BIO 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Peanut Butter, Trans Fat, Adipose Tissue
4 Mar 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Fats made from unsaturated fatty acids are unsaturated fats. Plant and fish fats are liquid at room temperature and are known as oils. The kinks caused by the double bonds prevent the molecules from packing tightly enough to solidify at room temperature. The phrase hydrogenated vegetable oils on food labels means that unsaturated fats have been synthetically converted to saturated fats by the addition of hydrogen. Peanut butter and margarine are hydrogenated to prevent lipids from separating out as oil. A diet rich in saturated fats may contribute to cardiovascular disease (atherosclerosis) through plaque deposits. The process of hydrogenating vegetable oils produces saturated fats and also unsaturated fats with trans double bonds. These trans fat molecules contribute more than saturated fats to atherosclerosis. The major function of fats is energy storage. A gram of fat stores more than twice as much energy as a gram of a polysaccharide such as starch.
