Most healthy adults need about 1,750 to 3,500 mg of the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA per week, which works out to roughly 250 to 500 mg per day. The simplest way to hit that target is eating two servings of fatty fish per week, a recommendation that has held steady across major health organizations for years.
That said, the right amount for you depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. General heart health, joint inflammation, mood support, and pregnancy each call for different intake levels.
The Baseline for General Health
For everyday wellness and heart health maintenance, 250 to 500 mg of combined EPA and DHA per day (roughly 1,750 to 3,500 mg per week) is the widely cited range. Two 3-ounce servings of fatty fish per week comfortably gets you there. A single serving of farmed Atlantic salmon, for instance, delivers about 1,830 mg of combined EPA and DHA, so just two salmon meals a week puts you well above the minimum.
Not all fish are created equal, though. Shrimp provides only about 240 mg per 3-ounce serving, while canned light tuna delivers roughly 190 mg. If you’re relying on leaner seafood like tilapia or cod, you’d need to eat it far more often to match what a couple servings of salmon provide.
How Much EPA and DHA Common Fish Provide
Here’s what you get from a single 3-ounce cooked serving of popular seafood options (EPA and DHA combined):
- Farmed Atlantic salmon: ~1,830 mg
- Wild Atlantic salmon: ~1,570 mg
- Atlantic herring: ~1,710 mg
- Sardines (canned): ~1,190 mg
- Atlantic mackerel: ~1,020 mg
- Rainbow trout (wild): ~840 mg
- Oysters (eastern, wild): ~670 mg
- Shrimp: ~240 mg
- Canned light tuna: ~190 mg
- Cod (Pacific): ~140 mg
Two servings of salmon, herring, or sardines per week easily covers the general health target. If you prefer milder fish like cod or shrimp, you’ll either need more servings or a supplement to fill the gap.
Higher Doses for Specific Health Goals
The 250 to 500 mg daily baseline is for people without specific health conditions. Research supports significantly higher intakes for certain goals.
Heart Health and Triglycerides
For people with elevated triglycerides, the American Heart Association has recommended 2,000 to 4,000 mg of EPA and DHA per day, which translates to 14,000 to 28,000 mg per week. At the 4,000 mg daily dose, EPA and DHA can reduce triglycerides by 30% or more. In the large REDUCE-IT trial, high-risk patients taking 4,000 mg daily of EPA (alongside a statin) saw a 25% reduction in major cardiovascular events like heart attacks and strokes. These are prescription-level doses, not something to start on your own.
Joint Inflammation
For rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory joint conditions, the evidence points to a threshold of at least 2,700 mg of EPA and DHA per day (about 19,000 mg per week). Below that level, anti-inflammatory effects tend to be minimal. Even at the effective dose, benefits are delayed, typically taking two to three months of consistent intake before symptoms noticeably improve.
Mood and Cognitive Health
Studies on depression and mild cognitive impairment in older adults have used daily doses in the range of 1,500 to 1,800 mg of either EPA or DHA. In a six-month trial of adults over 65 with mild cognitive impairment, both EPA-rich and DHA-rich supplements (around 1,670 mg and 1,550 mg per day, respectively) improved depression scores compared to a placebo oil. The DHA group also showed better verbal fluency. These doses are well above what two fish meals a week provide, so supplementation was necessary to reach them.
Pregnancy and Breastfeeding
Pregnant and breastfeeding women need at least 200 mg of DHA per day (1,400 mg per week), with many guidelines recommending more. DHA is critical for fetal brain and eye development. In one study, breastfeeding women who took 200 mg of DHA daily for four months had infants who scored significantly higher on motor development assessments at 30 months. Most prenatal supplements contain DHA, but check the label to confirm yours provides at least 200 mg.
What About Plant-Based Omega-3s?
Flaxseed, chia seeds, walnuts, and hemp seeds are rich in ALA, a plant-based omega-3 that your body must convert into EPA and DHA before it can use it for the functions most people care about. That conversion is very inefficient: roughly 6% of ALA becomes EPA and only about 3.8% becomes DHA when you eat a typical diet. If your diet is high in omega-6 fats (common in vegetable oils and processed foods), conversion drops by another 40 to 50%.
In practical terms, a tablespoon of flaxseed oil contains about 7,000 mg of ALA, but your body may only convert around 420 mg to EPA and 265 mg to DHA under the best conditions. That’s workable for hitting the general health minimum, but getting to higher therapeutic doses from plant sources alone is essentially impossible. If you eat little or no seafood, an algae-based EPA/DHA supplement is the most reliable alternative, since algae is where fish get their omega-3s in the first place.
Safety and Upper Limits
The European Food Safety Authority has concluded that supplemental EPA and DHA up to 5,000 mg per day (35,000 mg per week) raises no safety concerns for adults. At that level, there’s no meaningful increase in bleeding risk, blood sugar problems, or immune suppression based on available evidence.
That said, very high doses of purified EPA do carry a modest increase in bleeding risk. A meta-analysis of randomized trials found that each additional gram of daily EPA was associated with a small but statistically significant rise in bleeding events, though the absolute increase was only about 0.6%. Notably, this bleeding risk was not linked to gastrointestinal bleeding specifically, and it was not made worse by concurrent use of blood-thinning medications in the studies analyzed.
Common side effects at higher supplement doses are mostly digestive: fishy burps, mild nausea, or loose stools. Taking supplements with meals and starting at a lower dose usually helps.
Putting Your Weekly Target Together
For most people aiming at general health, the math is straightforward. Two servings of fatty fish per week gives you somewhere between 2,000 and 3,600 mg of EPA and DHA total, depending on the fish. That comfortably covers the standard recommendation. If you eat fish only once a week, or prefer lean varieties, a daily supplement providing 250 to 500 mg of combined EPA and DHA fills the gap.
If you’re targeting a specific condition like high triglycerides, joint pain, or mood support, the effective doses are considerably higher, generally 1,500 to 4,000 mg per day. At those levels, supplementation is practically necessary because you’d need to eat fatty fish at nearly every meal to keep up. These higher doses are worth discussing with a healthcare provider, especially if you take blood thinners or other medications.