Summary of Fats
Fats are comprised of fatty acids bound, in bundles of three, to glycerol.
- Fatty acids are either saturated, monounsaturated or polyunsaturated.
- Fats contains mixtures of all three types of fatty acids; the balance of the mix determines whether the fat is generally saturated (hard) or polyunsaturated (soft).
- Fats are insoluble in water and require special treatment for digestion and transport.
- In digestion, bile acids act as detergents to solubilize fats to aids digestion.
- In transport, the fatty material is surrounded by a coat of protein plus phospholipid. The full particle is a lipoprotein.
- The liver can convert carbohydrate to fat, which is exported from the liver as a lipoprotein.
- Certain polyunsaturated fatty acids are nutritionally essentially because:
1. They are the precursors of the vitality important regulators of metabolism, the prostaglandins
2. The body cannot make them from either carbohydrate or existing dietary fatty acids.
Summary of Fats