We spread butter on our breakfast toast and plopped sour cream on our baked potatoes. But ever since word got out that diets high in fat are related to heart disease, things have become more complicated. Fats and Fatty Acids Fats are a group of chemical compounds that contain fatty acids. Energy is stored in the body mostly in the form of fat. Fat is needed in the diet to supply essential fatty acids , substances essential for growth but not produced by the body itself.
All fatty acids are molecules composed mostly of carbon and hydrogen atoms.
A saturated fatty acid has the maximum possible number of hydrogen atoms attached to every carbon atom. Some fatty acids are missing one pair of hydrogen atoms in the middle of the molecule. Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids are mostly found in foods of plant origin and some seafoods. These are byproducts of partial hydrogenation , a process in which some of the missing hydrogen atoms are put back into polyunsaturated fats. Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats do not promote the formation of artery-clogging fatty deposits the way saturated fats do.