Saturated Fat

Saturated Fat

A widely environmental problem occurring worldwide is the issue of fat in our daily diet. There are different types of fat but the two broad categories of fat are saturated fat and unsaturated fat. There are a number of saturated fatty acids. The major ones are lauric, myristic, palmitic and stearic acid. The difference between these saturated and unsaturated fat is their chemical structure. Saturated fats are fats with a single bond between the carbon atoms of the fatty acids and the carbon atoms are attached with the hydrogen atoms. Unlike unsaturated fat, saturated fatty acids have no double bonds. Because of its chemical structure, the saturated fatty acid chains have no gaps which they are able to pack together tightly with CH2 molecules. CH2 is a chemical where a carbon atom is bonded to two hydrogen atoms. As the tightly packed saturated fat goes through the bloodstream, it will increase bad cholesterol in the body. Saturated fat is usually solid at room temperature whereas unsaturated fat is liquid at room temperature that tends to be healthier. Saturated fat is the fat that we are most concerned of because it is unhealthy for our diet that leads to many kinds of health issues.

Saturated fats are causing problems to people because it is increasing the rate of people in obesity. The junk food where large amounts of saturated fats contained made many Americans has health problems. About 60% to 70% Americans are overweight and obese and being obese is the start of getting a higher risk to heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure. In the year 2005, about 1.6 billion adults ages 15 and over were overweight, and at least 400 million adults were obese. In 2010, an estimated of 42 million children under age of 5 years are overweight globally. Also, the World Health Organization is concerning about childhood obesity that is increasing now because the excess intake of saturated fat foods will make them have heart diseases and diabetes at a young age. This is a major concern because children of all races, incomes and U.S. regions commonly eat fast foods.

Obesity means you have too much body fat and it will increase blood cholesterol. And obesity increasing bad cholesterol all results from in taking large amounts of saturated fat diets.

When we consume saturated fat, they are put into the storage cells called adipose cells. These storage cells hold up to 1,000 times than its own size which takes up a large amount of fats in our body. Saturated fat can easily build up easily in these storage cells causing obesity and other health problems. The high saturated fat of fast food and snacks are the most important causes of obesity health problems.

Saturated fats are a major health problem because it can not only cause weight gain, it can lead to diseases such has diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancers. Some higher risk from saturated fat includes heart, lung, esophagus, colon, breast cancers and stroke. From its chemical structure, the fatty acid forms a soft, waxy substance and this will make the bloodstream narrower that makes our blood won't flow as well and also even clogs the bloodstream. So that is why the clogging of the bloodstream results many health problems around our environment. Not just getting sick from saturated fat in our body, but it will even cause deaths. Eating too much saturated fat can make white blood cells not function as well and also a decline in the immune system that leads to cancer. The bad cholesterol the saturated fats are increasing is known as high-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol.

Most of the saturated fat in our foods comes from animal sources. Animal fat is highly saturated with hydrogen. However, most of our daily diet has a mixture of both saturated and unsaturated fats like poultry contains 70% unsaturated fat and 30% saturated fat. The foods that have saturated fat are milk, butter, coconut oil, cottonseed oil, palm kernel oil, cream, cheese, meat, and chocolate. Red meat and dairy products have the highest amount of saturated fat in them.