Arachidonic acid as a potentially critical nutrient for vegetarians and vegans – position paper of the Research Institute for Plant-based Nutrition (IFPE)

(2025) 24:244 Weder et al. Lipids in Health and Disease https://doi.org/10.1186/s12944-025-02645-z Lipids in Health and Disease Open Access REVIEW Arachidonic acid as a potentially critical nutrient for vegetarians and vegans – position paper of the Research Institute for Plant‑based Nutrition (IFPE) Stine Weder1 , Sandra Müller1 , Christine Dawczynski2*   and Markus Keller1    Abstract The long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid arachidonic acid (ARA, 20:4n-6) is virtually non-existent in plant foods. Concerns have therefore been raised that a predominantly plant-based diet, i.e., a vegetarian or vegan diet, could lead to ARA deficiency. ARA is discussed as conditionally essential, particularly in early infancy and childhood. Therefore, the authors of this position paper provide an overview of the state of scientific research on ARA for Western countries, with a special focus on risk groups, e.g., pregnant and breastfeeding women, infants, and children. We discuss whether ARA is potentially essential in critical life stages and whether a plant-based diet is appropriate in relation to ARA. Preliminary recommendations are derived on the basis of the available literature: healthy adults and pregnant and lactating women are able to synthetize ARA from linoleic acid (LA, 18:2n-6) and, therefore, do not require ARA supplementation, even with plant-based diets. Owing to the importance of ARA in early childhood, infants should be breastfed or given ARA-containing formula. According to current data, it can be assumed that infants, children, and adolescents are also capable of producing sufficient amounts of ARA regardless of their diet. However, these data are sparse. Furthermore, owing to the lack of reference ranges, there are no suitable test methods for diagnosing deficiency. All in all, owing to insufficient data, these recommendations are preliminary, and further studies with risk groups are urgently needed. Keywords Arachidonic acid, LC-PUFAs, Vegetarian, Vegan, N-6 fatty acid, Pregnancy, Breastfeeding, Infancy, Childhood Introduction Arachidonic acid (ARA, 20:4n−6) is an n-6 20-carbon fatty acid (FA) and is a long-chain polyunsaturated FA (LC-PUFA). The prevailing view is that the human body can synthetize ARA in sufficient quantities by itself. *Correspondence: Christine Dawczynski 1 Research Institute for Plant-Based Nutrition (IFPE), Biebertal 35444, Germany 2 Junior Research Group Nutritional Concepts, Institute of Nutritional Sciences, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena 07743, Germany Recently, however, ARA has been considered (semi) essential, especially in infants and possibly in plant-based diets [1–4]. ARA is found mainly in animal foods, leading to the assumption that vegans consume no ARA and that vegetarians consume less ARA than omnivores do. Furthermore, the body can synthesize ARA from the essential FA linoleic acid (LA, 18:2n−6). However, there are phases in life, such as early childhood, when this biosynthesis may not be sufficient. In addition, genetic factors have an inhibitory influence on ARA synthesis and can be associated with lower ARA levels. As ARA is considered essential in early childhood, the question has recently arisen in the (scientific) discussion, whether a © The Author(s) 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Weder et al. Lipids in Health and Disease (2025) 24:244 plant-based diet, particularly a vegan diet, is sufficient to cover the physiological requirements for ARA [1, 5]? Therefore, this position paper aims to a) present the current state of research regarding the intake and status of vegetarians and vegans with ARA, with a particular focus on critical phases of life around early childhood (pregnancy, breastfeeding, infancy) as well as childhood and adolescence. b) derive preliminary/initial recommendations for dietary and/or supplemental intake of ARA for vegetarians and vegans. Methods Biosynthesis, metabolism, and physiological functions in the human body PubMed and Cochrane were searched for studies published up to the 12th of March 2025. We used keywords in search strings containing different terms for arachidonic acid (20:4n-6 OR long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids OR PUFA OR 20:4omega6 OR or fatty acids) in combination with vegetarian diets (vegan OR vegetarian OR plant-based) and terms for risk groups (breastfeeding OR lactating OR breast milk OR pregnant OR children OR infant OR toddler OR adolescent). We then searched the reference lists of the studies found for further studies. In addition, statements regarding ARA from medical professional and nutritional societies were screened. We found 166 records with humans that were available in English or German. After the elimination of duplicates, reviews, and study protocols, as well as records focusing on diseases, we focused on studies with people in Western societies. We defined Western societies or Western diets according to Clemente-Suárez et al. (2023) as a diet that is “a modern dietary pattern that is characterized by high intakes of processed and refined foods, red and processed meats, added sugars, and saturated and trans fats and low intakes of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and nuts” [6], which predominates in Western societies like Europe, North America, and Oceania, in contrast to more traditional, i.e. unprocessed, diets practiced e.g. in Asia or Africa [6, 7]. According to Clemente-Suárez et al. the “Western diet countries” include “Iceland, Switzerland, the United States, Australia, Sweden, Hungary, France, Austria, Germany, Denmark, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Finland, and New Zealand”, a definition based on a calculation based on official FAO data [6]. We excluded studies from non-Western countries because the respective populations not only differ from non-Western societies in their dietary habits, but also genetically. Moreover, studies without data on Page 2 of 25 ARA, or vegetarian/vegan participants or without control group as well as intervention studies were excluded. We finally identified 27 studies reporting the ARA intake and/or ARA status of vegetarian/vegan adults. Another three studies inc (...truncated)