WHY BUTTER IS A SATURATED FAT

THEY are terms that we encounter every day: saturated and unsaturated fats. But what do they actually mean?

All fats are made up of long chains of carbon atoms. Every carbon-to-carbon bond contains energy that our bodies use for metabolic processes.

Fats such as cheese and butter have the most energy of all nutrients. ‘Fantastic!’ our body thinks. Our love for this valuable energy source ensures that we will devour it whenever we can.

Unfortunately, fat is available everywhere these days, and a valuable energy source has become an unhealthy treat. So what is the difference between unsaturated and saturated fat? Every carbon atom can form four bonds. Within a fat chain, every carbon atom is bonded to two other carbon atoms, meaning it still has two bonds available. If you add two hydrogen atoms to each carbon in the chain, you get a saturated fat or fatty acid — i.e. it is ‘saturated’ with hydrogen.

In unsaturated fats, each carbon forms a double bond with another carbon, so there’s only one hydrogen atom attached to every carbon, making it ‘unsaturated’. As the double bonds make unsaturated fatty acids more rigid, their structure is usually ‘kinked’, which alters how it is broken down by the body.

That’s why unsaturated fats tend to produce liquid fats, while saturated fatty acids tend to produce solid fats. (When unsaturated fats aren’t kinked, they are called trans fats — the most dangerous type of fat that we should limit in our diets).