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Joeschmoe · 09-26-2008, 04:14 PM

Neither of those were answers.

Humans are like any other animal, their fat contains saturated, mono and poly-unsaturated fats. Fat is stored in the body in the form of triglycerides, That is one Glycerin molecule with three fatty acids. You can go take a look at an interactive, 3-d model of the molecule here.

The fatty acids are comprised almost entirely of these 6 types:
Myristic 2-3% 14 Carbons Saturated
Palmitic 22-24% 16 Carbons Saturated
Palmitoleic 4-8% 16 Carbons mono- unsaturated
Stearic 4-8% 18 Carbons Saturated
Oleic 47-52% 18 Carbons mono- unsaturated (n-9)
Linoleic 11-12% 18 Carbons poly- unsaturated (n-6)

If you don't already know a Fatty acid is a long carbon chain with hydrogen. Carbon has 4 electrons in it's outer shell so it can share up to 4 of them. In a saturated fat all the carbons in a chain are single bonded and each one is also bonded to 2 hydrogen atoms. These fatty acids are long and straight and form a more coherent structure making the melting point higher than unsaturated fats. Myristic acid is saturated and looks like this:

Palmitoleic Acid is mono-unsaturated. It has one double carbon-carbon bond. This is where two of the carbons share 2 electons rather than just one. Those carbons only have room for one hydrogen bond each. These fatty acids fold up and are less organized then saturated fats and are therefore generally liquid at room temperature. Palmitoleic looks like this:

Adipose tissue also contains blood vessels, connective tissue, water and protien.

09-26-2008, 04:14 PM	#7 (permalink)
Joeschmoe Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 443	Neither of those were answers. Humans are like any other animal, their fat contains saturated, mono and poly-unsaturated fats. Fat is stored in the body in the form of triglycerides, That is one Glycerin molecule with three fatty acids. You can go take a look at an interactive, 3-d model of the molecule here. The fatty acids are comprised almost entirely of these 6 types: Myristic 2-3% 14 Carbons Saturated Palmitic 22-24% 16 Carbons Saturated Palmitoleic 4-8% 16 Carbons mono- unsaturated Stearic 4-8% 18 Carbons Saturated Oleic 47-52% 18 Carbons mono- unsaturated (n-9) Linoleic 11-12% 18 Carbons poly- unsaturated (n-6) If you don't already know a Fatty acid is a long carbon chain with hydrogen. Carbon has 4 electrons in it's outer shell so it can share up to 4 of them. In a saturated fat all the carbons in a chain are single bonded and each one is also bonded to 2 hydrogen atoms. These fatty acids are long and straight and form a more coherent structure making the melting point higher than unsaturated fats. Myristic acid is saturated and looks like this: Palmitoleic Acid is mono-unsaturated. It has one double carbon-carbon bond. This is where two of the carbons share 2 electons rather than just one. Those carbons only have room for one hydrogen bond each. These fatty acids fold up and are less organized then saturated fats and are therefore generally liquid at room temperature. Palmitoleic looks like this: Adipose tissue also contains blood vessels, connective tissue, water and protien. Last edited by Joeschmoe; 09-26-2008 at 04:16 PM.