Saturated And Non Saturated Fats

Am sure you will be wondering “what a topic”! Anyway, to get to it: fats have seen a nice surge in popularity over the past few years. After being vilified in the 80s and 90s as the cause of weight gain (fat makes you fat!), fat caught a break when the blame shifted to carbohydrates.

Following that, the trend towards healthy fats and omega-3s (which, if I recall, began with flax oil) started in full, and fat started to get some respect.

Still, some of the old hate remains. For a lot of people, fat is not generally thought of as a nice word, especially if one is trying to drop some extra pounds.

However, your body needs fat to function properly, just as it needs protein. In fact perform a variety of specific and necessary jobs.But, I’m getting a bit ahead of myself.  First and foremost, we should get an overview of what we’re even talking about.

What Is Fat?

“Fat” is a catch all term for a substance which consists of a heterogenous collection of chemically related substances, the fundamental unit of which is the fatty acid.

Without getting too bogged down in chemistry, a fatty acid is made up of a long chain of carbon atoms on which hydrogen atoms are attached. At one end of the chain is an acid group. There is a lot of potential variation in structure of acids, and that results in a large set of distinct “types” of fats that behave quite differently in the body, but still fall under the term fatty acid.

First, I’ll go into what makes each type different from the rest, and what comprises the distinctions. After that, we’ll discuss them each briefly.

The major distinction among fatty acids is the degree of saturation. Saturation refers to the amount of hydrogen atoms that are attached to the carbon chain. If all the available space is occupied, the fatty acid is called a saturated fatty acid. If less than the maximum amount is found, then the fatty acid is unsaturated.

Unsaturated fatty acids result from a chemical structure called a double bond. One double bond in the fatty acid  results in what is called a “monounsaturated fatty acid”; not surprisingly, if there is more than one bond, we refer to it as a polyunsaturated fatty acid. This is important because of the way saturation affects the fat, which will in turn determine (to some degree) how that fat will react in our bodies.

One of the most important things to consider is that the degree of saturation influences the melting point of the fatty acid, which we’ll touch on in each section.

But, before we get there, we should touch on why fat is so important.

Fat: What It Does

Firstly, on a chemical level, fatty acids are an integral component of the plasma membrane of every cell in the body. The composition of the cell membrane in terms of the fatty acids that make up the membrane are known to affect the quality and degree of signaling across the membrane—which is crucial since cellular responses to hormones, uptake of nutrients, and discharge of waste all require activity at the membrane.

Fat has several other functions that are necessary for optimal health. Fat plays an important role in helping to form the barrier to water in the skin. Fat is also a critical component of nerves which are coated with fat. This coating serves to speed up conduction down the nerve.

A final function of fat is to serve as the substrate for a whole set of hormones known as eicosanoids. Although less well known than some hormones that I’ve written about, eicosanoids are essential for numerous functions that regulate things like blood pressure, inflammation, blood clotting, and labour. In fact, a pregnant, fat-deficient animal cannot go into labour.

Thus, fat has a place in our diets and a major role to play in basic physiology.

Now, from a nutritional standpoint, it may seem somewhat silly to spend so much time talking about fat, when you consider that our bodies can actually manufacture fat as needed. However, the problem is that not all the necessary fats can be produced.

Now, let’s breakdown the various types of fats, so that you know what’s what.

Different Types Of Fats

Monounsaturated fats are found mostly high fat fruits, such as avocados, as well as nuts like  almonds, walnuts, and cashews. This type of fat can also be found in olive oil.

Monounsaturated fats help lower bad cholesterol and raise good cholesterol, which is a very good thing. It’s also been proven to help fight weight gain, and may even help reduce body fat levels. Monounsaturated fats are typically liquid, particularly at room temperature, but will become cloudy when placed in the refrigerator.

Like monounsaturated fat, polyunsaturated fat helps fight bad cholesterol. You can find polyunsaturated fats in foods like salmon, fish oil, sunflower oil, seeds and soy.Polyunsaturated fats contain Omga-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids, which have largely been processed out of our food.Yes, I’m about to go on the Good Fats Rant. I know this is rehashing a lot of what you’ve heard, but if I didn’t cover it I wouldn’t be doing my job—so bear with me.

As you probably know, there is a subset of dietary fatty acids, specifically linoleic acid (known as omega-6) and linolenic acid (known as omega-3)—you have probably heard these referred to as “good fats” or even “fat-burning fats.”  And of course to an extent, that is true. More importantly, you’ve heard them referred to as Essential Fatty Acids, or EFAs—which means it’s necessary  to either consume them in food or through supplementation.  The reason is that these CANNOT be manufactured by out bodies, and so it becomes essential to ingest them.  Makes sense, right?

More importantly, you’ve heard them referred to as Essential Fatty Acids, or EFAs—which means it’s necessary to either consume them in food or through supplementation.  The reason is that these CANNOT be manufactured by out bodies, and so it becomes essential to ingest them.  Makes sense, right?

Put another way, these two types of polyunsaturated fatty acids that our bodies cannot manufacture are not interconvertible with one another.  And so, the important thing to remember is that “good fats” (especially sources high in Omega-3s, like fish oil) are needed by your body to remain healthy and to function at optimal levels.  Since these cannot be manufactured, you’ve got to consume the right foods or supplement with the right stuff.

—To Be Continued

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