Triglycerides 101, Chemical Composition and Transport System.

When we eat fatty products, the triglycerides end up in our blood. Even when we don't eat them, triglycerides are present in our blood. Our bodies make them from excess carbohydrate in our diet.

Date:   2/21/2008 4:34:17 PM   ( 16 y ) ... viewed 4006 times

Excerpted from http://www.reducetriglycerides.com/B.htm
   
Triglyceride gets its name from its chemical structure: a molecule of triglyceride is composed of a backbone of the alcohol glycerol to which three fatty acids ("tri") are bound, hence its name: "tri-glyceride." Any combination of saturated, monounsaturated, or polyunsaturated fatty acids can be in a triglyceride molecule.

A good way to envision a triglyceride molecule is to look at your hand:

To envision triglycerides molecules, look at your hand. The three fingers are the three fatty acids and your hand is the alcohol glycerol. As the three fingers are different, so the three fatty acids in a triglyceride molecule can be different.
    

Hold out the three center fingers and fold back the thumb and little finger. The three fingers are the three fatty acids and your hand is the glycerol. As the three fingers are different, so the three fatty acids in a triglyceride can be different. The fatty acids can be long or short, saturated (stiff) or unsaturated (bendable).

 Being of plant (vegetable) or animal origin, triglycerides are found in

    * body fat (as solids in peripheral adipocytes)
      Sources of triglycerides (fat): 1. food - butter, margarine, salad dressing, oil, nuts, meat, poultry, fish, and some dairy products; 2. body fat - providing the body with a reserve supply of energy and other functions.
    * cooking oil (corn, soybean, peanut, olive oil)
    * shortenings, mainly canola-based (used for baking cookies, breads, pie crust etc., and for frying, especially in volume cooking in schools, hospitals, cafeterias, restaurants etc.)
    * lard (pork fat)
    * beef fat
    * milk
    * butter, and
    * cheese.

Grab a hold of your love handles - those wobbly stubborn pieces of fat on the sides of the waist - and you've got a handful of triglycerides. Eat a steak, and you've got a mouthful of them...

When we eat fatty products, the triglycerides end up in our blood. Even when we don't eat them, triglycerides are present in our blood. Our bodies make them from excess carbohydrate in our diet.


    The Triglyceride Transport System     
      
As found in the bloodstream, triglycerides are fats being transported from intestines to body cells. They may originate from two sources:

    * the food you eat, mainly sugar, animal products and saturated fat (sweets, red meat, dairy) and/or be manufactured within the body by
    * the liver itself -- especially during times, when dietary fats are not available.

Dietary fats (from food) are absorbed through the gut – the intestines where they are assembled (synthesized) into special “lipid packets” called chylomicrons, a microscopic lipid particles formed during fat digestion and assimilation.

Chylomicrons, containing approximately 85 percent triglycerides, are then delivered through the bloodstream to the liver, where they are processed (the normal half-life of chylomicrons is about 10 minutes).

One of the main jobs of the liver is to make sure that all the tissues of the body receive the triglycerides they need to function at optimal levels. Whenever possible (i.e., for about 8 hours after a meal), the liver takes up dietary triglycerides from the chylomicrons produced in the intestines.

However, fats are not soluble in water. Because the liquid part of blood is made up with water, the liver packages triglycerides, along with special proteins, into tiny water-soluble packages-spheres, or carrier molecules, called very low density lipoproteins, or VLDL. In this form, they are released into the circulation and delivered to the cells of the body.

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