Saturated and unsaturated fatty acids

Fatty acids - what is it?

In principle, "fatty acids" are on everyone's lips, and not just literally, because you eat them with you, but also when you have questions about healthy eating. But what are actually fatty acids chemically?

• Fatty acids are first and foremost acids that occur in fats (this is why they are called this for historical reasons).
• These are special carboxylic acids, a class of substances that have at least one so-called in their molecules. Carboxyl group - i.e. a COOH group - contains as a functional group.
• These carboxylic acids can of course contain one or even more of these groups. The simplest are so-called. Monocarboxylic acids that contain only one carboxyl group.
• The monocarboxylic acids form a homologous series and have (in the simplest case) the general empirical formula C._nH_2n+ COOH.


Are Saturated Or Unsaturated Fatty Acids Better? - Interesting facts about fats

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Many people who want to lose weight condemn fats. Your body needs fat, ...

• Accordingly, monocarboxylic acids can form long-chain molecules. Some play in the biochemistry play an important role and occur in fats.
• Examples of fatty acids are butyric acid (chemical name butanoic acid C₃H₇COOH), palmitic acid (chemical name hexadecanoic acid C₁₅H₃₁COOH), but also oleic acid or stearic acid.

Saturated or unsaturated fatty acids - the chemical difference

• Fats, as an indispensable component of food, are always mixtures of substances and contain - depending on their biological origin - different fatty acids.
• Most of the carboxylic acids involved in fats, which are formed in the metabolism of living things (i.e. plants and animals), are based on ethanoic acid building blocks with two carbon atoms.
• The chemical difference between saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, however, lies in the type of C-bonds.
• If there are double bonds in the carbon atoms, then the fatty acids are unsaturated (rule of thumb: theoretically you could expand the double bond). Depending on the number of double bonds, one speaks of single, double or even triple unsaturated fatty acids. Such fatty acids are considered healthier.
• If there are only simple carbon bonds, then it is a saturated fatty acid.
• Examples of saturated fatty acids are butyric acid (found in butter fat) as well as lauric acid (in coconut fat) and stearic acid (lard).
• Examples of unsaturated fatty acids are oleic acid (in olive oil and sunflower oil) and linoleic acid (for example in linseed oil).
• Often it is generalized here in the sense of "animal fats contain saturated fatty acids and vegetable fats resp. Oils contain unsaturated fatty acids ". This picture is (unfortunately) incorrect, because most of the fats resp. Oil are mixtures and contain both types of fatty acids in different compositions.