Some time ago, I introduced to you what fatty acids are, Another friend left messages asking about the concept of fatty acids, Therefore, here Xiaobian gives you a display of the current main types of fatty acids (it needs to show that only part of the types of fatty acids are displayed, There are about over 40 different fatty acids in nature, Here is just for a brief explanatory introduction, To let you have a simple understanding of fatty acids, Not for professional research), At the same time, we will also take this opportunity to tell you about saturated fatty acids and unsaturated fatty acids in an intuitive way, The concept of fatty acids like Oleic Acid, linoleic acid, OMEGA-3, and OMEGA-6, and the relationship between them, At the same time, simply talk about their impact on human health;

The figures below are the current 33 major fatty acids:

saturated fatty acids

The definition of saturated fatty acids is stated here again for saturated fatty acid: saturated fatty acid (SFA) is an acid containing a saturated hydrocarbon group, with only a saturated C-C single bond or a C-H single bond on the carbon chain.It is more saturated fatty acids in animal fat and is one of the basic components of lipids.Generally, there are bitter acid, decanoic acid, lauric acid, cardamic acid, soft lipic acid, stearic acid, peanut acid, etc., the main sources are livestock meat and milk, existing in the fat of cattle, sheep, pigs and other animals, there are a few plants such as coconut oil, cocoa oil, palm oil also contain such fatty acids.There are 12 saturated fatty acids listed in the table above;

There are many articles saying that saturated fatty acids are bad fatty acids, this statement is inaccurate, the main role of saturated fatty acids is to provide energy for the human body, if the saturated fat intake is insufficient, will make people"s blood vessels become brittle, easy to cause cerebral hemorrhage, anemia, easy to develop tuberculosis and neurological disorders and other diseases.At the same time, saturated fatty acids can increase cholesterol and neutral fat in the human body. Excessive intake of saturated fatty acids will lead to the increase of blood cholesterol, triacylglycerol and LDL-C, cause secondary artery lumen stenosis, form atherosclerosis, and increase the risk of coronary heart disease.

At present, most people have excessive saturated fatty acid intake, such as fried foods, so saturated fatty acids are considered a non-essential fatty acid in modern society, in fact enough fat intake in material rich societies is necessary for human survival and reproduction;

Monounsaturated

Unsaturated fatty acids can be divided into mono and PUFA, with 6 o and 15 out of the 33 fatty acids in the table above;

The above six monounsaturated fatty acids are: Myristolic Acid (C14:1), Palmitoleic Acid (C16:1), Oleic Acid(C18:1), Eicosenoic Acid(C20:1),Cetoleic Acid (C22:1),Nervonic Acid (C24:1);

1. Myristolic Acid (C14:1) is mainly found in butter, amniotic lipid and fish oil, but the content is not high.

2. Palmitoleic Acid(C16:1), many fish oil is more in content, such as 15% in fish oil, palm oil, cotton oil, butter and lard.

3. Oleic Acid (C18:1), the most common fatty acid, in animal fat, Oleic Acid accounts for about 40%~50% of fatty acids.In vegetable oil, as high as 83% of tea oil, peanut oil up to 54%, while coconut oil is only 5%~6%, usually through cooking oil (animal oil or vegetable oil) to take up Oleic Acid;.

4. Eicosenoic Acid (C20:1), connected with a hydroxyl group on its 20th carbon, is the main fatty acid in castor oil.

5.Cetoleic Acid (C22:1), present in many oils derived from cruciciaceae, such as mustard and mustard (Sinapis arvensis).Most of the previous vegetable oils contained Cetoleic Acid , which is still extremely abundant in those produced in undeveloped countries.This year, there is evidence that Cetoleic Acid may lead to lipid deposition heart disease, so some businesses currently introduce low Cetoleic Acid ;

6. Neuroic acid (C24:1), because it was early found in shark brain, some people also call Neuroic acid sharic acid. Neuroic acid is the core natural component of nerve fibers and nerve cells in the brain.The lack of neurological acid will cause the sequelae of stroke.Alzheimer"s brain, cerebral palsy, brain atrophy, memory loss, insomnia, amnesia and other brain diseases.Modern use of plant synthetic nerve acid, plant nerve acid has been used as an industrial raw material for pharmaceutical production, and more widely used in the treatment of neurological diseases.

Some Monounsaturated (unsaturated fatty acids are at the ninth carbon atom from Omega, so some mono-unsaturated fatty acids are called omega-9, like nutmeg oleic acid, oleic acid, castor oleic acid (unsaturated bond) in shun 9; the double bond (unsaturated bond) is at the seventh carbon atom from Omega, so some institutions call palmitto acid omega-7;

Monounsaturated fatty acids as the substitute for saturated fatty acids, so that the low intake of saturated fatty acids, thus reduce the possibility of increased plasma cholesterol levels; but high monounsaturated fatty acid oils often have easy oxidation, peroxides, poor safety, prone to adverse consequences, such as the changes of cell membrane structure, cholesterol, vitamin E traits, may lead to some chronic diseases.Home storage is prone to acid failure and deterioration, long-time frying can form polymers, etc.

According to the Standards for Healthy Edible Oil released by the FAO of the UN Grain and Oil Organization: saturated fatty acids less than 10%, monounsaturated fatty acids more than 75%;

Polyunsaturated

Polyunsaturated fatty acids include omega-3, omega-6, etc., among the 15 PUBFAs listed in the opening table of the article.

Omega-6

The omega-6 name, as the name suggests, is its double (unsaturated bond) located at the sixth carbon atom from the end of the fatty acid Omega, Of the 15 polyunsaturated fatty acids are omega-6;Linoleic acid (C18:2N6), Gamma-linolenic Acid (C18:3N6), Eicosadienoic Acid(C20:2N6), Dihomo-gamma-linolenic Acid(C20:3N6), Arachidonic Acid(C20:4N6), Docosadienoic Acid(C22:2N6), Adrenic Acid (C22:4N6), Docosapentaenoic Acid (n-6)(C22:5N6);

Here I would like to highlight the often mentioned Linoleic acid (C18:2N6), Gamma-linolenic Acid (C18:3N6), Arachidonic Acid (C20:4N6);

1. Linoleic acid (C18:2N6): high in several vegetable oils, accounting for 76% -83% of the total fatty acid of safflower seed oil, walnut oil, 40-60% of the total fatty acid of cottonseed oil, sunflower seed oil and sesame oil, about 25% of the total fatty acid of peanut oil and olive oil, and linoleic acid in animal fat is generally low, such as butter is 1.8% and lard is 6%;

2. Gamma-linolenic Acid  (C18:3N6): At present, Gamma-linolenic Acid  produced at home and abroad mainly comes from monthly grass oil, and monthly grass oil is pressed by monthly grass seeds. The natural monthly grass oil contains more than 90% polyunsaturated fatty acids, with the most content being linoleic acid (LA) and Gamma-linolenic Acid  (GLA);

3. Arachidonic acid (C20:4N6): Arachidonic acid is actually the scientific name of ARA or AA. Some studies show that the lack of ARA may have serious adverse effects on the development of human tissues and organs, especially the brain and nervous system. At present, ARA is more added in milk powder;

In the modern western diet, the main source of Omega-6 fatty acids is from a variety of seeds, and because the animal feed usually contains seeds (e. g., soybean, corn), so the animal meat raised in the modern feed is also relatively high in Omega-6 content;

OMEGA-6 is essential in the human body; cholesterol must be combined with linoleic acid (LA) of OMEGA-6 to function and metabolism; unsaturated fatty acids OMEGA-6 and OMEGA-3 in the human brain; prostaglandin PGE2 A produced by arachidonic acid (ARA-) of OMEGA-6 is an essential hormone for many human functions;

But the harm caused by excessive uptake of OMEGA-6 has been demonstrated in modern studies, That is, the Linoleic acid (Omega-6 fatty acid) excess syndrome is named by Okuyama, That is, Omega-6 has an excessive intake, This syndrome promotes inflammation in the body, Create more harmful substances, If, acrylein, Hydroxynonenal (HNE), and Malondialdehyde (MDA), These substances have negative effects such as cytotoxicity (killing live cells), mutagicity (inducing DNA mutations) and genotoxicity (destroying DNA); The above effect is an important mechanism to cause the occurrence of various chronic diseases;

omega-3

The name omega-3 is derived from its double bond (unsaturated bond) located at the third carbon atom from the fatty acid Omega end; In fact, seven of the 15 PUFA fatty acids are omega-3: Alpha-linolenic Acid (C18:3N3), Stearidonic Acid(C18:4N3), Eicosatrienoic Acid(C20:3N3), Eicosatetraenoic Acid(C20:4N3), Eicosapentaenoic Acid(C20:5N3) (EPA), Docosapentaenoic Acid (n-3) (C22:5N3), Docosahexaenoic Acid (C22:6N3) (DHA);

In this process, I will focus on Alpha-linolenic acid (C18:3N3), Eicosapentaenoic Acid (C20:5N3) (EPA), and  Docosahexaenoic Acid (C22:6N3) (DHA);

1. Alpha linolenic acid (C18:3N3): Alpha linolenic acid is referred to as ALA, accounting for 67% in basilla seed oil, 55% in peony seed oil, 32% in sea buckthorn seed oil, 20% in Bama fire hemp oil, 10% in rapeseed oil, 8% in soybean oil and 50% in star oil vine oil.

About 60% of the human brain is composed of fat, nerves and neurons need alpha linolenic acid to provide energy, so the function of the brain and nerves; alpha linolenic acid into the enzyme (dehydrogenase and carbon chain elongase) into eicosapentaenic acid (EPA) and dodecocarhexaenoic A (DHA,), the conversion efficiency is about 9% -11%;

2. Eicosapentaenoic Acid (C20:5N3) (EPA): the common natural EPA is mainly derived from deep sea fish, seaweed, seal oil, etc.; EPA helps reduce the content of cholesterol and triglycerides and promote saturated fatty acid metabolism in the body.Thus play to reduce blood viscosity, enhance blood circulation, improve tissue oxygen supply and eliminate fatigue.Prevent fat deposition in the vascular wall, prevent the formation and development of atherosclerosis, prevent cardiovascular diseases such as cerebral thrombosis, cerebral haemorrhage, and hypertension; Current FDA approved drugs Vascepa, Epanova are high purity eicosapantaenoic acid-EPA; and EPA is also well used in the fields of improving immune system function and reducing joint inflammation;

3. Docosahexaenoic Acid (C22:6N3) (DHA): At present, DHA is mainly extracted from fish, seals and other Marine products. At present, DHA is extracted from seaweed, which can be generated by linolenic acid in the process of in vivo metabolism;

DHA is a highly unsaturated fatty acid essential for brain nutrition. In addition to preventing cholesterol deposition on vascular walls, preventing or alleviating the occurrence of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease, but more importantly, DHA has an extremely important role in brain cells.It accounts for 10% of human brain fat, which is extremely beneficial to the growth and development of brain nerve conduction and synapses. Therefore, DHA is widely used to add and infant milk powder to improve the development of infant brain;

In fact, the role of DHA is not only in the brain development of infants, DHA also has good scientific results in the following fields:

To enhance the learning and memory function, enhance the healthy development of the brain and nerve, prevention and control of vision loss, in anti-oxidation, anti-aging, prevention and treatment and other aspects of Alzheimer"s disease have been modern research results;

Anti-inflammation, inhibit tumor occurrence, growth and metastasis, enhance the sensitivity of tumor cells to chemotherapeutic drugs, improve the cachexia of the body, prolong the survival time of tumor bearing;

4,Docosapentaenoic Acid (n-3)(C22:5N3):Docosapentaenoic Acid (n-3) is a new field of polyunsaturated fatty acid research, has started Docosapentaenoic Acid(n-3) research, and began industrialization, its main role is to repair damaged blood vessels, fight chronic inflammation, improve lipid metabolism, promote EPA and DHA absorption;

Therefore, we can see that different categories of omega-3 are also of different roles for the human body: alpha-linolenic acid mainly comes from plants, He can decompose into EPA, DHA under the action of enzymes in vivo, But its decomposition efficiency is only 9-11%; EPA is derived from marine fish, animals, or algae, Mainly in maintaining cardiovascular health, improving immune system function, reducing joint inflammation, reducing cholesterol and other aspects have a very good role; DHA is derived from marine fish, animals, or algae, It is to strengthen the brain function, antioxidant, anti-aging, Improving memory ability, improving vision and other fields have a broad development;