What’s the difference between a saturated fatty acid and an unsaturated one?
Which kind is better? Most people will tell you that the unsaturated fats are better, but it’s not as simple as that. What it boils down to is this: unsaturated fats, much more so than their saturated cousins, are able to interact with other chemicals. This is what makes them so valuable in the body, because the body can use them in all sorts of creative and important ways. But the chemical reactivity of unsaturated fats comes with a price. Unsaturated fats are more chemically reactive than saturated fats in general, not just in the ways we want them to be. Given the chance, delicate unsaturated fats will react with all sorts of stuff you don’t want them to. Oxygen, heat, and light, will all accelerate this process, called “oxidation.” And once fats become oxidized, they are unhealthy for you. Oxidized oils interfere with normal functioning of cell membranes, contribute to hardening of the arteries, deplete our antioxidants, and may even cause cancer. This oxidation doesn’t occur just
