WHAT DO FATTY ACIDS LOOK LIKE? UNSATURATED FATS
A fatty acid molecule consists of a chain of carbon atoms with hydrogen atoms attached. The end of the molecule with three hydrogens (H) attached to the carbon (C) atom is called the methyl end. The other end is known as the carboxyl end. The chain has an even number of carbon atoms which stretches from four to 24 carbon atoms. If there are less than 8 carbons in the chain, the fatty acid is called a short chain fatty acid. Medium chain fatty acids have 8-10 carbons. If there are 12, 14, 16 or 18 carbons, it is called a long chain fat and these encompass most of the fatty acids in the human diet These are commonly found in chocolate, meat and processed fats. Fatty acids with more than 20 carbons are very long chain fatty acids. They’re found in breast milk, seafoods and some seeds and vegetables. Some medium chain fatty acids can be changed within the body to longer chain fatty acids.
There may be spots in the chain of carbon atoms making up a fatty acid where a carbon is not bound to the usual number of four hydrogen atoms. In such cases, the spare carbon forms a double bond with its neighbour. If there is only one double bond in the molecule, it looks like the molecule and is called a monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA). The most common monounsaturated fatty acid has 18 carbon atoms, with the double bond occurring on the 9th carbon atom from the methyl end of the chain. This is known as oleic acid. It is one of the most abundant fatty acids and is the principal fatty add in olive and canola oils (called ‘canola’ for ‘Canadian oil’ to get around the embarrassing marketing problem of the term ‘rape-seed’).
If there is more than one double bond in the fatty acid. These are called polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). The most common source of PUFAs are oils such as sunflower, safflower, com, sesame and soy bean.
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