How Fat is Used and Broken Down by the Body
Author: tiger Published Under: Health
Contrary to what many believe, fat is actually an essential part of any diet, necessary to prevent heart disease and remain healthy. There are of course healthy fats and unhealthy fats, with it also possible to eat too much fat, but without fat in your diet, it is not possible to stay healthy.
Healthy fats, which are called essential fatty acids, are used by the body for a variety of processes vital to our health. To better understand fat, it is necessary to understand how the body uses and breaks down the fats that we eat.
Digestion of Fat Starts in the Mouth and Stomach
As soon as you put a food with fat in your mouth, the body begins preparing it for digestion, with special enzymes in the mouth beginning the process of breaking down food.
When the food reaches your stomach, it is broken down more completely, with the fats rising to the surface of the stomach.
The Role of the Intestines
Since fat is not water soluble, it does not mix with the liquids of the stomach, so fat is, for the most part, not processed in the stomach. Instead, the digestion and breaking down of fatty acids begins in earnest in the small intestines.
The gallbladder, which stores bile produced in the liver, squirts bile into the intestines, which fuses with the fatty acids. The bile helps to disperse the fatty acids so that they can be broken down by the body. The enzymes in the intestine split apart the triglycerides glycerol chain, which are then reformed into different types of fat. Sometimes these reformed types of fat are coated in a protein called lipoproteins, because they are too big. The lipoproteins help carry them around the body.
Once the fatty acids have been broken down, they are sent throughout the body via the bloodstream and the fat is either stored for later use or used for energy. Fatty acids with longer hydrogen chains are usually stored as fat, while those with shorter hydrogen chains are more likely to be used right away. Of course, the body prefers to use glucose, a type of blood sugar, as its chief energy source, which is not always present or properly handled by those who have diabetes.
Storing Fat in the Body
While many people are packrats and having some fat stored up is very important, it can accumulate very quickly, especially in those who are not active. This problem is further complicated, as most processed foods do not contain healthy fats, but unhealthy saturated fats, which are not as likely to be used as energy. As a result, a diet of mostly saturated fats promotes fat storage.
There are many places that fat accumulates, which can in some way be considered mini-gas stations in the body. These places vary depending on the person and even the gender, but common fat gas stations are the breasts, buttocks, hips, and thighs. However, fat can accumulate virtually anywhere in the body, including around muscles.
Eating some fat is essential to a healthy diet, but the more you eat, the more your body is likely to store.
Usually, when most people think about dieting, it is in an effort to remove these fat gas stations, which is not always easy. This is especially true of those who are overweight by more than fifty pounds, because at this point, the cells used to process fat are forced to become enlarged to continue working.
As a result, these cells, called fat cells, quickly multiply exponentially, which ends up being a lifelong affect f being overweight.
The Plus Side to Having a Fat Gas Station
While many people strive to break down the fat stores in their body, having some stored fat is actually very important. This stored fat can be used in an emergency as an energy source and also helps insulate us from the cold. This is because most fat stores are located right below the skin, which provides an extra layer between us and the environment.
Keeping the Right Balance
A diet without any fat would be incredibly unhealthy and dangerous. EFAs, essential fatty acids, are used by our bodies to maintain many of the most vital bodily functions. However, it is also possible to have too much fat, which is often referred to as being obese or overweight. Just like not having enough fat is unhealthy, having too much can also be dangerous. It is essential to find a healthy balance.
One of the problems that makes getting enough EFAs more difficult is that the process used in many types of food manufacturing actually strips out EFAs, instead replacing them with unhealthy saturated fat. This type of fat not only is more likely to be stored by the body, but also reverses many of the effects of the EFAs. This is one of the causes of obesity in Western Countries, such as the United States.