Lipids

Lipids are made up of three elements: Hydrogen, Carbon, and Oxygen. Lipids consist of manly C-H bonds which cause lipids to be non-polar and full of energy. Lipids are the most efficient way to store energy. Because lipids are mostly not dissolvable in water, they can be used in different ways in people’s body. For example being the cell membrane. They can also be used to structure some parts of the cell. Other lipids can be used to transport hormones.

What gives lipids the potential to store so much energy is what is called Fatty Acids. Fatty Acids consist of “Tail” and a “Head”. The Tail is multiple chains of Carbon atoms connected together with a Hydrogen atom on either side of it. The Carbon chains tend to be 10 to 20 atoms long. The Head of the Fatty Acids are known as the Carboxyl. The Tail is Hydrophobic (non-polar) while the head is Hydrophilic (polar)

Fatty Acids can be one of two things. They can be saturated or unsaturated. Saturated is what was explained before; long Carbon chains that have a Hydrogen atom on each side. Because these long chains tend to be straight, Lipids tend to fit together at room temperature. Great amounts of saturated Fatty Acids prove to be more solid. A couple of examples of saturated fats are butter and lard.

Unsaturated has to do with the bonds in Carbon atoms. Since Carbon has to have 4 bonds, if two Carbons next to each other cannot find another Hydrogen atom, the Carbons will latch on another bond to each other causing it to be a double bond. When this happens, the tails of the Lipids tend to be crooked and not form or mesh together very well at room temperature. Examples of unsaturated fats are oils. Despite if the Fatty Acids are saturated or unsaturated; they are connected to glycerol to become a lipid or also known as fat. Glycerol is made up of more Carbon and Hydrogen atoms connected to the Oxygen atoms in the Head of the Fatty Acids.


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