Saturated means that the carbon skeleton has all the available bonding sites taken up by hydrogens. Tri-glycerides with unsaturated fatty acids are termed oils in every day speech because they are liquid at room temperature. Saturated tri-glycerides are considered bad because they cause the body to produce excess cholesterol . Diagram illustrating the concept of saturated vs. unsaturated bonds. Saturated bonds are when each of the carbons has four single bonds as in the top figure.
Unsaturated carbons have one or more double or triple bonds.
Note the kinky or pleated shape of the unsaturated carbon skeleton. This spaces the chains allowing them to slide around. Previous Page, Next Page pgd.