George Henderson left the following
comment. I think that the information in it deserves a bigger audience.
Saturated fats seem to get the blame for everything nowadays. "Saturated fats clogged my arteries". "Saturated fats gave me cancer". "Saturated fats stole my job". O.K, I've done that joke before.
There are saturated fats, there are saturated fats, there are saturated fats, there are saturated fats, there are saturated fats and there are saturated fats.
Saturated fats are an ester of
Glycerol (a 3-carbon alcohol) and three saturated fatty acids (SFA's). There are roughly six categories of SFA's.
1) Short chain SFA's such as
Acetic acid,
Propionic acid,
Butyric acid (found in butter and also what soluble fibre ferments into in the colon) and
Caproic acid.
2) Medium chain SFA's such as
Caprylic acid,
Capric acid,
Lauric acid and
Myristic acid.
3) Long chain SFA's such as
Stearic acid.
4) SFA's behaving like
Palmitic acid.
5) Odd chain SFA's such as
Pentadecylic acid and
Margaric acid.
6) Very long chain SFA's such as
Behenic acid.
See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_saturated_fatty_acidsIn foods, the above SFA's are associated with different things.
1) and 2) don't get associated with much polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA's), e.g. dairy and tropical nuts.
3) and 4) are more likely to be associated with long-chain PUFA's, e.g. meats, poultry, temperate nuts.
5) is associated with CLA and not much PUFA's, e.g. dairy from grass-fed animals.
See also
Siri-Tarino et al, Forests & Trees and "Eureka!" moments and
Chowdhury et al, More forests & more trees and more "Eureka!" moments with cheese.
