Fat is something that we don’t like hanging on our bodies. Am I right or not? This way or another we have to understand what fat really is first.

Fat chemistry

Fat is a chemical compound made from carbon and hydrogen. Carbon atoms are linked together to make a string usually from 4 to 16 and each of these carbon atoms can have 4 connections. Can connect to hydrogen or to another carbon. But sometimes can be connection empty. The number of empty connections defines a fat differentiation. So let’s get right into it. Sometimes are Carbons connected with two bonds and lives room just for one Hydrogen instead of two. In nature, those Hydrogens end up on the same side. This is the reason for bending the molecule. It is important to remember to know why have saturated and unsaturated fats different textures and I will explain it later.

Saturated fat

is a straight line of Carbons tightly packed together.

Monounsaturated fat

means one Carbon double bond connection with just one Hydrogen attached to each of the two Carbons (molecule is bent just ones).

Polyunsaturated fat

means more than one Carbon double bond connection with just one Hydrogen attached to each Carbon (molecule is bent multiple times, sometimes looks almost like a cycle in configuration).

Fat texture differentiation

Saturated fats

When fat is saturated it’s gonna have a straight molecule line chain (I explained why before) of Carbons.

Short Chain Triglycerides (SCT)

1-5 Carbon atoms, for example, Butyric acid and it’s occurred in butter. Butter has a combination of different lengths, that’s why is solid, but that Butyric acid causes its melting point to be really low and can melt a lot easier than some other, longer, chains.

Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCT)

6-12 Carbon atoms can occur in Coconut oil or goat or sheep cheese.

Long Chain Triglycerides (LCT)

14-26 Carbon atoms occur in beef fat (tallow) or candle wax.

All saturated fats are solid at room temperature and their melting point depends on their carbon chain length.

Mono and polyunsaturated fat

As we know, saturated fat is solid or semisolid at room temperature while mono and polyunsaturated fats are liquid even when refrigerated. This makes them useful for different purposes in the body. Saturated fat is good for fuel. Our body can run on that fuel more efficiently. Mono and polyunsaturated fats are used for more special functions and parts of our body and they have one, very bad, disadvantage. They are very reactive. They react to Oxygen, heat, and even to a certain light spectrum because that double bound is not so hard to break. My personal advice is to store such fats in the refrigerator. The capsulated form is more stable but still, better save than sorry, right? Now back to those functions in our body. Body use them, for example, for signaling processes mostly in cell membranes to be flexible and fluid but saturated fat is solid and can’t be used there because then cell membranes would be stiff and can’t communicate with each other. I hope it makes sense to you.

As I mentioned earlier saturated fat is good for fuel but we need small amounts of specialized fats, called essential fatty acids (the body can’t make them), as well. For example, DHA is six faults (six double bonds) polyunsaturated part of the fish oil is what our brain and retina are primarily made of. Important is to remember that saturated fat is stable at room temperature and polyunsaturated fat is very sensitive to heat and Oxygen and needs to be well taken care of it to not get destroyed.

This is it for today. I know it was a lot so I will let you rest and digest those pieces of information. Next time we will dive into KETON and how we can get him but until then be healthy. If you have some questions don’t hesitate and ask me in the comment section and I will do my best to answer them as soon as possible.

See you next time.