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When choosing fats, pick unsaturated fat over saturated or trans fat. Here's how
to know the difference.
By Mayo Clinic Staf
Most foods contain several diferent kinds of fat, and some are better for your health
than others. You don't need to completely eliminate all fat from your diet. In fact, some
fats actually help promote good health. But it's wise to choose the healthier types of
dietary fat and then enjoy them in moderation.
The facts about fat
There are numerous types of fat. Your body makes its own fat from taking in excess
calories. Some fats are found in foods from plants and animals and are known as
dietary fat. Dietary fat is a macronutrient that provides energy for your body. Fat is
essential to your health because it supports a number of your body's functions. Some
vitamins, for instance, must have fat to dissolve and nourish your body.
But there is a dark side to fat. Fat is high in calories and small amounts can add up
quickly. If you eat more calories than you need, you will gain weight. Excess weight is
linked to poor health.
The concern with some types of dietary fat (and their cousin cholesterol) is that they are
thought to play a role in cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Dietary fat also
may have a role in other diseases, including obesity and cancer.
Research about the possible harms and benefits of dietary fat is always evolving. And a
growing body of research suggests that when it comes to dietary fat, you should focus
on eating healthy fats and avoiding unhealthy fats. Simply stated, fat is made up of
varying amounts of fatty acids. It's the type and amount of fatty acid found in food that
determines the efect of the fat on your health.
Harmful dietary fat
There are two main types of potentially harmful dietary fat fat that is mostly saturated
and fat that contains trans fat:
Saturated fat. This is a type of fat that comes mainly from animal sources of
food, such as red meat, poultry and full-fat dairy products. Saturated fat raises total
blood cholesterol levels and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels, which can
increase your risk of cardiovascular disease. Saturated fat may also increase your risk
of type 2 diabetes.
Trans fat. This is a type of fat that occurs naturally in some foods in small
amounts. But most trans fats are made from oils through a food processing method
called partial hydrogenation. By partially hydrogenating oils, they become easier to
cook with and less likely to spoil than do naturally occurring oils. Research studies
show that these partially hydrogenated trans fats can increase unhealthy LDL
cholesterol and lower healthy high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. This can
increase your risk of cardiovascular disease.
Most fats that have a high percentage of saturated fat or that contain trans fat are solid
at room temperature. Because of this, they're typically referred to as solid fats. They
include beef fat, pork fat, butter, shortening and stick margarine.
Healthier dietary fat
The types of potentially helpful dietary fat are mostly unsaturated:
Monounsaturated fat. This is a type of fat found in a variety of foods and oils.
Studies show that eating foods rich in monounsaturated fats (MUFAs) improves blood
cholesterol levels, which can decrease your risk of heart disease. Research also
shows that MUFAs may benefit insulin levels and blood sugar control, which can be
especially helpful if you have type 2 diabetes.
Polyunsaturated fat. This is a type of fat found mostly in plant-based foods and
oils. Evidence shows that eating foods rich in polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) improves
blood cholesterol levels, which can decrease your risk of heart disease. PUFAs may
also help decrease the risk of type 2 diabetes.
Omega-3 fatty acids. One type of polyunsaturated fat is made up of mainly
omega-3 fatty acids and may be especially beneficial to your heart. Omega-3, found in
some types of fatty fish, appears to decrease the risk of coronary artery disease. It
may also protect against irregular heartbeats and help lower blood pressure levels.
There are plant sources of omega-3 fatty acids. However, the body doesn't convert it
and use it as well as omega-3 from fish.
Foods made up mostly of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are liquid at room
temperature, such as olive oil, safflower oil, peanut oil and corn oil. Fish high in omega-3
fatty acids include salmon, tuna, trout, mackerel, sardines and herring. Plant sources of
omega-3 fatty acids include flaxseed (ground), oils (canola, flaxseed, soybean), and
nuts and other seeds (walnuts, butternuts and sunflower).
Radium
Radium has been used in medicine as a source of radiation to treat certain types of
malignant growths such as cancer. Radiation given off by radium either destroys living
cells or injures them severely. This property makes radium extremely dangerous to
handle, but it also accounts for radium's usefulness in the treatment of cancer. If
ingested, radium will become deposited in the bones and, in time, will cause damage to
body tissues. Radium emits alpha particles, beta particles, and gamma rays. Radium
has a half-life of 1,620 years (meaning that one ounce of radium is reduced by
radioactive decay to one-half an ounce in 1,620 years). Radium decays to form radon, a
radioactive gas. Radon decays to form another radioactive substance, which produces
still another radioactive substance, and so on until finally lead is produced. Radium is
present in tiny amounts in seawater and in most of the earth's rocks. Its chief sources
are pitchblende and other ores of its mother element, uranium. The principal sources
have been mines in the Czech Republic, Canada, and Zaire. The first steps in extracting
radium from uranium ore are to crush the ore and dissolve it with sulfuric acid. Radium
was discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in Paris in 1898. Earlier that year they had
discovered a new element, polonium, in pitchblende. Working with an assistant, G.
Bmont, they then found that there was another, more radioactive, element in
pitchblenderadium. They isolated a radium salt in December, 1898. After years of
arduous and dangerous labor, during which they processed tons of pitchblende, the
Curies isolated 1/10 of a gram of radium chloride. Pure radium was not isolated until
1910, when Marie Curie obtained it from molten radium chloride.
The danger of radium radiation was not understood at first. In 1901, however, Henri
Becquerel suffered a burn from carrying a piece of radium salt in his watch pocket.
Pierre Curie then deliberately burned himself to learn the effects of radium on the body.
His report immediately suggested to doctors that radium, by destroying cells, might be
useful in the treatment of cancer.
Rusting
For iron to become iron oxide, three things are required: iron, water and oxygen. Here's
what happens when the three get together:
When a drop of water hits an iron object, two things begin to happen almost
immediately. First, the water, a good electrolyte, combines with carbon dioxide in the air
to form a weak carbonic acid, an even better electrolyte. As the acid is formed and the
iron dissolved, some of the water will begin to break down into its component pieces -hydrogen and oxygen. The free oxygen and dissolved iron bond into iron oxide, in the
process freeing electrons. The electrons liberated from the anode portion of the iron
flow to the cathode, which may be a piece of a metal less electrically reactive than iron,
or another point on the piece of iron itself.
The chemical compounds found in liquids like acid rain, seawater and the salt-loaded
spray from snow-belt roads make them better electrolytes than pure water, allowing
their presence to speed the process of rusting on iron and other forms of corrosion on
other metals.
The two conditions necessary for the rusting of iron to occur are:
1.
2.
Every year I have lots of people ask me this question (especially younger visitors doing
certain science courses and exams across the world) and so I have decided to make
this a special one-of web page on this subject!
The claims that have become popular on a number of examination courses around the
world are that:
1. Wasp sting venom is alkaline and so its efects can be neutralised with vinegar or
acid and this neutralisationthen reduces the pain.
2. Bee sting venom is acidic and so its efects can be neutralised with bicarbonate of
soda or alkali and this reaction reduces the pain.
Are either of these statements true?
The facts are that:
Bee venom contains formic acid (also known as methanoic acid) but this is not
the single active ingredient that causes the pain from a bee sting
Wasp stings are alkali but once again the venom has so many active ingredients
that it is very unlikely that it is the alkali alone that is the single active ingredient
that causes the pain
rubbing a wound distracts the mind from the immediate pain and
rubbing a wound with anything safe promotes the release of endorphins which
may reduce the pain,
if you believe something is going to work, then it often will because the mind can
play curious tricks!
There are plenty of very subjective but genuine and honest claims for the following
treatments:
applying tobacco,
using WD40
Strength of Acids
The ability of an acid to release hydrogen ions is specified by its strength. A strong acid
(for example, sulfuric or hydrochloric acid) dissociates (breaks up) completely, or nearly
completely, into positive and negative ions in a dilute (nonconcentrated) water solution.
Only a small percentage of a weak acid (for example, acetic acid), on the other hand,
forms ions in solution, the major portion of the acid remaining in the form of molecules.
As a general rule, inorganic acids are stronger than organic acids. The formation of
positive and negative ions is the reason that an acid in a water solution will conduct
electricity.
The strength of an acid is denoted by its pH. The pH value of a dilute solution is given
approximately by the following expression:
pH = log 1/[H+]
In this expression [H+] is a number whose value is determined by the quantity of
hydrogen ions per unit volume. The pH of a solution can range from 0 to 14. Pure water,
which is neutral (that is, neither an acid nor a base), has a pH of 7. Substances with pH
values of less than 7 are acids, and substances with pH values of more than 7 are
bases. Strong acids have pH values near 0, while strong bases have pH values near
14.
Properties of Acids
At ordinary temperatures, most pure acids are solids. Many, however, are liquids, and a
few are gases. Some acids, such as prussic acid (hydrogen cyanide), are deadly
poison.
When acids are dissolved in water in sufficiently high concentration they typically have
the following properties:
1. They have a sour taste. (The term acid is derived from acidus, the Latin word for
sour.)
2. They are corrosive.
3. They will turn blue litmus paper red.
4. They will dissolve many metals (for example, iron, tin, and zinc) and at the same time
release hydrogen gas.
5. They will conduct an electric current, with the simultaneous liberation of hydrogen
gas.
Acids will react with substances called bases (for example, sodium hydroxide) to form
salts (such as sodium chloride, or table salt). A base is a substance that is capable of
accepting hydrogen from another substance; thus it can be considered the opposite of
an acid.
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Structure of Acids
The simplest type of acid has a molecule consisting of one atom of hydrogen and one
atom of a nonmetallic element. A molecule of hydrochloric acid, for example, contains
one atom of hydrogen and one atom of chlorine. Hydrochloric acid can be obtained by
dissolving hydrogen chloride, a gas, in water. Both fndrochloric acid and hydrogen
chloride have the chemical formula HCl, H being the symbol for hydrogen and Cl the
symbol for chlorine.
Sodium chloride, one of the many chemical compounds classified as a salt, can be
formed by combining metallic sodium (Na) with hydrochloric acid. The sodium replaces
the hydrogen, as indicated by the chemical equation for this reaction:
2 Na + 2 HCl>2 NaCl + H2