I asked about good and bad fats not where they come from. Answer was what to eat. I want to know what they r?!
Answers:
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Good fats: Olives, avocados, and mayonnaise (supposedly although i don't agree with that one).
Bad fats: Saturated fats, trans fats, lard, vegetable oil, vegetable shortening, butter, and margarine.
(There are a lot more that I did not mention). Google for more.
Good and bad fats: The media like to make things simple, but in reality there are not really such things as good and bad fats, only fats you should eat more often and fats you should eat less often. A fat is made up of fatty acids, which are long chain hydrocarbons with a carboxcylic acid group on the end, joined to a molecule of glycerol.
Fig 1. An average fat molecule, the long chaings of C and H are fatty acids, they are joined by an ester bond to the glycerol molecule at the end.
http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultrane…
The properties of a specific fat are decided by the structure of the fatty acids , in fig 1 we have what is known as a "saturated fat", a saturated fat is one where all the Carbon to Carbon bonds are single bonds. They are generally found in animal fats.
An unsaturated fat is one where there are double bonds in the fatty acid chain, these fats are generally described as better for you.
Fig 2 An unsaturated Fat, note the double bond, note how the double bond has introduced a "kink" in the chain.
http://homepage.smc.edu/wissmann_paul/hu…
Unsaturated fats come in two different varieties, Cis and Trans, Cis fats occur naturally in plants and animals, they are generally believed to be better for you. The double bond in a cis molecule introduces a kink into the chain, however the double bond in a trans fat does not, see Fig 3.
Fig 3. The difference between a cis and trans double bond, how one introduces a kink and the other does not.
http://www.hidden-diabetes-cures.com/ima…
Because of this trans fats are similar to unsaturated fats, in as much as they have straight chains, however on top of this trans fats are not naturally occuring in plants and animals so they are beleived to be harmful to biological systems.
Finally Omega 3 fats are often described as good fats, omega 3 simply refers to the position of the double bond on the fatty acid chain. Fig 2 is in fact an omega 3 fatty acid as the double bond is three carbons away from the tail end.
Biochemistry student.
