Best Food Sources of Omega-7 (Palmitoleic Acid) Ranked

If you'd rather get your Omega-7 from food than a softgel, that's a reasonable instinct. This post covers which foods actually have it, how much, and why most people end up falling short anyway.

Macadamia nuts

Macadamia nuts have the highest concentration of palmitoleic acid of any common food, at roughly 19-20% of the total fatty acid content. That sounds like a lot until you do the math: a typical serving of macadamia nuts (about an ounce, 10-12 nuts) is mostly fat by volume, and only a fifth of that fat is the fatty acid you're after. You'd need to eat a genuinely large quantity, consistently, to approach the doses used in research.

Sea buckthorn

Sea buckthorn berry pulp oil runs considerably higher, around 32-42% palmitoleic acid, which is why it's the base for most "Omega-7" supplements on the market. As a whole food, though, sea buckthorn isn't something most people are eating regularly. It's tart, it's not widely available fresh, and most people encounter it as a supplement oil rather than a food.

Fish, particularly anchovy

Certain fish, anchovy in particular, carry Omega-7 as well. It's a smaller percentage of total fat than sea buckthorn, but it's the source behind Provinal, and there's a practical reason for that beyond the numbers: what travels alongside it matters as much as the amount.

The problem every one of these sources shares

Most food-source lists skip this part: macadamia nuts, sea buckthorn, and most fish oils all carry a meaningful amount of palmitic acid right alongside the palmitoleic acid. Palmitic acid is a common saturated fat, and it's not the fatty acid anyone is trying to get more of. So eating your way to a therapeutic dose of palmitoleic acid also means eating a proportional dose of a saturated fat you're probably already getting plenty of elsewhere.

We go deeper on exactly how that purity math works separately, but the short version is: food sources give you palmitoleic acid diluted by, and mixed in with, palmitic acid. A purification process is the only way to separate the two.

What this means practically

None of this means macadamia nuts or sea buckthorn are bad choices. Macadamia nuts are a genuinely good source of monounsaturated fat generally, and there's no harm in including them in your diet. But if your actual goal is a concentrated, saturated-fat-free dose of palmitoleic acid, closer to what's been used in the research covered in our Omega-7 benefits piece, whole foods alone won't get you there. That's the specific gap Cardia 7 is built to close, using Provinal, which is purified from marine oil specifically to concentrate palmitoleic acid and strip out the palmitic acid that naturally travels with it.

The bottom line

Macadamia nuts and sea buckthorn are the two food sources actually worth knowing about if you're curious where Omega-7 comes from naturally. But getting a meaningful, purified dose from diet alone isn't realistic for most people, which is exactly why purification exists as a category in the first place.

This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.