Talk:Unsaturated fat

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Contents 1 1. Position of this topic, 2. Expansion needed 2 Is image *really* US gov. property? 3 Merge 4 Frying oil 5 Inconsistency

[edit] 1. Position of this topic, 2. Expansion needed

1. This topic should be part of the topic on Vegetable (and animal) oils and fats (Oils are not mentioned here)

2.1 There is no mention about the position(s) of double bond(s), e.g. the importance of the omega position.

2.2 Canola (rapeseed) oil needs to be expanded on: It exists in 3 varieties according to erucic acid content (or perhaps even four: high, medium, and low or no erucic acid) The importance of this is that the high erucic acid oil is POISONOUS and it can only be used industrially (Spanish incident in the 1990's?).

2.3 Vegetable oils or fats are used in lubrication (as 'lubricity' agents). I shall have a go at enlarging on this LouisBB 06:45, 20 May 2006

[[what is an example of an unsaturated fat?]] -[[1]]Bensaccount 05:09, 27 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Any vegetable oil has them (canola, soy, corn). I don't know of any technical names of them.

At what temperature do they become saturated? Doesn't cooking unsaturated fats make them saturated?

No, the temperature really cannot chnage the fat "saturation level", irrespective of melting or solidification by the temperature changes.

This is written in case Bensaccount from last year is still with us: --- Vegetable oils (fish oils) and animal fats are all tri-glycerides, tri-esters of glycerine (IUPAC name = glycerol) and fatty acids though incomplete esterification can also occur, when the glycerine only combines with two fatty acid for instance. The fatty acids and also the fats and /or oils can be saturated (chiefly palmitic and/or stearic acid) and unsaturated (examples oleic, linoleic, linolenic etc acids). The saturated acids render the fat hard (beef dripping hardest) Unsaturated oils are sometimes converted to saturated fats by hydrogenation converting them to margarine. The most unsaturated oils are also called drying oils because they solidify in air, such as linseed oil. In this case it is not hydrogen but oxygen causes the saturation, although other chemical reactions, probably chemical condensation also occur. So linseed oil is a very good example for you LouisBB 07:20, 20 May 2006

[edit] Is image *really* US gov. property?

The recently added graphic of "fat types" is fantastic, but I don't think the license/copyright information is correct. The image appears to be a scanned newspaper article from the New York Times. Can the poster of the image provide information to verify that the copyright is not volated?

[edit] Merge

I suggest that we merge monounsaturated fat into this article because that article is extremely short and will probably be nothing more than a stub. If someone improves it I will change my mind. Freddie 13:06, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

I have revised and expanded upon both the monounsaturated fat and the unsaturated fat articles. Unsaturated fats consist of both monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, so it would be assymetric to incorporate monounsaturated into the unsaturated page without also incorporating polyunsaturated. Please see the revisions I have made to both of the pages under consideration, as well as my comments at Talk:Monounsaturated fat --Ben Best 19:00, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

Freddie has called off the merge on the Talk:Monounsaturated fat page and has removed the merge label from the monounsaturated fat page, but has neglected to remove the merge label for the unsaturated fat. I will do so. --Ben Best 02:49, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Frying oil

I think it is important to mention that frying unsaturated fat (such as olive oil) renders unsaturated fat into saturated fat. This is a common misconception that has great health implications, as people tend to "fry at freewill" using olive oil believing that it the intake of the fried olive oil will still "be good" for them. --Pinnecco 19:38, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Inconsistency

This:

Unsaturated fats are popular with manufacturers of processed foods because they are less vulnerable to rancidity and extremely solid at room temperature than saturated fat.

Is contradicted by these:

The greater the degree of unsaturation in a fatty acid (ie, the more double bonds in the fatty acid), the more vulnerable it is to lipid peroxidation (rancidity).

This effect is attributed to the low melting point of unsaturated fats found in food.

As well as being inconsistent with my own, unqualified understanding. --ToobMug 23:12, 10 October 2006 (UTC)