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In humans and many animals, fats serve both as energy sources and as stores for energy in excess of what the body needs immediately. Each gram of fat when burned or metabolized releases about nine food calories (37 kJ = 8.8 kcal). [5] Fats are also sources of essential fatty acids, an important dietary requirement.
This analysis is used to determine the free fatty acid content of fats; i.e., the proportion of the triglycerides that have been hydrolyzed. Neutralization of fatty acids, one form of saponification (soap-making), is a widely practiced route to metallic soaps .
Some dietary fat is necessary to facilitate absorption of fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K) and carotenoids. [ 91 ] : 903 Humans and other mammals have a dietary requirement for certain essential fatty acids, such as linoleic acid (an omega-6 fatty acid ) and alpha-linolenic acid (an omega-3 fatty acid) because they cannot be synthesized ...
The IUPAC Lipid Handbook provides a very large and detailed listing of fat contents of animal and vegetable fats, including ω−3 and −6 oils. [25] The National Institutes of Health's EFA Education group publishes Essential Fats in Food Oils. [26] This lists 40 common oils, more tightly focused on EFAs and sorted by n−6:3 ratio.
This can be done in terms of the chemical elements present, or by molecular structure e.g., water, protein, fats (or lipids), hydroxyapatite (in bones), carbohydrates (such as glycogen and glucose) and DNA. In terms of tissue type, the body may be analyzed into water, fat, connective tissue, muscle, bone, etc.
A saturated fat is a type of fat in which the fatty acid chains have all single bonds between the carbon atoms. A fat known as a glyceride is made of two kinds of smaller molecules: a short glycerol backbone and fatty acids that each contain a long linear or branched chain of carbon (C) atoms.
Fat has a food energy content of 38 kilojoules per gram (9 kilocalories per gram) proteins and carbohydrates 17 kJ/g (4 kcal/g). [ 2 ] Water makes up a large proportion of the total mass ingested as part of a normal diet but it does not provide any nutritional value.
Saturated fats have all of the carbon atoms in their fatty acid chains bonded to hydrogen atoms, whereas unsaturated fats have some of these carbon atoms double-bonded, so their molecules have relatively fewer hydrogen atoms than a saturated fatty acid of the same length. Unsaturated fats may be further classified as monounsaturated (one double ...