I have read a lot about the importance of getting essential fats. Flax and fish oil in particular. WHY? I understand the heart health of fish oil but I don't get why its so important to make sure these things are in daily diets if you aleady have plenty of other fats like olive oil, almonds, natty butter (in moderation). What does flax really do? just wondering...

http://goodfats.pamrotella.com/

Okay that was a great site but I'm still not clear on how much of what a typical exercising adult female might need. Somebody tell me plain and simple how much of what I need to supplement with, and where to find it. thanks

How much you supplement depends on what you eat. If you already eat lots of salmon, for example, you won't need as much or nothing in omega 3 supplements.
Mix a tablespoon of flaxseed meal into something, it's good for you.

It does depend on your diet, however to give you as detailed as possible of an answer lets look at it like this.

Lets say your ratio of fat intake is 30% of your diet. Really shouldn't be higher then that.

Lets look at our fat sources (average things people eating a clean diet get fat from)

Lean meats
Nuts
Dairy
Eggs
Fish
olive oil
then random stuff like avacodos and such.

So lets say you are shooting for 30% fat. In this scenerio we will say you need 50 grams of fat. That is 450 calories in a day from fat.
Lets say that nuts, meats, dairy and oil take up 40 grams of your fat. Well then you can get your fish oil/flax seed (i would choose fish oil myself) to make up the rest of those ten grams.

See what I am saying, it all depends on your days diet. Now I eat alot of omega added products like my peanut butter, whole eggs, bread and cooking oil and butter. I use alot of smart balance products. So I only need an extra 4-5 grams a day from fish oil and I usually just throw it in my daily shake. I use the actual oil, I keep it in the fridge and just measure out the small amount I need. If I have a day where I didn't get alot of fat from other things then I use more.

So determine where you need it in your diet. If you are not getting any omega, I think 5-15 grams of omega fats is a good amount to get for someone i your calories range. Because you want to make sure you have enough room for getting your fat from actual food sources as well. Remember its a suppliment, and a great one, but doesn't beat out the real thing. Eating alot of fish is even better

but isn't fish and fish oil a non essential omega 3? I thought flax was important because it is ALA and part of essential omega 3's and something the body can't manufature on its own, just as linoleic acid is (omega 6). How important is it to hit all the omegas (3,6, and 9?) am I making a way bigger stink over this than I need too? I just thought you had to have both fatty acids covered and flax covers essential omega 3 and things like sunflower seeds or safflower oil (and other nuts) cover essential omega 6. but I'm totally new to this topic so maybe I dont' know.

hmm. did you read the webpage bipennate posted? it answers your questions!

there's no such thing as an non-essential omega 3. as stated in the article:

in order words, omega 3 and omega 6 are essential!

how important are they? again, this is referred to in the article. it's important to get enough of them and in the right balance, for reasons stated in the article.

how much do you need? guess what? this is also stated in the article...