What is fats?

Fats are also called fatty acids or lipids. Fats in our body are made up of three
molecules joined together. This three molecule structure is called a triglyceride.
Also, fats are substances that help the body absorb vitamins like vitamins A, D, E,
and K. It also keeps the skin healthy, they are also the main way to stores energy in
our body. Fat is an essential part of our diet and is important for good health. And
most of the fat we need is made by our bodies, but there are some fats our bodies
cannot make. We can only get these fats by eating them. These fats are called
essential fats because we must get them from food that we eat.
Classification of fats.
1. Unsaturated fat
- Which are considered beneficial fats because they can improve blood
cholesterol levels, ease inflammation, stabilize heart rhythms, and play a
number of other beneficial roles. Unsaturated fats are predominantly
found in foods from plants, such as vegetable oils, nuts, and seeds.
There are two types of “good” unsaturated fats:
Polyunsaturated fats:
 omega-3 fats which are found in fish, especially oily fish
 omega-6 fats which are found in some oils such as safflower and soybean oil,
along with some nuts, including brazil nuts.
*These fats are called essential fats because we must get them from food that we
eat.
Monounsaturated fats:
 found in olive and canola oil, avocados and some nuts, such as cashews and
almonds.
2. Saturated fat
- All foods containing fat have a mix of specific types of fats. Even healthy foods
like chicken and nuts have small amounts of saturated fat, though much less
than the amounts found in beef, cheese, and ice cream. Saturated fat is mainly
found in animal foods, but a few plant foods are also high in saturated fats.
Animal-based products:
Dairy foods

 Butter
 Cream
 full fat milk
 cheese
Meat

 Fatty cuts of beef,

 pork and lamb
 chicken (especially chicken skin)
Processed meat

 sausage
 bacon
 beef
 hamburgers

Plant-derived products:
 Palm oil
 Coconut
  Coconut milk and cream
 Cooking margarine
Many manufactured and packaged foods:
 Fatty snack foods (such as potato chips, savory crackers)
 Deep fried and high fat take away foods (such as hot chips, pizza,
hamburgers, French fries)
 Cakes and high fat muffins
 Pastries and pies (including quiche, tarts, sausage rolls, pasties, croissants)
 Sweet and savory biscuits
* Eating greater amounts of saturated fat is linked with an increased risk of heart
disease and high blood cholesterol levels.

3. Trans Fat
- Trans fatty acids, more commonly called trans fats, are made by heating
liquid vegetable oils in the presence of hydrogen gas and a catalyst, a
process called hydrogenation. And Trans fats are the worst type of fat for the
heart, blood vessels, and rest of the body.
Because they:
 Raise bad LDL and lower good HDL
 Create inflammation, – a reaction related to immunity – which has been
implicated in heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and other chronic conditions
 Contribute to insulin resistance.
 Can have harmful health effects even in small amounts – for each additional 2
percent of calories from trans-fat consumed daily, the risk of coronary heart
disease increases by 23 percent.

4. Cholesterol
- Cholesterol is a type of fat found in food, but also in our blood. Cholesterol
has many important functions in the body but having high levels of the
wrong type of cholesterol in the blood increases heart disease risk.

II. DIGESTION OF FATS

- A lipid is defined as a fat-like molecule that does not have the ability to
dissolve in water. This inability to dissolve in water adds an element of
difficulty to fat digestion. Because fat does not like water, it tends to
clump together and form large droplets as it moves through your digestive
system.
MOUTH
- Salivary amylase is released in the mouth through chewing. This is the
first enzyme your food will come into contact with, and it begins the
digestion process. Lingual lipase is also produced in the mouth, which
begins to emulsify any fat.
STOMACH
- .Gastric lipase starts to break down triacylglycerols into diglycerides and
fatty acids. Within two to four hours after eating a meal, roughly 30
percent of the triacylglycerols are converted to diglycerides and fatty
acids. The stomach’s churning and contractions help to disperse the fat
molecules, while the diglycerides derived in this process act as further
emulsifiers. However, even amid all of this activity, very little fat digestion
occurs in the stomach.

SMALL INTESTINE
- The majority of fat digestion happens once it reaches the small intestine.
This is also where the majority of nutrients are absorbed. Your pancreas
produces enzymes that break down fats or lipids.

- Your liver produces bile that helps you digest fats and certain vitamins.
This bile contains bile salts (bile salts, which act as an emulsifier of
lipids) which is stored in the gallbladder. These digestive juices are
delivered to your small intestine through ducts where it all works together
to complete the fat breakdown.
- And also pancreatic lipase aids digestion because it is fat-digesting
enzyme that can only act on the surface of the fat droplet, pancreatic
lipase acts on the lipid, it breaks it down, which results in free fatty
acids and monoglycerides, the two digestive products of lipids. These
products are much easier for your small intestine to handle, and they have
very little trouble being absorbed out of your digestive tract.

- And Bile salts envelop the fatty acids and monoglycerides to form
micelles. Micelles have a fatty acid core with a water-soluble exterior. This
allows efficient transportation to the intestinal microvillus. Here, the fat
components are released and disseminated into the cells of the digestive
tract lining.

What happens after the fat is digested?

- After the fat has been digested, fatty acids are passed through the lymph
system and then throughout the body via your bloodstream to be used or
stored for energy, cell repair, and growth. Your lymph system also absorbs
fatty acids to help fight infection.