FATS

In terms of biology and chemistry, fat is the combination of fatty acids usually occurring in living beings or in food, composed by carbon, oxygen and hydrogen, that is insoluble in water. Fats, in specific situations, are referred to triglycerides, that are main components of vegetable oils and or fatty animal tissue.

In food, there are many types of fats: unsaturated, saturated and trans fats:

• Unsaturated fats, which are liquid at room temperature, are considered beneficial fats because they can improve blood cholesterol levels, ease inflammation, stabilize heart rhythms, and play other beneficial roles due to its properties and melting point. There are two types of unsaturated fats: monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats (Omega-3).

• Saturated fats are found in each type of food in different quantities. Following a Hardvard investigation (cited in this project), the “Dietary Guidelines for Americans” recommends getting less than 10 percent of calories each day from saturated fat.

• The last and less known type, trans fatty acids, more commonly called trans fats, are made by heating liquid vegetable oils in the presence of hydrogen gas and a catalyst, a process called hydrogenation.

Moreover, following Hardvard´s discoveries, it has been found that partially hydrogenating vegetable oils makes them more stable and less likely to become rancid. This process also converts the oil into a solid, which makes them function as margarine or shortening. Trans fats are naturally found in beef and small dairy products.

Recent research and investigation point out that monounsaturated fats provide a significant positive reinforcement in terms of energy storage, waterproofing of cell membrane and thermal insulation, all of them vital for the homeostatic regulation of human body. Nuts, olive oil, macadamia dry roasted, seeds, avocado, eggs, beans and tofu are ideal sources of monounsaturated lipids. Plants and fish oil generally contain a higher proportion of unsaturated acids, although there are exceptions such as coconut oil and palm kernel oil.

In fact, the decline in the mentioned vital processes is directly associated with the overconsumption of food rich in saturated lipids, those as junk food, sugary foodstuff, candy, processed food, beef fat, butter, among others.

To maintain your blood cholesterol and triglyceride (lipid) levels as near the normal ranges as possible, we should regulate fat consumption applying the diagrams and nutrition guidelines previously mentioned. Furthermore, throughout lipids, body stores energy as adipose tissue, so a fat overfeeding would lend to a malfunction of internal chemical processes (cellular transport and molecular exchange), a disequilibrium of metabolic and structural functions that finally, will lead to inadequate food ingest and extended nutritional harmful habits, usually leading to overweight. As appropriate health authorities recommend, we should balance fat ingest as we must harmonize the rest of food groups we are studying in this investigation. Furthermore, the substitution of monounsaturated fatty acids for saturated ones is associated with increased daily physical activity, resting energy expenditure, a decrease in cardiovascular disease rate, an increasement in insulin resistance and sensitivity, even with a noteworthy cancer risk drop.