Fat

Fats

 There are many misconceptions about Fats. One of the most important misfits is the suggestion that fats would be unhealthy. People do not get fat from fat. The persons who get fat/obese have many different causes to become overweighed, it does not have a direct link with (healthy or unhealthy) fat but could be with the amount and form of consumed fats.

Fats have several useful applications in the body and therefore needed at all time.

• Fats deliver a strong part of our energy and are the main source after carbohydrates.
• Fats assist most of our internal organs with protection against different forms of impact and internal forces
• Some products like vitamins need fats as a transporter in the body.

Fats have a separation in;

• Plant origin
• Animal origin

Also, these can be divided into;

• Saturated
• Unsaturated
• Polyunsaturated

Currently, due to manufacturing and other industrial/environmental processing, more and more different fat structures which are harmful to the human body enter the commercial markets. These are called empty fats which have no function in the metabolic system.

Most of these fats enter our body due to the production of food and not as a natural content. This is one reason why food production process should be watched over closely and develop more portable devices to test food on these and contents.  Fat is an important energy source. The energy delivered of fats are (compared to other nutrients);

Food	component	Energy density
	kJ/g	kcal/g
Fat	37	9
Protein	17	4
Carbohydrates	17	4
Fibers	8	2

Animal fats:

Animal fats are mostly saturated fat, which implies they stand up better to high heat and last longer than vegetable fats. Reduced oxidation in animal fats means they are less susceptible to the toxins and carcinogens generated by using vegetable oil alone. Animal Fats are rendered from the flesh of animals or, in the case of butter and ghee, separated from the milk fat of said animals.

• Relatively rich in saturated fatty acids
• Due to their saturation, tend to stay solid at room temperature, hence commonly known as ‘fats’
• Iodine number of animal lipids is relatively less (Iodine numbers are used to determine the amount of unsaturation in fatty acids. This unsaturation is in the form of double bonds, which react with iodine compounds. The higher the iodine number, the more C=C bonds are present in the fat)
• Animal fats have a relatively higher value of Reichert-Meissl number (Reichert-Meissl number indicate how much volatile fatty acid can be extracted from a fat through saponification ) The Reichert value (or more fully, the Reichert-Meissl-Wollny value or Reichert-Meissl-Wollny number) is a value determined when examining fat. Saponification number: a measure of the totally free and combined acids especially in a fat, wax, or resin expressed as the number of milligrams of potassium hydroxide required for the complete saponification of one gram of substance — called also saponification value.
• Oxidative rancidity is observed more frequently. Oxidative rancidity is associated with the degradation by oxygen in the air. Via a free radical process, the double bonds of an unsaturated fatty acid can undergo cleavage, releasing volatile aldehydes and ketones. Oxidation primarily occurs with unsaturated fats.
• Stored in the liver, beneath the skin etc.
• Animals have specialized cells for storing fat reserve called adipocytes. Adipocytes, also known as lipocytes and fat cells, are the cells that primarily compose adipose tissue, specialized in storing energy as fat. Adipocytes are derived from mesenchymal stem cells which give rise to adipocytes, osteoblasts, myocytes and other cell types through adipogenesis. There are types of adipose tissue,
  • white adipose tissue (WAT) and brown adipose tissue (BAT), which are also known as white fat and
  • brown fat, respectively, and comprise two types of fat cells.
  • beige adipocytes with a gene expression pattern distinct from either white or brown adipocytes.

The fatty acids in oils are absorbed in the intestine and esterified (with glycerol) to form triglycerides. Then, they are incorporated in lipoprotein complexes. There are different types of lipoproteins- VLDL (Very Low-Density Lipoprotein), LDL (Low-Density Lipoprotein) and HDL (High-Density Lipoprotein) which have different sizes and compositions. Lipidome—the collection of all lipids within cells—is highly regulated during senescence.

Plant Lipid

Vegetal oils are frequently classified in two main groups, according to their source: pulp oil (palm, olive, avocado) and seed oil (other sources). The amount of lipids in plant parts varies from as low as 0.1% in potatoes to about 70% in pecan nuts. Some vegetal products are fat poor (1% in lentils, 3% in mushrooms), some seeds have a middle range amount (about 10% in wheat germ, 20%  in soybeans) while some are very oily (44% in peanuts, 55% in almonds, 65% in walnuts).

Plants store their energy production first as carbohydrates, but during ripening, they transform these oxygen-containing compounds in carbon-rich triglycerides. Thus, a minimum of the volume is required to stock a maximum of energy content. Conversely, the triglyceride stock is reconverted into carbohydrates during germination along with an incorporation of a high amount of water. One gram of oil is converted into 2.7 g of carbohydrates.

1. Main world sources of oils

Palm oil

Rape oil

Soja oil

Sunflower oil

2. Seven important oils

Arachis (groundnut)

Cotton

Coprah

Palmkernel

Maize (corn)

Olive

Sesame

3. Minor vegetal oils

Almond seed

Camelina

Carthame

Grape Seed

Hazelnut

Linseed

Poppy seed

Walnut

4. Oils used in dietetics, cosmetics, and lipochemistry

Avocado pear

Black-currant

Borage

Cacao

Castor bean

Evening primrose

Kukui oil

Wheat germ

5. Vegetal butter and Margarine

 Comparatively rich in unsaturated fatty acids

• Due to their high un-saturation, tend to stay liquid at room temperature, hence commonly known as ‘oils’
• Iodine number of plant fats will be more when compared to animal fats
• Relatively lower Reichert-meissl number
• Oxidative rancidity is relatively less in plant fats
• Stored in fruits and seeds
• Plants do not have adipocytes for storing fats, fats are stored as granules (oil droplets) in the cell cells of endosperm of seeds or other cells

Fat is needed to build cell membranes, the vital exterior of each cell, and the sheaths surrounding nerves. It is essential for blood clotting, muscle movement, and inflammation. For long-term health, some fats are better than others. Fats are divided in the degree of saturation.

Monounsaturated fats have a single carbon-to-carbon double bond. The result is that it has two fewer hydrogen atoms than a saturated fat and a bend at the double bond. This structure keeps monounsaturated fats liquid at room temperature.

Polyunsaturated fats are essential fats. That means they’re required for normal body functions but the body can’t make them. Like essential amino acids, they have to be taken in by food. Polyunsaturated fats build cell membranes and the covering of nerves. They involved in the blood clotting process, muscle movement, and inflammation.

A polyunsaturated fat has two or more double bonds in the carbon chain. It is possible to distinguish the following types of polyunsaturated fats which the human body needs and cannot produce:

Omega-3 fatty acids are good for the heart in several ways. They help:

• Reduce triglycerides, a type of fat in the blood
• Reduce the risk of an irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia)
• Slow the build-up of plaque in the arteries
• Slightly lower the blood pressure

Omega-6 fatty acids may help:

• Control the blood sugar
• Reduce the risk of diabetes
• Lower the blood pressure

The numbers of the Omega fats refer to the distance between the beginning of the carbon chain and the first double bond. Both types offer health benefits.

Lipogenesis is a term used to describe a process of fatty acid and triglyceride synthesis from glucose or other substrates. Although storage of excess energy in the form of lipids is a useful defense against starvation, for modern humans, to whom food is often constantly accessible, this adaptive mechanism has become inimical, with energy surplus and excessive lipid exposure generating the basis for a variety of metabolic disorders. However, more recent research has revealed that in addition to energy storage, lipids have wide-ranging actions as signaling molecules that are relevant to systemic metabolism. This specific biosynthesis takes place predominantly in the liver. The initial step for such fatty acid synthesis is acetyl-CoA carboxylation to malonyl-CoA with the help of the enzyme acetyl-CoA carboxylase, which is mostly taking place in liver cells, but also in skeletal muscle and adipose tissue. The process is activated by insulin and inhibited by hyperglucagonemia (excess glucagon secretion) and by cellular energy deprivation through 5’ AMP-activated protein kinase by glucagon.

Fatty acids are essential macromolecular cellular constituents serving critical structural and energetic roles. Synthesis of fatty acids endogenously (known as de novo lipogenesis = DNL) is originally thought to serve the purpose of converting excess carbohydrates into lipids for storage because lipid is much more energy-dense than carbohydrate and is, therefore, a more efficient storage form. In animals and humans, fatty acids are predominantly stored in adipose tissue as triglyceride. Most fatty acids in adipose tissue are obtained from dietary fat. Evolutionarily, the ability to store lipid conferred an advantage, because organisms that efficiently stored energy survived when food was scarce. Now, this tendency for storage contributes to the growing obesity epidemic and its associated multiple problems. Interestingly, when surplus food is available, excess carbohydrate generally is oxidized rather than converted to fatty acids by DNL. Not all body fat is created equal. The fat that accumulates beneath the skin, subcutaneous fat, is much less harmful to health — than fat around the midsection — belly fat, abdominal fat = visceral fat. Belly fat promotes aging. Visceral fat refers to body fat that is stored inside the abdominal cavity, around the internal organs (viscera), and it has uniquely harmful effects on health. For example, in older women, the ratio of waist to hip circumference is “strongly and positively associated with mortality in a dose-response manner“, and is a better marker of mortality and health risks than body mass index.

Visceral fat is a significant risk factor for breast cancer in women, and for prostate cancer in men, It is a strong predictor of heart disease in men. The likely source for all of these risks is that visceral fat promotes insulin resistance and ultimately diabetes.

Conclusion; fats are important to all functions in the body and have a major influence on the aging processes. It is, therefore, we should keep the fat level as low as possible in the different parts of our body. During the aging process, it is hard to impossible for most people to keep full control of the fat % due to many reasons. Some are even valid reasons. Individual levels must be checked and recorded over the years and kept within ranges of danger. At any time it is important to know that fat has a reason, a season and can be treason.