The fats or lipids

Fats, also called lipids (from the Greek lipos = fat) are a heterogeneous group of substances that have in common a low degree of solubility in water. Instead they are soluble in organic solvents such as benzene, ether or chloroform.

Insights

Fats and healthFats digestionFat absorptionDigestion and fat absorptionFat needsFats functionsTropical oils and fatsLipids: functions and health effectsFat-burning supplementsNON hydrogenated vegetable fatsPhospholipidsEssential fatty acidsSemi-essential fatty acidsEssential fatty acids in food

Fats are made up of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen like carbohydrates, but the ratio of hydrogen to oxygen is much higher. This feature makes them more energetic than carbohydrates in absolute terms but reduces their energy yield for the same amount of oxygen consumed.

They are found mainly in foods of animal origin (fats) but are also abundantly present in the vegetable kingdom (oils).

Oils and fats are very similar chemically but, while the former are liquid at room temperature, the latter are solid.

There are more than 500 types of fats, classified according to their molecular structure into simple, compound and derivative:

SIMPLE LIPIDS: they are the most abundant in our body (about 95%) and in our diet (about 98% of the lipids present in food are ingested in this form). They represent the main form of storage and use. Among the best known are waxes and triglycerides.

COMPOUND LIPIDS: are triglycerides combined with other chemicals such as phosphorus, nitrogen and sulfur. They represent about 10% of our body's fats. Among the best known are phospholipids, glycolipids and lipoproteins.

LIPIDS DERIVATIVES: derive from the transformation of simple or compound lipids. The most important is cholesterol, but we also remember vitamin D, steroid hormones, palmitic, oleic and linoleic acid.

Triglycerides derive from the union of a glycerol molecule with three fatty acids in turn formed by hydrocarbon chains ranging from a minimum of 4 to a maximum of 20 carbon atoms. Fatty acids can be saturated or unsaturated:

CLASSIFICATION OF FATTY ACIDS

FATTY ACIDS

SATURATED

they are devoid of double bonds and therefore have the maximum number of hydrogen atoms. They are found mainly in products of animal origin (eggs, milk and derivatives) but also in foods of plant origin (coconut and palm oil)

FATTY ACIDS

UNSATURATED

they contain one (mono) or more (poly) double bonds between carbon and hydrogen atoms

FATTY ACIDS
MONOUNSATURATED

contain double bonds between the carbon atoms that compose them. They are mainly present in olive oil and dried fruit

FATTY ACIDS

POLYUNSATURED

contain more than two bonds between carbon atoms, are contained in fish, nuts, sunflower oil, corn and some plant extracts

FATTY ACIDS

ESSENTIALS (AGE)

They cannot be synthesized by the human body; they are the precursors of prostaglandins, thromboxanes and leukotrienes, substances that intervene in the immune system, in the inflammatory response and influence the cardiovascular system

FATTY ACIDS

HYDROGENATES

normally fatty acids of vegetable origin are liquid at room temperature. They can be made solid by the hydrogenation process which alters their chemical structure making them particularly harmful to our health. In this way the so-called trans or hydrogenated fatty acids are obtained

Triglycerides represent the storage form of fatty acids, a bit like glycogen and glucose. During the energy processes our body in fact breaks down the bond between glycerol and fatty acids, conveying them in two completely different metabolic pathways.

While glycerol is used to produce glucose, free fatty acids are transported into the bloodstream in association with albumin, a plasma protein that transports them to the muscles where they constitute the energy substrate for oxidative processes.