What is fat
Fat is on of the building blocks of the body, fat can’t be excluded from general teen nutrition (or grownup). Fat is a mortal necessarity in the right quantities, and not in to high doses at where it becomes lethal.
Talking about fat, cholesterol and trans fatty acids are words that spring into mind
The structure of cholesterol
Bio chemically speaking, fat is three molecular structures, triglycerides, phospholipids and sterols.
Triglycerides: Consist of one glycerol molecule and three fatty acids. The glycerol is the “head” of the molecule and the three fatty acids hang from the head, kind of like an octopus with only three arms. Every fatty acid can have different length and properties. The triglycerids are the fat that we all fear, this is the one found in plants (oil) animals (fat/butter) and around the waist on allot of people.
Phospholipids is a lot like triglycerides except that the glycerol now contains an acid and a phosphate group. These molecules are extremely important since they are the molecules that build up cell membranes with are responsible for the majority of the ATP synthesis, and many of the other vital functions in the body.
Sterols are waxy fats, the most famous are the cholesterol, and pro-D-vitamins, sterols are found in milk, meat, eggs and butter.
Fatty acids
The molecules as described earlier has “arms” they consist of long chains, some of the carbons a bound together by double bounds. These double bounds ca be in a cis or a trans formation.
Saturated fatty acids
Saturated fatty acids are the molecules without double bounds. Because of Van-der-Wahls forces (forces that bind together strains of molecules placed close to each other) the less double bounds the harder the fat gets (higher melting point). The Saturated fat is not good fat and should be avoided if possible.
Cis-fatty acids contain double bounds but the bounds has an angle that lets the chain continue “straight ahead” hence the cis-fatty acids are, like the saturated, not as good as the trans.
Trans fatty acids has he “straight chain” of c-atoms broken at en angle, this makes the van-der-Wahls forces weaker. These are fats from plants, which should be incorporated in your diet instead of the animal fats, if possible.
The more double bounds the better.
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