Nutritional fats: classification, use, calorie content

Already only the word "fat" of many people is horrified. Indeed, immediately there is an association in the mind with a corpulent body and hanging sides. However, food fats for our body are the most real fuel. Unlike carbohydrates and proteins, they have a high energy intensity.

Fat is the most important food component, which must necessarily come to us from the outside. At the same time, it must be balanced with the necessary amount of carbohydrates and proteins.

The edible fats and fat in our body are concepts, although interconnected, but still different. The first of them means a rather valuable product, the role of which is rather difficult to overestimate. Nutritional properties of fats allow them to become active participants in vital processes occurring in our body. In other words, without them, the normal operation of all our organs and systems is impossible.

Functions of a valuable product

Food fats are a kind of fuel for the human body. When processing just one gram of them, 9 kilocalories are released, which is two and a half times that of carbohydrates and proteins. This is the energy function of fats.
In addition, this element is necessary for performing plastic or structural activities.

This is due to the fact that fats are an integral part of tissues and cell membranes. Without their necessary quantity, metabolic processes are violated in our cells. This negatively affects the body's obtaining of nutrients. In addition, a lack or excessive excess of fatty acids leads to the fact that cells lose the ability to get rid of all the "waste" they have developed. This threatens their slagging, which adversely affects your health.

In our body, edible fats also serve as a regulator. Without their presence in the cells of tissues and organs, it becomes impossible to assimilate such fat-soluble vitamins as A and C, E K. Moreover, these important components are one of the constituents of hormones.

Fats also have a transport function. It is expressed in the help rendered at movement of various substances on an organism.

The need for fats is also contained in their protective function. After all, these components protect our body from temperature influence, and internal organs - from mechanical impact.

Classification

How are food fats divided? Classification of these products provides for the division by type of feedstock, as well as by consistency. They are:

1. Starting from the initial product:

- animals (milk, beef, pork, mutton, bone and fish);

- vegetable (derived from fruits, nuts and seeds of plants);
- combined - produced from various raw materials (margarine, confectionery fat, spreads).

2. Based on the consistency:

- solid (most animal fats, as well as cocoa butter, coconut and palm oil);
- liquid (the bulk of vegetable oils, made from seeds and fruits).

Fats that are part of the lipid class, or, as they are called specialists, triglycerides, are natural organic compounds. They contain complex esters and monobasic fatty acids.

It is worth noting that liquid vegetable fats, like butter, are called oils.

The body's need for fats

This product is slowly cleaved in the gastrointestinal tract, as it is inaccessible to the enzymes in the gastrointestinal tract. Further, it is deposited in the layers of subcutaneous fat as a neutral stock. Subsequently, this fat is used as a source of energy.

What is the daily human need for this product? It all depends on age and energy costs. For example, it is enough for older people to include in their diet of 75-80 grams of fat.

Of all the existing species of this product, about thirty percent should come from the use of vegetable oils. But it must be remembered that fats are an integral part of the majority of food products. There are a lot of them in fish and meat, cheese and confectionery.

The nutritional value

This indicator has different values depending on the type of fat and its digestibility by the body. And this, in turn, is directly dependent on the melting point of the product. For example, fats that have a low melting point (below 37 degrees) are most fully and quickly emulsified in the digestive tract, and, consequently, are easily absorbed. Which products best match these parameters? This is pork and goose fat, butter, liquid fats and all varieties of margarines.

Much worse is absorbed by the body products having a high melting point. So, if this figure for butter is 98.5%, then for sheep fat, it is in the range of 80-90%. But the beef fat the human body absorbs by 80-94%.

Energy value

As already mentioned above, edible fats are a kind of fuel for our body. So, in 100 grams of cow's butter, depending on its kind, is from 570 to 750 kcal. The same indicator in margarines is 750 kcal, and in melted fats of animal origin and vegetable oils - 890 kcal.

Benign Fats

How to determine the suitability to use so valuable for our body product? A good-quality creamy little has a white-cream or light-yellow color. At the same time, he has no extraneous smells and tastes. It is allocated and a homogeneous consistency. The same characteristics distinguish real home oil. The melted product has a soft granular consistency. In this case, upon transition to the molten state, it loses color and is distinguished by the absence of impurities.

Quality deodorized sunflower oil is transparent, without taste and without sediment. The smell of it can be weakly expressed or absent altogether. With regard to unrefined species, they are distinguished by the presence of a sediment, which is up to one and a half percent of the total volume of this plant product.

Low-quality fats

It is not necessary to eat a little creamy, which has an unpleasant bitter taste, a sharp smell and rancidity (darkening of the surface). The poor quality of this product is evidenced by the taste of the stearin candle, bacon, greens, the presence of mold, etc. Butter, which has a darkened edge, can be cleaned and eaten.

About the poor quality of vegetable oils will tell their rancid, burning or pungent taste and smell. Such foods should not be eaten categorically. After all, they accumulate elements of the decomposition of fat, and also lose vitamins and irreplaceable acids.

Application

Where are fats used as a result of processing the feedstock used? They find their application in the following areas:

- Food Industry;
- Pharmaceuticals;
- manufacture of cosmetics and soap;
- production of lubricants.

The main use of animal fats occurs in the culinary field. Here they are used as food products. Among them are mutton, pork and beef. But from the tissues of fish and marine mammals produce not only food fats, but also veterinary (fodder), medical and technical. What is the use of fats of this species? As for the veterinary product, its main purpose is to feed agricultural birds and animals. What is the area of use of technical fats? They find application in the perfume and chemical industries, as well as in other sectors of the national economy with the goal of producing defoamers and detergents, treating leather, making lipsticks and creams.

Use in Cooking

All chefs are well aware of the fact that the taste of cooked meals largely depends not only on the quality and type of the main product, but also on the fat used for it. If this component does not match, the quality of the dishes deteriorates significantly.

For example, melted fat from beef or lard is not suitable for baking pancakes with jam. This combination is able to use only an inept and inexperienced cook.

To give a subtle and delicate taste, many dishes use butter when cooking them. Most often this product is used for sandwiches. His melted kind of watered ready-made foods from delicacies and dietary products. Used oil and for dressing sauces.

For meat hot dishes, as well as when roasting some varieties of flour products, pork and beef fat are used. Lamb fat is successfully used in Central Asian and Caucasian cuisines.

Vegetable oils of cooks are taken in those cases when the recipe of dishes requires the use of non-fatting fat.

Need to use

Without fats, one of the most important culinary processes - frying - is impossible. Only with its help the cook can bring the original product to a high temperature. At the same meat, fish or vegetables are protected from ignition and combustion. In the process of frying, a thin layer of fat is created between the product and the bottom of the dishes. This promotes even warming up.

When frying becomes evident, and another useful quality of fat. It dissolves some aromatic and coloring substances contained in vegetables. This greatly improves the smell and appearance of the food.

Use of palm oil

This product is used in Russia relatively recently. The production of oil is established from the fruits of a palm tree, which is called olive oil.

Where is this edible fat used? This vegetable product is most often used for baking, as well as for the production of confectionery products intended for long-term storage.

Palm oil has interesting physical and chemical properties. That is why it is included in the list of the most common types of vegetable fats produced on our planet. This is due to its low cost and availability. Palm oil has another attractive quality. Due to its good resistance to oxidation, it can be stored for a long time.

The most common field of use of this vegetable fat is the food industry. It is used in the manufacture of biscuit rolls and wafers, creams and cakes. They also use it when frying semi-finished products. Caloric content of this vegetable fat is 884 kcal.

Without palm oil, many products can not be avoided. So, it enters the composition of condensed milk and processed cheese, add it to curd and curd desserts. This oil is also a substitute for milk fat. In addition to the food industry, the product finds its application in the manufacture of soap and candles, as well as in cosmetology (for moisturizing and softening the skin).

Use of confectionery fat

This product is made mainly from vegetable raw materials. However, it may contain pig or beef fat. Contains confectionery fat and whale salomass. One of the ingredients of the product is also coconut or palm oil.

Confectionery fat is a solid that has a white color with a slight yellowish tinge. As for its taste and consumer characteristics, they, first of all, depend on the composition. For example, confectionery fat used for bakery products includes up to 65 percent of vegetable and whale salomass, and up to 22 percent of vegetable oil. Sometimes the recipe also contains palm oil, which gives the final products a specific taste.

The use of confectionery fat allows you to link together the components used. In addition, the products made on its basis have improved nutritional characteristics. Caloric content of this fat is 897 kcal.

Margarine

This product belongs to the group of combined fats. Produce it with the participation of permanent technochemical and laboratory control. The main raw material for the production of margarine is various types of vegetable and animal fats. The first of these are soybean, sunflower and cottonseed oils. And as an animal fat is often used by the fat of whales.

The prepared raw material is brought to a solid state and a uniform consistency of the mixture is obtained.

Use margarine for cooking various types of dishes, as well as for baking some flour products. Add it to vegetable and meat minced meat.

Margarine is also suitable for deep-frying. After all, even with very strong heating, it does not get a taste of bitterness and the smell of a child. Caloric content of the product is 570 kcal.