HEALTH AND

NUTRITIONAL
PROPERTIES
CHAPTER 8
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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