What's the deal with fats?

I was asked about why unsaturated fats are more important than other fats. So I figured many others probably had the same question. Plus since I gave an over the head, complicated answer I figured I’d write a simplified version and a more detailed one for those wanting to know the more depth reason.

Triglycerides or fats are in the category known as lipids. Fats are made up of a glycerol and three fatty acid chains. These fatty acid chains can be either saturated or unsaturated.

• Saturated fats: contains no double carbon- carbon bond. All of its linkage is full of hydrogen atoms.
• Unsaturated fats: contains carbon-carbon bonds. The available linkages are not fully filled with hydrogen atoms.
• Trans fatty acids: are worse than saturated and unsaturated fats. They have been hydrogenated to allow for longer shelf life. At one point they actually thought that trans fat was going to be more beneficial than saturated fats. However, that is not the case.

The difference in bond structure allows for different melting points. For example, a double carbon- carbon reduces the melting point. You can think of it like this saturated fats have a higher bond strength and therefore, they need higher temperatures to break their bonds than unsaturated fats. These bonds also determines whether the solid or liquid at room temperature.

Now that we have discussed what the fats are and how they differ. Let's talk about the body uses them. The human body uses a marvelous network of chemical reactions for its every function. The variations in fatty acid structure (as I just mentioned) allows for different outcomes to occur.

Saturated fats are used to raise LDL cholesterol levels, which can lead to a hardened plaque that clogs blood vessels. This results in a plaque build up. Ultimately this can lead to cardiovascular disease.

Unsaturated fats are beneficial to the body as they lower LDL by allowing HDL cholesterol to pick up the bad “LDL” cholesterol. Therefore, remember unsaturated fats allow for good reactions/binding or transportation (since it picks it up) to take place.

Trans fats raise LDL levels and decrease HDL. A double problem.

That is basically it. The chemical structure of what we eat determines how it is used in the body.

However, for those wanting to know more in depth of exactly how this occur. Here's a more in detailed version. Lipids cross into the enterocyte and re-esterfied into various products. These products are then packaged into chylomicrons and then later cleaved to become a chylomicron remnant. These chylomicron remnants can be classified as VLDL, LDL, HDL and are known as cholesterol transporters. LDL is considered bad cholesterol; while HDL is good cholesterol. The reason is after HDL is done transporting it goes back and picks up LDL. I like to think of it as pacman. This is good because the bad cholesterol is taken from the blood vessels and back to the liver, where it can be used rather than allowing a build up of plaque in the blood vessels.

A build up of plaque occurs when white blood cells take in LDL becoming a foam cell. When too much LDL is taken in they die. Therefore, as stated earlier, the process of picking up the LDL prevents clogging and ultimately cardiovascular disease.

Overall it comes down to the chemistry of how things are bound and used in the body. Therefore, it's important to monitor your diet to ensure that there is proper nutrients to support the body's many chemical reactions and processes. If you have any questions ask I will try to give the simplified version rather than the complicated. Unless you ask.

Hope that helps everyone understand fats better.

Sources

“Harder. Better. Faster. Stronger.” Rajganpath. 30 June 2010. Web 7 March 2012 <http://rajganpath.com/2010/06/30/ldl-hdl-abc-xyz-wtf/>

“Cholesterol: The Good, The Bad and The Dangerous.” Sacred Eden: The Garden of Wellness. Web 7 March 2012. <http://sacrededenblog.com/cholesterol-the-good-the-bad-and-the-dangerous/>