LIPIDS/ FATS

Lipids
• Fat and oils belong to a group of compounds called Lipids.
• Fat is a complex molecule made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.
• They are more concentrated source of energy providing 2 ½ times more energy than carbohydrates
and protein
• The word ‘lipid’ is used when discussing the metabolism of fats in the body, whereas the term ‘fats’ is
used as the fatty component o foods and diet.
• Fats/ Lipids are found in adipose tissues of animals.
• In the presence of adequate supply of carbohydrates, fat is stores in the fatty tissue.
• An excess intake of carbohydrate results in conversion of carbohydrates in fats and stored in the fatty
tissue.
• The stored fat is mobilized to produce energy, but this process is slow and hence it is used when the
supply of carbohydrate is inadequate.
 Classification
Lipids are classified as simple, compound and derived lipids based on composition.

Simple Lipids: These are esters of fatty acids with certain alcohols. They are usually further classified
according to the nature of alcohols.
a. Fats and oils- These are esters of fatty acids and glycerols. Oils are liquid are room temperature
while fats are solid at room temperature.
b. Waxes- These are esters of fatty acids with long chain aliphatic or cyclic alcohols. These may be
subdivided into true waxes, cholesterol esters, Vitamin A and its carotenoid esters.
Compound or Complex Lipids: These are esters of fatty acids which on hydrolysis yield other
substances in addition to fatty acids and an alcohol.
a. Phospholipids- These lipids on hydrolysis yield fatty acids, phosphoric acid, alcohol and a
nitrogenous base. Phospholipids are divided in two groups called glycerophospholipids and
sphingophospholipids.
– Glycerophospholipids- The building block is phosphatidic acid. Glycerophospholipids are
very important components of cell membrane, they lend structural support to the
membrane.
 – Sphingophospholipids- Sphingomyelins are sphingophospholipids that occur in plasma
membranes of animal cells and are found in particularly large amounts in the myelin
sheath of nerve tissues.
b. Glycolipids- They have a carbohydrate component within their structure like phospholipids, their
physiological structure is principally structures, contributing little as an energy source. They
occur in medullary sheaths of nerves and in brain tissue, particularly in white matter.
c. Aminolipids, Sulpholipids- The sulpholipids yield sulphuric acid on hydrolysis.
d. Lipoproteins- These compounds are lipid material bound to proteins. They are found in
mammalian plasma.
Derived Lipids: These are substances liberated during hydrolysis of simple and compound lipids which
still retain the properties of lipids.
 Chemical Composition
Triglycerides:
• These are the main form of fats both in food stuffs and in the storage depots of animals.
• They are esters of glycerols and fatty acids.
• They contain a mixture of fatty acids with varying lengths and varying degrees of saturation.

Fatty Acids:
• They are the simple form of lipids.
• Fatty acids are classified based on length of carbon chains into 3 groups; <8 groups- short chain fatty
acids, 10-14 carbons- medium chain fatty acids and 16-24- long chain carbons.

Oleic acid is an example of MUFA. Found in

Mono-unsaturated ground nut oil, olive oil, corn oil etc.
Unsaturated
Poly-unsaturated Linoleic and Linolenic acid is an example of
Fatty Acids PUFA. Found in soyabean, sunflower, fish etc

Saturated
 Fats in Body
Phospholipids:
• Phospholipids are called ‘polar lipids’ or ‘amphiphilic lipids’ because they possess chemical groups
that are associated with water and that are lipid soluble.
• In association with proteins, phospholipids form the structural components of membranes and
regulate membrane permeability.
• Phospholipids (lecithin, cephalin and cardiolipin) in mitochondria are responsible fo rcellular
respiration.
• Phospholipids participate in the absorption fat from the intestines.
• They are essential for the synthesis of different lipoproteins and thus participate in the transport of
lipids.
• Fatty liver can be prevented by phospholipids, hence they are regarded as lipotropic factors.
• Phospholipids participate in the reverse cholesterol transport and thus helps in removal of cholesterol
from the body.
Cholesterol:
• In nature sterols occurs as free states and as esters with fatty acids. Sterols are classified as:
Animal sterol- cholesterol, Plant sterol- phytosterol and Mycosterol- ergosterol.
• Cholesterol is widely distributed in all cells and is a major component of cell membranes and
lipoproteins.
• The white matter of brain contains about 14% cholesterol and the gray matter contains 6%
• Large amount of cholesterol is also present in sebum secreted by sebaceous glands.
• Cholesterol serves as the precursor for the formation of bile acids.
• It also serves as a precursor for the formation of steroid hormones like estrogen, androgen and
progesterone.
• It is also essential for the synthesis of adrenocortical hormones.
• It functions as an insulating cover for the transmission of electrical impulses in the nervous tissue.
• It serves as a precursor for the formation of dehydrocholesterol which in turn is converted to Vitamin
D3 in the body by the action of UV rays.
• In diet, cholesterol is obtained from ghee, butter, cheese, curd, milk, egg, flesh food, seafood. But it is
absent in plants.
• Since cholesterol is synthesized by the body it is not dietary essential.
Ketone Bodies:
• The degradation of fatty acids to acetyl CoA and the oxidation of acetyl CoA to Co2 and water, takes
place without accumulation of intermediary products.
• But under abnormal circumstances, acetyl CoA accumulates leading to formation of acetoacetic acid.
Which in turn is converted to β-hydroxyl butyric acid and acetone. Three products of fat metabolism
are called ketone bodies.
• Ketone body formation takes place in subjects who cannot oxidise carbohydrate adequately or who
do not get a supply of carbohydrates due to lack of food intake.
• Ketosis is a condition in which large amounts of ketone bodies are produced in the liver and circulate
in blood when diet contains less than 100g of carbohydrate.
• The levels of ketone bodies in a normal person is 3mg/100ml of blood. When it increases to 70-
80mg/100ml, it is termed as ketosis.

Brown Adipose Tissue:

• It is active in normal humans but absent in obese.
• Brown adipose tissue is responsible for controlling body temperature in cold weather.
• It is involved in metabolism particularly at times when heat generation is necessary.
 Fats in Food
Trans fatty acids:
• Trans form exists in some natural and partially hydrogenated fats and oils.
• Partial hydrogenation is a process commonly used to solidify vegetable oils.
• Trans fat is not essential and provides no benefit to human health.
• Trans fatty acids raise cholesterol and in addition lower HDL cholesterol and raise lipoprotein
levels, thus raising the risk of CHD.
• Depending on the degree of hydrogenation trans fats in foods contain anywhere from 5% to 40%
• Meat and dairy products contain trans fats.

Isoprenoids
• They are extraordinarily large and diverse groups of lipids built from one or five carbon units.
• Isoprenoids include essential oils of plants like limonene from lemons.
• Plant pigments that transfer electrons in photosynthesis is also called as isoprenoids. This group
contains lycopene (red pigment in tomato) and carotenoids (yellow and orange pigments).
• Isoprenoids can quench free radicals by transfer or donating electrons. Hence found in antioxidants.
Visible and Invisible fats:
• Visible fats are mainly triacylglycerols.
• Hidden fats, present in the membranes of plant and animal tissues are mainly phospholipids,
glycolipids and cholesterol.
• Products like butter, ghee, vanaspati and various edible oils such as gingelly oil or groundnut oil are
visible fats.
• Foods like cereals, pulses, oil seeds, nuts, milk, egg and meat contain fat. The fats present in these
foods which are not visible are called invisible fat.

Characteristic of Animal and Vegetable Fats:

• Vegetable fats contain unsaturated fatty acids and are liquid at room temperature
• Animal fats contain more saturated fatty acids and are solid at room temperature
• Melting point increases with chain length and lower considerably on the introduction of double bonds
• Food and body fats contain mixtures of short and long chains fatty acid and saturated and unsaturated
fatty acids, coconut oil being an exception
• Palmitic and stearic acids predominate in animal fats while oleic and linoleic acids predominate in
vegetable fats
 Functions
Role of Fat in Body
1. Essential constituent of the membrane of every cell:
• Fat is present not only in outer membranes of all cells but also in internal membranes of nucleus,
endoplasmic reticulum and other membrane bound organelles.
2. Energy Reserve:
• Fat is primary form in which energy is stored in the body. It is stored in large number of
specialized fat cells, adipocytes, within adipose tissues, whose main functions is to store fat. The
number of these cells are genetically determined and can increase in size at anytime to
accommodate increase stores of fat.
• Excess reserves of fats cannot be excreted and can be reduced by the oxidation of fats which
occurs when there is insufficient intake of calories
3. Absorption of fat soluble vitamins:
• Vitamins A,D,E & K are absorbed in the body through fat
• Malabsorption of fat results in deficiency of fat soluble vitamins in the body
4. Regulator of body function:
• As an essential component of all cell membranes fats help to regulate the flow of material into and
out of the cells and change in cell size and shape, involved in growth.
• Specific long chain unsaturated fatty acid acts as precursor of a range of hormones like
substances, eicosanoids. Eicosanoids includes classes of important physiological regulators
known as prostaglandins, prostacyclins, thromboxanes and leukotrienes. Eicosanoids performs
functions including the regulation of blood pressure, controls important aspects of the
reproductive cycles, simulation of pain and fever and induction of blood clotting.
5. Insulator:
• Subcutaneous fat serves as a insulating material for the body and is effective at preventing heat
loss. Minimum layer of fat is desirable, too thick a layer slows down heat loss in hot weather,
causing discomfort.
6. Protector:
• Deposits of fat surround certain vital organs like the kidney and heart, serving to hold them in
position and protect them from physical shock.
• These deposits are last to be drawn for energy supplies when energy in the diet is inadequate.
Role of Fat in Diet
1. Source of energy:
• Fat is the most concentrated source of energy. Each gram releases 9 kcal of energy in the body
when completely oxidized.
2. Satiety value:
• Fat tends to leave the stomach slowly.
• It can be released from the stomach for up to 3.5 hours with precise timings depending on the
size and composition of the meal. This prolong stay in stomach helps to delay the onset of
hunger and contributes to a felling of satiety.
3. Carrier of fat soluble vitamins:
4. Palatability:
• The presence of fat in food contributes more to the texture and flavor of food.
• Frying improves the taste of food.
• Many of the substances responsible for flavors and aromas of food are soluble in fat, so the fat
tends to carry these flavors and aromas and mix them throughout the food as a whole.
 Digestion and Absorption
• The digestion of fat is initiated by lingual lipase enzyme. This enzyme mixes with chewed food and
hydrolyses fatty acids from triglycerides to form diglycerides as the food travels down the
esophagus. This enzyme hydrolyses short chain and medium chain triglycerides more readily than
long chain triglycerides.
• From stomach, food passes to small intestine, where presence of fat stimulates release of hormones
cholecystokinin and secritin. In turn, these hormones stimulate secretion of pancreatic juice from
pancreas and release bile from gallbladder.
• As food masses mix with bile, lipid becomes bound with emulsified droplets that are coated in bile
salts and bile phospholipids. Pancreatic juice is secreted as it raises the pH from 5.5 to 6.5 in which
the pancreatic lipase becomes active.
• However, pancreatic lipase cannot act until procolipase is also secreted from pancreas, becomes
activated to colipase and the emulsified lipid droplets to permit lipase to act on the triglycerides
within. Pancreatic lipase hydrolyses triglycerides to yield free fatty acids and monoglycerides.
• Once absorbed into intestinal cell, longer chain free fatty acids and monoglycerides and combined
back in the intestinal lumen. These triglycerides are incorporated into chylomicrons and
subsequently released inward to lymph by process of exocytosis.
• Medium chain and short chain fatty acids are not recombined but absorbed quickly into blood
capillaries that lead to portal vein, in to the liver.
• Longer chain fatty acids with higher melting point are absorbed more sloely than with lower melting
points.
• Trans fatty acids are more slowly absorbed.
 Transport and Metabolism
• Lipids are insoluble in water, they can be transported in circulation if they become associated with
proteins to form lipoproteins, miscible in water. Four classes of plasma proteins are recognized-
chylomicrons, VLDL (Very Low Density Lipoproteins), LDL (Low Density Lipoproteins) and HDL
(High Density Lipoproteins).

• Chylomicrons, lowest density lipoproteins contain 10-12 carbon, monoglycerides, glycerol and small
amounts of cholesterol and phospholipids. They are released form intestinal mucosal cells into the
lymphatic system and are carried into general circulation. Their presence in blood plasma gives it a
milky appearance.
• VLDL particles also transport triglycerides but mainly endogenous triglycerides formed in liver.
When both chylomicrons and VLDL particles reach capillaries of the tissues to which they are
delivering lipid, and enzyme called lipoprotein lipase plays a key role in breaking them down and
releasing their fatty acids and other lipids such as monoglycerides for entry into the tissue cells.
• HDL’s are either secreted from the liver or intestine or formed in plasma from chylomicrons and
VLDL’s. LDL’s are formed from VLDL’s. LDL transports cholesterol to the cells of the body,
whereas HDL transports the cholesterol to the liver.
• Once fatty acids enter tissue cells that can be metabolized in 4 different ways:
i. The can be immediately used as a source of energy.
ii. They can be stored as energy reserves in adipose tissue.
iii. They can be incorporated as required into lipid containing structures of the cell, particularly its
various lipid-based membranes.
iv. They can be used as raw material for the synthesis of a variety of essential compounds of the
body including cholesterol.
 Essential Fatty Acids
• Essential fatty acids are important to life as they cannot be synthesized by the body, then must be
supplied by the diet.
• Linoleic acid, α-linolenic acid and arachidonic acid are essential fatty acids.
Functions:
• Energy stores: EFA’s are found in skin phospholipids and also occur as TG serving as energy stores
for sebum precursors. These are oxidized more rapidly than SFA.
• Immune Health: The immune system acts to protect the host from pathogens and from other
environmental insults. The EFA’s are involved in bacterial activity against common pathogens like
staphylococcus, streptococci, pneumococci and are also known to be very much involved in the
membrane composition of immune competent cells- T cells and B cells.
• Growth development: Intrauterine and postnatal growth requires a high supply of ω-3 fatty acids.
The EFA plays a role in fetal growth and early human development. There are significant
associations between dietary intake of arachidonic acid and docosahexaenoic acid and birth
weight, head circumference and placental weight. In EFA deficient animals, conversion of food
energy into metabolic energy for growth and maintenance is poor.
• Vision and CNS: Brain and nervous tissue membrane lipids contain a particularly high proportion of
arachidonic acid and DHA. The photoreceptor in the retina of eye also contains high proportion of
phospholipids with DHA. DHA inproves visual acuity and hand-eye coordination in infants.
• Role in CVD: ω-3 and ω-6 fatty acids exert reverse effect on atherogenesis and thrombus formation.
Specific Functions of ω-6:
• Health of skin: The major fatty acid of epidermis is arachidonic acid. Linoleic acid also serves in the
epidermis regulationg barrier function and it is known to be involved in maintaining the integrity of skin and
fragility of mitochondrial membranes. All skin functions and maintenance of membrane stability are done
mostly by ω-6 fatty acids.

Specific Functions of ω-3:

• Prevents Cancer: Have been found to prevent breast and colon cancer by inhibiting tumor cell growth.
• Anti-inflammatory effect: ω-3 rich foods increase the cell membrane content of both EPA and DHA which
increase the production of anti-inflammatory group icosanoid. They also decrease the production of IL-1 and
TNF. Fish oil supplements in patients with inflammatory diseases such as RA and IBS results in significant
improvements.
• Formation of prostaglandins: Responsible for the formation of prostaglandins, cells regulating transmission
of genetic information from generation to generation.
• Defence mechanism: Creates healthy cells walls and supports defence mechanism of the body and
detoxification activity.
• Role in extracellular matrix: Regulates the activity and influences multiplication, development, movement,
shape and biochemical functions of cells.
• Lipids in cerebral cortex: Contributes to intelligence and mental alertness.
Other Functions:
• Helps in preventing depression
• Reduces chances of getting asthma
• It has an anti-ageing effect, and reduces risk of cognitive decline or dementia such as Alzheimer
disease.
Deficiency:
• Rarely found in man, it has been reported in patients fed solely by vein (TPN) for long periods
without fat emulsions.
• EFA deficiencies can occur in fat malabsorption and occasionally in protein-calorie malnutrition,
where deficiency of fat calories.
• Deficiency of EFA may cause permanent learning defects and alteration in synaptic functions in the
brain.
• Children’s develop a dry, thick, flaking skin and suffered from retarded growth.
• EFA deficiency adversely affects:
o Reproduction and lactation
o Integrity of the cell membranes and cells
o Certain enzyme systems
o Transport of cholesterol
o Increase the risk of coronary heart disease
o Water balance
o Growth
o Production of energy by the oxidation of fatty acids
 RDA
• Laboratory studies have indicated that less than 5g visible fat is enough to ensure intestinal
absorption of both vitamin A and β-carotene.
• Minimum amount of fat is essential to provide EFA, fat above a certain level is also undesirable.
• Dietary fat intake of 30% or more is undesirable.
• 10-15% of this can come from invisible fat, visible fat intake should be kept below 50g/day.
 Sources
• Fat should not contribute more
than 30% of total energy
requirement.
• Nuts and oils are excellent sources
of fat.
• Visible fat: butter, ghee and oils.
• Invisible fat: Cereals, pulses,
oilseeds, milk and egg.
• ꞷ-6: Corn, cotton seed, safflower
and soyabean oils.
• ꞷ-3: Fish oils, fatty fish (mackerel,
salmon, crab), flax seeds, rape
seeds, soyabean and walnuts.
 Food Science Principles
1. Melting Point: Fats melt when heated. Since, fats are the
mixture of triglycerides, they do not have a fixed melting
point. Most of fats melt at temperature between 30°C to
40°C.
2. Smoke Point: When fat or oil is heated to a certain
temperature, it starts to decompose, producing a blue smoke
and a characteristic smell. The temperature at which the oil
or fat gives blue smoke is known as smoke point. Most oils
and fats start to smoke at a temperature above 200°C.
3. Flash Point: When a fat is heated to a high temperature it
spontaneously catches fire. The temperature is known as
flash point.
4. Plasticity: The property of a substance to change shape, when
pressure is applied to them. They do not turn to their original
shape even when pressure is removed. Fats are plastic at
room temperature, so they are soft and can be spread.
5. Hydrogenation: The addition of hydrogen to unsaturated fats, thus converting oils into solid fats is
known as hydrogenation.
6. Rancidity: Oils and fats are liable to spoilage on storage, which results in the production of
unpleasant, unacceptable odor and flavor. Such spoilage is known as rancidity.
• Hydrolytic Rancidity- The type of rancidity occurs as a result of hydrolysis of triglyceride
molecules of glycerol and free fatty acids, due to presence of water molecules in oil.
• Oxidative Rancidity- Fats and oils when exposed to air, react with oxygen producing
products with undesirable characteristics such as developing rancid flavor.