Fat In Food

Fat in food help the human organism in many ways. They transport and help to absorb vitamins, they maintain skin and hair, insulates organs, regulates body temperature and help cell function. It also serves as energy storage, in the form of glycerol, and is vital in protecting us from poisoning and diseases.

As you understand removing fat completely from your diet is not a good idea. Actually some vital fatty acids cannot be produced by our metabolism but must be ingested. Other fats that our body need can all be produced from other compounds.

In normal language it is common to divide fat in food in two categories; solid fat called "fat", liquid fat called "oil". Scientifically they are only referred to as glycerol and fatty acids.

The fat humans can digest, because it is not all of them, is generally divided into saturated and unsaturated fats. What are they?
Saturated fat is a fatty acid where a carbon atom is bound to two hydrogen atoms to form a closed molecule. They are rigid in room temperature, an example is butter.
Unsaturated fat is when the carbon atom only is bound to one hydrogen atom and is connected to one or more other carbone atoms through double bonds. If there is only one double bond it is a mono unsaturated fat and if there are several it is a a poly unsaturated one. An example of mono is olive oil.

Trans fats are artificial saturated fats used primarily because they store well and stand high temperatures. They are considered very bad for the health since they are virtually impossible to break down by the human body, becoming responsible for many of the coronary diseases common today.

In a healthy diet you should procur to limit fat intake. The best fats are the mono unsaturated ones found in olive, peanut, canola and palm oil. Poly unsaturated fat found in corn, soy and sunflower oil is not as healthy and are slightly cancerogenic. Some fatty acids like Omega 3 have great health benefits, not to be confused with Omega 6 who have the opposite effect! Saturated fat intake should be limited.