Essay: Fats

1. To fully understand this topic, we need to know what fats are. They are esters of glycerol and carboxylic acids. They do not dissolve in water, but do dissolve in petrol, and have the pH of 7. Here is what a simple fats structure can look like.
2. Fats can be divided into three main types: saturated, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated. Besides there are also trans fats, which behave like saturated fat in the body. Saturated fats and trans fats are considered less healthy types of fats. They raise the level of ‘bad’ LDL (which stands for low density lipoprotein) cholesterol in our blood. However, trans fats also decrease the ‘good’ HDL (high density lipoprotein) cholesterol. All of these changes increase your risk of heart disease and stroke. Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats are better for your body and, in fact, are necessary for good health. They help reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke by lowering the ‘bad’ (LDL) cholesterol in your blood.
3. We can use orange bromine water to test for unsaturation. When it is added to a sample of fat or oil, the bromine water stays orange with a saturated fat or oil, and the bromine water goes colorless with an unsaturated fat or oil.
4. Another classification of fats identifies two main groups: animal and vegetal. Most of the animal fats are solid and saturated, except blubber, which is an unsaturated fluid. Examples of the animal fats are: lard, cod-liver oil or butter. Another category here are vegetal fats. As opposed to animal ones, they are liquid and unsaturated, except cocoa milk. More examples are: olive oil or rapeseed oil.
5. We obtain fats in the reaction of esterification of glycerol and some carboxylic acid. The example can be the obtaining of glyceryl tristearate, which is shown in the picture right here. Below, there is the reaction that occurs between glycerol and palmitic acid with oleic acid to form dipalmitin glycerol oleate.
6. Fats are commonly used in food industry, where products such as oil, butter or margarine are produced. Margarine is an emulsion of water in vegetable oils. Vegetable oils used as raw materials for margarine may need to be ‘hardened’ by reacting them with hydrogen. This makes oils more saturated. Vegetable oils are hardened by bubbling hydrogen gas through them at about 200??C in the presence of a nickel catalyst.
7. Also, we can find fats in the bottles of numerous medicaments, for example in salves and creams. They also prove to be useful in cosmetic products like soap. Soap is made by reacting natural fats and oils with hot sodium hydroxide solution. This process is called saponification. Here is the general equation for saponification:
fat + sodium hydroxide ‘ soap + glycerol
The type of reaction involved is called a hydrolysis reaction, in which a substance reacts with water and becomes split as a result. The hydroxide ions present in saponification act as a catalyst, with water needed supplied by the sodium hydroxide solution.
8. We cannot forget that our bodies consist of fats that serve us as our spare energy. Also, they protect us from losing heat. They keep our inner organs in one place and protect them from outer injuries.