HEALTH AND NUTRITIONAL

PROPERTIES
CHAPTER 8

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OBJECTIVES

• To adhere the knowledge about the requirement of diet intake in

human body.
• To identify the fat and human diseases such as obesity, diabetes and
coronary heart disease.

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HUMAN DIETARY REQUIREMENTS

• Two aspects requirement of fat in human diet:

• Qualitative – certain fat are needed for good health such as essential fatty
acids.
• Quantitative – in normal diet, some 25% to 30% of the total calories are
conveniently supplied as fat, usually make food more palatable.
• Human diet always contain fat but vary in amounts and types of fat.
• Solid food contain protein, carbohydrate and fat as three
macronutrients along with a large number of important
micronutrients.

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HUMAN DIETARY REQUIREMENTS

• The energy levels of fat (38kJ/g), carbohydrate (17kJ/g) and protein

(16kJ/g) are as indicated as parentheses – average value.
• For daily intake of 2000 kcal, 67g of fat correspond to 30% of total
energy.
• These weight relate to actual intake and do not allow for loss through
incomplete absorption and consequent faecal loss.

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HUMAN DIETARY REQUIREMENTS

• Short chain acid have lower energy values since they contain higher
proportion of oxygen in their molecules
• Long chain acid sometimes have lower energy values because of
incomplete absorption.
• Fat are the richest source of energy on a weight basis and excess of
fat beyond that required for daily energy requirements is laid down
as reserve depot fat usually after some structural modification.

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HUMAN DIETARY REQUIREMENTS

• Fat is laid down in anhydrous condition whereas carbohydrate is

stored in limited amount and in hydrated form with even less energy
(3 g water/1 g glycogen)

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HUMAN DIETARY REQUIREMENTS: DIGESTION
AND ABSORPTION OF FATS IN HUMAN BODY

• Fat digestion begins in the mouth (lingual lipase) and continues in the
stomach, but occurs mainly in the duodenum (small intestine)
• Disorders in digestion and absorption will lead to impaired fat intake.
• A problem associated with fat digestion, absorption and transport is
that fat is insoluble in aqueous solutions such as blood, though the
products of digestion are more hydrophilic and more easily
dispersed.

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HUMAN DIETARY REQUIREMENTS: DIGESTION
AND ABSORPTION OF FATS IN HUMAN BODY

• Lipids are therefore incorporated into lipoprotein complexes for

transport through aqueous solutions.
• The duodenum is the major site of fat digestion but the stomach
contributes by its churning action to create a coarse oil-in-water
emulsion stabilized by phospholipids.
• Proteolytic digestion also releases lipids from food particles where
they may be present as lipoprotein complexes.

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HUMAN DIETARY REQUIREMENTS: DIGESTION
AND ABSORPTION OF FATS IN HUMAN BODY

• The fat emulsion entering the duodenum mixes with bile which acts
as a powerful emulsifying agent and with pancreatic juice which
contains lipase.
• The rate of triacylglycerol hydrolysis depends on chain length.
• Short chain acids (C8 and C10) are hydrolysed faster and long-chain
acids (C20 and C22) are hydrolysed slower than the common C16 and
C18 acids.

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HUMAN DIETARY REQUIREMENTS: DIGESTION
AND ABSORPTION OF FATS IN HUMAN BODY

• Over 90 per cent of triacylglycerols are absorbed in this way but only
about 50% of the cholesterol esters are absorbed.
• Dietary fat is transported as free acid to adipose tissue where it is
converted to triacylglycerols.
• Endogenous fat, made mainly in the liver but also in other organs, is
exported as VLDL into plasma.
• Cholesterol is carried to peripheral tissue in LDL and returned to the liver in
HDL which acts as a scavenger for cholesterol.

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HUMAN DIETARY REQUIREMENTS: ESSENTIAL
FATTY ACIDS

• Essential fatty acids required for animal health and wellbeing but
cannot be made by animals themselves and must be obtained from
plant sources.
• Two major family fatty acids:
• Consists of linoleic acid as the first or parent member along with its
metabolites which are produced within a healthy animal
• known as omega 6 (n-6)
• The most common metabolite in this family is arachidonic acid (20:4)

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HUMAN DIETARY REQUIREMENTS: ESSENTIAL
FATTY ACIDS

• Consists of polyunsaturated based on linolenic acid

• known as omega 3 (n-3)
• The most important metabolites in this group are eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA,20:5),
docosapentaenoic acid (DPA, 22:5) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA,22:6)
• Diets with too much linoleic acid will produce too much arachidonic
acid and its metabolites.
• Diet with too little linolenic acid will produce too little EPA and its
metabolites

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HUMAN DIETARY REQUIREMENTS: ESSENTIAL
FATTY ACIDS

• To correct the balance it may be necessary to increase the dietary

intake of linolenic acid and, at the same time, to reduce the intake of
linoleic acid which competes so strongly for the enzymes required for
metabolic change.

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FATS AND HUMAN DISEASE:
ROLE OF FATS IN HEALTH AND DISEASE

• Many diseases that remain, whether they are killers or not, are
related in some part to life-style, of which diet, pollution of the
environment, and level of physical activity.
• It is important to realise that fat is only part of our diet and that diet
is only part of the problem.
• Fat has a very negative image at the present time and we need to
correct that.
• We know what fats we should consume and in what quantity.

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FATS AND HUMAN DISEASE:
OBESITY

• Body mass index (BMI) is used increasingly as a measure of weight to

height ratio and allows us to recognize five categories of body sizes.
• The body mass index is defined as weight (expressed in kg) divided by
height squared (expressed in cm).

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FATS AND HUMAN DISEASE:
OBESITY

• Five categories of body sizes:

Underweight <18.4
Normal 18.5±24.9
Overweight 25.0±29.9
Obese 30.0±39.9
Severely obese >40.0
• A growing number of persons fall into the last three categories due to
imbalance over many years between increased caloric intake and
decreased energy requirement resulting from more sedentary and
less active lifestyles.

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FATS AND HUMAN DISEASE:
OBESITY

• The problem of obesity is partly genetic (40±70%) and partly

environmental (food intake and physical inactivity).
• Obesity is a potent risk factor for type-2 diabetes, hypertension and
dyslipidemia.
• Bonow & Eckel (2003) write:
‘The recipe for effective weight loss is a combination of motivation,
physical activity, and caloric restriction; maintenance of weight loss is
a balance between caloric intake and physical activity with lifelong
adherence.’

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FATS AND HUMAN DISEASE:
OBESITY

• For dietary fat they recommend: total fat 33% energy, saturated acids
10%, polyunsaturated fatty acids 6% (and not exceeding 10%), cis
monounsaturated acids 12%, and trans unsaturated acids <2%.

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FATS AND HUMAN DISEASE:
CONONARY HEART DISEASE (CHD)

• Cardiovascular disease is a broad term embracing diseases of the

blood vessels of the heart, brain (cerebrovascular disease, stroke)
and the limbs (peripheral vascular disease).
• Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a major cause of death in the
developed world with a peak age of death of 70±74 for men and
75±79 for women,

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FATS AND HUMAN DISEASE:
CONONARY HEART DISEASE (CHD)

• Three stages in the development of CHD:

• injury of coronary
• arteries, fibrous plaque formation
• thrombosis leading to heart attack or stroke.
• The following have been recognised as risk factors: high blood
pressure, high levels of plasma LDL (low density lipoprotein)
cholesterol, low levels of plasma HDL (high density lipoprotein)
cholesterol, high levels of plasma fibrinogen and low levels of plasma
antioxidants.

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FATS AND HUMAN DISEASE:
CONONARY HEART DISEASE (CHD)

• These risk factors are linked to a range of controllable and

uncontrollable factors.
• The uncontrollable factors are family history, being male, advancing
age, racial origin (Asians show higher rates of incidence than white
Caucasians) and possibly low birth weight.
• Controllable factors include smoking, exercise (lack of), stress and
diet.

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FATS AND HUMAN DISEASE:
CONONARY HEART DISEASE (CHD)

• Diets with a high content of fat/SFA/cholesterol lead to high

concentrations of total cholesterol in the blood and especially of LDL-
cholesterol which results in a high morbidity and mortality from CHD.
• Reducing the amount of fat/SAF/cholesterol in the diet reduces the
concentration of cholesterol in the blood and especially in the LDL.

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FATS AND HUMAN DISEASE:
DIABETES

• Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease in which the metabolism of

sugars (and of fats and proteins) is disturbed by lack of or by
decreased activity of the hormone insulin, produced by the
endocrine part of the pancreas.
• Its main characteristic is an increase in the level of blood sugar
provoking acute symptoms such as thirst, frequent voiding and
weight loss.

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FATS AND HUMAN DISEASE:
DIABETES

• Diabetes is an independent risk factor for CVD.

• Type 1 diabetes (15%) is found particularly in children, adolescents
and young adults.
• It results from auto-immune destruction of the insulin-secreting cells
of the pancreas.
• Most diabetic individuals (85%) have type 2 diabetes.
• Two dysfunctions are involved: decreased insulin secretion after a
glucose challenge and a decrease in its activity on target organs (liver
and muscles).

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FATS AND HUMAN DISEASE:
DIABETES

• Nutritionist suggests that individuals with normal body weight and

normal lipid levels should limit fat intake to less than 30% total
energy with saturated fatty acids restricted to 10%, polyunsaturated
acids to less than 10%, and monounsaturated
acids at 10±15%.

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