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Omega 3 is a type of fat that the human body cannot produce on its own, which is why it is called 'essential'. To understand what an Omega 3 is, we need to go over a little bit of chemistry. Fats are made from a long chain of carbon atoms, like this:
[[File:O3 - carbon chain.jpg|none|thumb|500px|A simple chain of carbon atoms]]
These carbon atoms can be joined together with a single bond or a double bond. The double bonds are important, because the they cause a bend in the chain, whereas the single bonds are straight.
[[File:O3 - Double Bond.jpg|none|thumb|500px|A double bond showing the bend]]
That means that the mix of single and double bonds creates different shaped fats and our bodies make use of these different shapes to do different things, like make hormones. If there are no double bonds, then this is called a saturated fat, a single double bond is a mono unsaturated fat, and two or more double bonds are poly unsaturated fats.