants received either a placebo or an omega-7 supplement (a form of palmitoleic acid).
When the researchers compared inflammation at the start and end of the study, there was no significant difference.
Another small study, this time including people with ulcerative colitis, a form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), also focused on inflammation. Compared with placebo, taking palmitoleic supplements was associated with reduced markers of inflammation.
However, the study only involved 20 people, and we can’t presume the results would also apply to people without IBD.
Burn grafts and wound healing
There’s some evidence that omega-7s, when used in a topical cream, might support wound healing, although this evidence mostly comes from animal studies.
When someone has a serious burn, they sometimes need a skin graft. In some cases, they can take a long time to heal.
In a study on sheep, a group of researchers investigated whether rubbing omega-7s on the wound might help speed things along.
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The scientists found that the wounds and grafts did heal faster when they applied 5% omega-7 cream for 2 weeks compared with salt solution.
A study in rats also concluded that applying palmitoleic acid cream to wounds sped up healing by reducing inflammation.
The results of these studies are encouraging, but there doesn’t seem to have been any research in humans yet.
Omega-7s and diabetes: A complex relationship?
Type 2 diabetes impacts how your body handles glucose, but it also causes disruptions to fatty acid metabolism.
Little is known about the role of omega-7 fatty acids in this condition, but some research does suggest a link.
One study from 2010 found that higher levels of vaccenic acid were associated with a reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes, whereas increased palmitoleic acid was linked to the reverse: a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
A 2020 study revisited this relationship, but also asked how ethnic background might influence the results. The study involved more than 5,000 people.
After adjusting for factors that can influence diabetes risk, the scientists found that higher levels of vaccenic acid were associated with a reduced likelihood of insulin resistance — this is where an individual’s cells don’t respond properly to insulin; it can be an early sign of diabetes.
As with the previous study, the scientists also noted that higher levels of vaccenic acid were associated with a reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes during the study. Interestingly, the size of the effect varied depending on ethnic background:
Black people had a 17% reduced risk.
Hispanic people had a 32% reduced risk.
Chinese American people had a 39% reduced risk.
However, they didn’t identify a significant change in risk for white people.
Again, when the authors looked at palmitoleic acid, it was a different story: Higher levels were associated with worse insulin resistance in Black and Hispanic people. And it was associated with a 21% greater risk of incident type 2 diabetes in Black people.
So, it seems there may be relationships between omega-7s and type 2 diabetes, but it’s not clear-cut.
We don't buy the hype — and neither should you
Our new app reveals what the food labels won't, using data from the world's largest nutrition study run by ZOE. (Only available in the US)
So, do you need supplements?
As we’ve seen, the role of omega-7s is likely complex and sometimes contradictory: Palmitoleic acid, for instance, is associated with increased type 2 diabetes incidence, but may also have anti-inflammatory properties.
Also, whether these relationships are causal is not 100% clear: It might be that having higher levels of vaccenic acid reduces your risk of type 2 diabetes.
Or, it might be that metabolic changes associated with type 2 diabetes lower your levels of vaccenic acid as a side effect.
So, there’s no clear advantage (or disadvantage) to upping your intake.
In the Western diet, most people have low or very low intakes of omega-7s. But as we mentioned, your body can make them itself — particularly in fatty tissue and the liver — so dietary intake is only one part of the puzzle.
In fact, despite low intakes, palmitoleic acid is one of the most common fatty acids in blood and fatty tissue. This implies that dietary intake is not the most important factor when it comes to omega-7 levels.
To make matters more complex, enzymes in your body convert vaccinic acid to palmitoleic acid. So, if you were to take supplements of the former, it might increase levels of the latter.
Additionally, there’s evidence that other nutrients in your diet can influence levels of omega-7s in your tissues.
For instance, consuming more protein or carbs can increase levels of the enzyme that creates palmitoleic acid, as can increased intakes of saturated fats. Meanwhile, animal studies show that vitamin E and selenium supplements reduce levels of palmitoleic acid in obese rats.
These examples show that taking supplements of these fatty acids may have different effects than expected, and that the rest of your diet likely has sizable effects on your levels.
Before we wrap up, we’ll cover just one more study to make the point that the jury is still out when it comes to omega-7s’ links to health:
Omega-7s and all-cause mortality
One study involved data from 864 participants, who they followed up for 9.3 years. The scientists investigated links between blood levels of omega-7 fatty acids and all-cause mortality (death from any cause).
The scientists found that higher levels of vaccenic acid and palmitoleic acid were associated with an increased risk of dying during the study’s follow-up.
Now, this is just one study, and there were only 33 deaths, which makes the findings less reliable. Still, it shows that there are outstanding questions when it comes to omega-7s and health.
What does it all mean?
As it stands, scientists don’t fully understand the metabolic roles of omega-7s, and it’s clear that levels of these fatty acids depend on many factors. So, whether supplements will be beneficial or not is unclear.
At ZOE, we know that it’s always best to get your nutrients from food where possible. If you follow a well-balanced, diverse, plant-based diet, you’ll get all of the nutrients you need to stay healthy.
The supplement industry is huge, and nowhere near as tightly regulated as the pharmaceutical industry.
Because of this long-standing loophole, many of their claims don’t stack up against the evidence.
Omega-7s are a good example of this. Although we’ve only scratched the surface of the science, it’s clear that any potential benefits are only theoretical, and we still have little idea whether supplements will do anything at all.
If you do want to up your intake of omega-7s, add an occasional handful of macadamia nuts to your diet. They’re delicious and, like other nuts and seeds, contain a wide range of beneficial nutrients.
Also, oily fish are an important component of a healthy diet due to their omega-3 content. They’re also rich in omega-7s.
Taken together, there’s no point wasting your money on omega-7 supplements just yet. Maybe, eventually, evidence will mount that they can support health. But as it stands, the evidence is simply not there.
