Friday, April 3, 2009

What we should know about fat?

There are many types of fats. (saturated,unsaturated <mono and poly unsaturated>and trans fats)the difference between them relates to the chemical structure of the fatty acids in each one of them.all of fats and oil contain certain percent of saturated or unsaturated fats so if the percent of saturated fats increase so it is saturated fat and if the percent of the monounsaturated increases so it is mono unsaturated fat.
saturated fat:
1. raises blood cholestrol levels
2.it is mostly of animal origin like butter and some of plant origin as palm and coconut oil.
3.it is solid at room temperature and has high melting point.
unsaturated fat :

1.tends to lower blood cholestrol.
2.found mainly in vegetable or plant oils
3.it is liquid at room temperature and has low melting point.

example of monounsaturated fats:olive oil.
examples of polyunsaturated fat
are sunflower oil and fish oil.
We should know that a product is a vegetable oil doesn't mean that it contains unsaturated fat,what this means?
coconut oil is a plant oil but it is very high in saturated fat.
palm oil is 50% saturated but appears to have little influence on cholestrol levels.

Trans fats:1. are engineeered from liquid oils through hydrogenation so they have been altered chemically to act like saturated fats.
2.trans fats raise cholestrol and can cause atherosclerosis.
80% of trans fats come from processed foods and 20% occur naturally in meat and dairy products.


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