The Truth About Fat

Saturated Fats: A Vital Ingredient for a Healthy Body

Coconut oil is unique in its structural make-up.  It contains the highest source of saturated fats (92%) and the highest source of saturated Medium Chain Triglycerides (62%) of any naturally occurring vegan food source. Furthermore over 50% of these MCT’s are made up of Lauric Acid, the most important essential fatty acids in building and maintaining the body’s immune system. The only other source of Lauric Acid, in such concentrations is in breast milk.

In fact, it is a common belief that saturated fats are the ‘bad’ fats and unhealthy for you, however further research has found that in fact, saturated fats are the ‘good’ fats and unsaturated fats are the ‘bad’ fats.  It is of course the amount and type of saturated or unsaturated fat that can potentially be detrimental.   Having said this, all natural fats have something beneficial to offer the body so it would therefore be more correct to say that the only ‘bad’ fat is trans-fat or processed fat.

Boosting your Body’s Immune System – FACTS

• Saturated fats are used in the body as an important source of energy.
• An integral part of the cell membrane structure is made up of saturated fats.
• Saturated fats are freely absorbed into the bloodstream which helps raise metabolism.
• Through reducing the metabolic load, this allows the liver to optimise its detoxifying.
• Fatty Acids have strong anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-protozoal properties.
• Essential fatty acids can help combat Candida Albicans.
• The digested form of Lauric Acid, Monolaurin, is active against lipid-coated viruses and has shown to be a successful resource for the reduction of the virus in HIV patients.
• Regulate the healthy functioning of the thyroid to assist with fatigue, weight gain and water-retention.

It’s also worth noting that shorter chain fatty acids have a lower caloric value per gram of fat which can assist in weight loss, due to the lower consumption of calories as you feel satisfied for longer.

The Chemistry of Fatty Acids

• Saturated fats are chains of single bonded carbon atoms ‘saturated’ with hydrogen atoms.
• Saturated fats are typically burned for fuel.
•  Saturated fats can be changed into unsaturated fatty acids by the introduction of a double bond.
• Short chain fatty acids have two to six carbon atoms (C2-C6), medium chain fatty acids have eight to twelve (C8-C12), and long-chain fatty acids have fourteen to twenty-four (C14-C24) carbon atoms comprising their backbone.
• Unsaturated fats are chains of carbon atoms with one or more double bonds
• Monounsaturated fatty acids have only one double bond.
• Polyunsaturated fatty acids have two or more double bonds

In general, unsaturated fats are used by the body for building cellular membranes, to attract oxygen to tissues and to transform energy into nerve impulses.  They are also used as precursors to molecules of cellular communication, such as prostaglandins or eicosanoids.

Chain length determines the inherent characteristics of a particular fat. For example, short and medium chain fatty acids tend to stay in their aqueous form at body temperature (37 ºC), are more water-soluble than their longer chain counterparts, and tend to be used directly for energy production. As the chain lengthens, the melting point increases and the chain becomes less water-soluble, developing the tendency to aggregate or stick together with other fatty acids.

Aggregation protects these longer chain fatty acids, especially the unsaturated fatty acids, from oxidation. Shorter chained saturated fatty acids are easier for the body to absorb and utilize. Due to their shorter chain length, short and medium chain fatty acids are freely absorbed into the bloodstream from the gut. Hence, they do not require packaging into chylomicrons which is necessary for the non-polar longer chained fatty acids. Storage triglycerides and structural phospholipids are both composed of fatty acid chains.

Triglycerides are the storage form for excess fatty acids in the body and are produced in adiposities through the process of fatty acid synthesis. A triglyceride is composed of a glycerol backbone with three attached fatty acids. A saturated fatty acid, usually of the short chain variety, is found in the first, outside position.  In the middle, there are reserves of the essential fatty acids, linoleic and linolenic.

On the other outside position, a second saturated fatty acid is found, which can be of any number of carbons. Phospholipids also contain a glycerol backbone and are important in the maintenance of cell membrane fluidity and selectivity, as well for cellular communication.

A saturated or an unsaturated fatty acid of sixteen (C16) or eighteen (C18) carbons is often found in one of the outside positions. An essential fatty acid is often bound in the middle position, and a phosphate molecule lays in the other outside positions with its attached R-group, usually a choline, inositol, ethanolamine or serine. The phosphate molecule is what gives a lipid bilayer of a plasma membrane its orientation. Hydrophilic (polar) phosphate groups orient themselves towards an aqueous environment, pushing hydrophobic (non-polar) fatty acid chains towards the centre of the bilayer.

Plasma membrane bilayers also contain cholesterol and proteins, which are also important in the proper functioning of a cell and its protective membranes. Degradation of triglycerides and phospholipids provides energy and substrates for cell communication pathways. Unsaturated fats have double bonds, which introduce a kink into the carbon backbone of a fatty acid chain. This kink or bend is one of the reasons why unsaturated fatty acids cannot pack themselves closely together and hence, they take up more space, In the case of phospholipids, this helps to make the plasma membranes of cells and associated organelles more fluid.

A second characteristic of unsaturated fatty acids is that they tend to attract oxygen to the surface of a cell . By doing so, this protects the cell from invasion by viruses and bacteria that are sensitive to an oxygen saturated environment. By being closely packed with saturated fats, the unsaturated fats are protected from oxidation. In contrast, saturated fatty acids are compound sources of energy and are very important in providing rigidity to cellular membranes, It has been shown that saturated fat is necessary for the stability of mitochondrial membranes.