NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Saturated fatty acids

Saturated fat is fat that consists of triglycerides containing only saturated fatty acids. Saturated fatty acids have no double bonds between the carbon atoms of the fatty acid chain (hence, they are fully saturated with hydrogen atoms). There are several kinds of naturally occurring saturated fatty acids, their only difference being the number of carbon atoms - from 1 to 24. Some common examples of saturated fatty acids are butyric acid with 4 carbon atoms (contained in butter), lauric acid with 12 carbon atoms (contained in breast milk, coconut oil, palm oil), myristic acid with 14 carbon atoms (contained in cow milk and dairy products), palmitic acid with 16 carbon atoms (contained in meat) and stearic acid with 18 carbon atoms (also contained in meat and cocoa butter). Fats consist of a wide group of compounds that are generally soluble in organic solvents and largely insoluble in water. ... An unsaturated fat is a fat or fatty acid in which there is one or more double bond in the fatty acid chain. ... In nutrition, monounsaturated fats are fatty acids with one double-bonded carbon in the molecule, with all of the others single-bonded carbons, in contrast to polyunsaturated fatty acids which have more than one double bond. ... An unsaturated fat is a fat or fatty acid in which there is one or more double bonds between carbon atoms of the fatty acid chain. ... A trans fatty acid (commonly shortened to trans fat) is an unsaturated fatty acid molecule that contains a trans double bond between carbon atoms, which makes the molecule less kinked compared to cis fat. Research suggests a correlation between diets high in trans fats and diseases like atherosclerosis and coronary... Omega-3 fatty acids are a family of polyunsaturated fatty acids which have in common a carbon-carbon double bond in the Ï‰-3 position. ... Omega-6 fatty acids are fatty acids where the term omega-6 signifies that the first double bond in the carbon backbone of the fatty acid, counting from the end opposite the acid group, occurs in the sixth carbon-carbon bond. ... Omega-9 fatty acids are a class of unsaturated fatty acids which have a C=C double bond in the Ï‰-9 position. ... Interesterified fats are oils (such as soybean oil) that have been chemically modified. ... In chemistry, especially biochemistry, a fatty acid is a carboxylic acid often with a long unbranched aliphatic tail (chain), which is either saturated or unsaturated. ... Essential fatty acids, or EFAs, are fatty acids that are required in the human diet. ... Image File history File links Unbalanced_scales. ... Fats consist of a wide group of compounds that are generally soluble in organic solvents and largely insoluble in water. ... It has been suggested that Medium Chain Triglycerides be merged into this article or section. ... In chemistry, saturation has four different meanings: In physical chemistry, saturation is the point at which a solution of a substance can dissolve no more of that substance and additional amounts of that substance will appear as a precipitate. ... In chemistry, especially biochemistry, a fatty acid is a carboxylic acid often with a long unbranched aliphatic tail (chain), which is either saturated or unsaturated. ... Covalent bonding is a form of chemical bonding characterized by the sharing of one or more pairs of electrons between atoms, in order to produce a mutual attraction, which holds the resultant molecule together. ... General Name, Symbol, Number carbon, C, 6 Chemical series nonmetals Group, Period, Block 14, 2, p Appearance black (graphite) colorless (diamond) Atomic mass 12. ... Atomic redirects here. ... This article is about the chemistry of hydrogen. ... Butyric acid, (from Greek Î²Î¿Ï…Ï„Ï…ÏÎ¿Ï‚ = butter) IUPAC name n-Butanoic acid, or normal butyric acid, is a carboxylic acid with structural formula CH3CH2CH2-COOH. It is notably found in rancid butter, parmesan cheese, and vomit, and has an unpleasant odor and acrid taste, with a sweetish aftertaste (similar to ether). ... Butter is commonly sold in sticks (pictured) or blocks, and frequently served with the use of a butter knife. ... Lauric acid, also known as n-dodecanoic acid and n-alkanoic acid is a fatty acid with structural formula CH3(CH2)10COOH . ... Breast milk usually refers to the milk produced by a human female which is usually fed to infants by breastfeeding. ... Coconut oil, also known as coconut butter, is a fat consisting of about 90% saturated fat, extracted from coconuts and used in cosmetics as well as baking and cooking. ... Palm oil from Ghana with its natural dark color visible, 2 litres Palm oil block Palm oil is a form of edible vegetable oil obtained from the fruit of the oil palm tree. ... Myristic acid, also called Tetradecanoic acid, is a common saturated fatty acid found in dairy products. ... A glass of cows milk A goat kid feeding on its mothers milk Milk is the nutrient fluid secreted by the mammary glands of female mammals (including monotremes). ... Palmitic acid, also called hexadecanoic acid, is one of the most common saturated fatty acids found in animals and plants. ... Mortal Kombat character, see Meat (Mortal Kombat). ... Stearic acid, also called octadecanoic acid, is one of the useful types of saturated fatty acids that comes from many animal and vegetable fats and oils. ... Mortal Kombat character, see Meat (Mortal Kombat). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Fat that occurs naturally in living matter such as animals and plants is used as food for human consumption and contains a varying proportion of saturated and unsaturated fat. Foods that contain a high proportion of saturated fat are butter, ghee, suet, tallow, lard, coconut oil, cottonseed oil and palm kernel oil, dairy products (especially cream and cheese), meat as well as some prepared foods^[1]. Biological tissue is a collection of interconnected cells that perform a similar function within an organism. ... An unsaturated fat is a fat or fatty acid in which there is one or more double bond in the fatty acid chain. ... Butter is commonly sold in sticks (pictured) or blocks, and frequently served with the use of a butter knife. ... Ghee in a jar Wikibooks Cookbook has an article on Ghee Ghee (Hindi à¤˜à¥€ from Sanskrit ghá¹›ta à¤˜à¥ƒà¤¤ sprinkled ) is a type of clarified butter important in Indian cuisine. ... Suet is raw beef or mutton fat, especially that found around the loins and kidneys. ... Tallow is rendered beef or mutton fat, processed from suet. ... A slice of bread spread with lard was a typical staple in traditional rural cuisine of many countries. ... Coconut oil, also known as coconut butter, is a fat consisting of about 90% saturated fat, extracted from coconuts and used in cosmetics as well as baking and cooking. ... Cottonseed oil is a vegetable oil extracted from the seeds of the cotton plant after the cotton lint has been removed. ... Palm oil is a form of edible vegetable oil obtained from the fruit of the Oil palm tree. ... Dairy products are generally defined as foodstuffs produced from milk. ... Cream is a dairy product that is composed of the higher-butterfat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. ... Cheese is a solid food made from the milk of cows, goats, sheep, and other mammals. ... Mortal Kombat character, see Meat (Mortal Kombat). ...

The higher saturated fats such as coconut oil and cow butter are more solid at room temperature, are more stable during cooking, and have longer shelf lives than oils such as olive oil or other liquid vegetable oils. Hydrogenation of liquid vegetable oils increases their shelf life and makes them solid at room temperature. In this they are similar but not comparable to pure, unadulterated, saturated fat. Conversely, dehydrogenation converts saturated fats to unsaturated fats. Hydrogenation is a class of chemical reactions in which the net result is an addition of hydrogen. ... Shelf-life is the length of time that corresponds to a tolerable loss in quality of a processed food. ... Hydrogenation is a chemical reaction in which unsaturated bonds between carbon atoms are reduced by attachment of a hydrogen atom to each carbon. ... An unsaturated fat is a fat or fatty acid in which there is one or more double bond in the fatty acid chain. ...

Health issues

Diets high in saturated fat correlate in some studies with an increased incidence of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease ^{[citation needed]}. Some studies suggest that replacing saturated fats in the diet with unsaturated fats will increase one's ratio of HDL to LDL serum cholesterol. In nutrition, the diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... An unsaturated fat is a fat or fatty acid in which there is one or more double bond in the fatty acid chain. ... High-density lipoproteins (HDL) form a class of lipoproteins, varying somewhat in their size (8â€“11 nm in diameter), that carry cholesterol from the bodys tissues to the liver. ... Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) is a class of lipoprotein particles that varies in size (18-25 nm in diameter) and contents (while carrying fatty acid molecules in blood and around the body). ... Cholesterol is a sterol (a combination steroid and alcohol) and a lipid found in the cell membranes of all body tissues, and transported in the blood plasma of all animals. ...

Controversy

It has been alleged that the many studies of saturated fat in the diet do not distinguish between saturated fat and trans fat.^{[citation needed]} With this bias, such studies do not isolate saturated fat as unhealthful, so saturated fat could be healthful.^{[citation needed]} Foods such as peanuts and pure peanut butter (not having added hydrogenated vegetable oils) contain saturated fat but no trans fat. Several studies have shown that a diet including regular consumption of peanuts or peanut butter can significantly lower LDL cholesterol while raising HDL levels compared to an average American diet, in turn reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease by as much as 21%.^[2] Critics of saturated fat can counter that the health benefits of these foods might stem not from their saturated fat content, but rather their high levels of mono- and polyunsaturated fat. A trans fatty acid (commonly shortened to trans fat) is an unsaturated fatty acid molecule that contains a trans double bond between carbon atoms, which makes the molecule less kinked compared to cis fat. Research suggests a correlation between diets high in trans fats and diseases like atherosclerosis and coronary... Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000 â€” the day after Schulzs death. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... In nutrition, monounsaturated fats are fatty acids with one double-bonded carbon in the molecule, with all of the others single-bonded carbons, in contrast to polyunsaturated fatty acids which have more than one double bond. ... An unsaturated fat is a fat or fatty acid in which there is one or more double bonds between carbon atoms of the fatty acid chain. ...

Studies suggesting replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats to increase the ratio of HDL to LDL serum cholesterol, have to be analysed within the concept of processed/damaged/oxidised/Trans-shaped versus naturally found/undamaged saturated fats, since saturated fat is extremely stable and easily withstands cooking/roasting heats, they resist oxidation and can be stored the longest.^{[citation needed]} An unsaturated fat is a fat or fatty acid in which there is one or more double bond in the fatty acid chain. ... High-density lipoproteins (HDL) form a class of lipoproteins, varying somewhat in their size (8â€“11 nm in diameter), that carry cholesterol from the bodys tissues to the liver. ... Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) is a class of lipoprotein particles that varies in size (18-25 nm in diameter) and contents (while carrying fatty acid molecules in blood and around the body). ... Cholesterol is a sterol (a combination steroid and alcohol) and a lipid found in the cell membranes of all body tissues, and transported in the blood plasma of all animals. ...

Other foods that contain healthy saturated fat if not hydrogenated or oxidized are peanuts and peanut butter. ^{[citation needed]} It should be noted that the fat found in all foods is a mixture of saturated, monounsaturated (olive oil), and polyunsaturated (canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil).^{[citation needed]} It's the preponderance of one type of fat that classifies that food. A bottle of olive oil. ... For the figure in Celtic mythology see agriculture, canola are certain varieties of plants from which we get rapeseed oil, or the oil produced from those varieties. ... Corn oil is oil extracted from the germ of corn. ...

Saturated fats have been reported to have nutritional benefits, according to Dr. Mary Enig, a biochemist and nutritionist on fats. Lauric acid, a medium chain fatty acid, "has antimicrobial properties and is the precursor to [1] monolaurin, the antimicrobial lipid (Enig, Mary G. Know Your Fats. p.114)." She also notes that lauric acid "gives human milk its major antimicrobial properties, and it may be a conditionally essential fatty acid since it cannot be made by mammals other than the lactating female and must be obtained from the diet (p.194)." Lauric acid, also known as n-dodecanoic acid and n-alkanoic acid is a fatty acid with structural formula CH3(CH2)10COOH . ...

There is a growing concern among nutritionists that saturated fats have been demonized in the past century.^{[citation needed]} Much of it is based on the [2] Lipid Hypothesis, which argues that saturated fats cause heart disease. There is also another issue of concern about the history behind saturated fat and trans fat. Partially and fully hydrogenated oils were actually portrayed as much healthier than the naturally occurring saturated fats. Some have claimed that "big business" played a role in negative portrayals of saturated fats. [3]

Another confounding issue may be the formation of exogenous (outside the body) advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) and oxidation products generated during cooking, which it appears some of the studies have not controlled for. It has been suggested that, "given the prominence of this type of food in the human diet, the deleterious effects of high-fat foods may be in part due to the high content in glycotoxins, above and beyond those due to oxidized fatty acid derivatives." ^[3] The glycotoxins, as he called them, are more commonly called AGEs. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Glycation#Exogenous. ...

Molecular description

Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (936x150, 3 KB) Chemical structure of myristic acid created with ChemDraw. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (936x150, 3 KB) Chemical structure of myristic acid created with ChemDraw. ... Myristic acid, also called Tetradecanoic acid, is a common saturated fatty acid found in dairy products. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1100x364, 107 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Saturated fat Myristic acid ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1100x364, 107 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Saturated fat Myristic acid ... Myristic acid, also called Tetradecanoic acid, is a common saturated fatty acid found in dairy products. ...

References

Contents

Health issues

Controversy

Molecular description

References

See also