Week 1 - Introduction

Introduction:
Fat is such a contentious issue. It dominates discussions about body image, costs the NHS millions each year, is restricted and demonised by many weight loss programmes and yet is absolutely essential to the correct functioning of healthy organisms.

 This MOOC will explore some of the issues surrounding fat. We will look at the debates around different sources of fat, the importance of fats in the body and the health implications of excess fats.  

 Each week you will have a task to complete that will help you develop your knowledge and understanding of fat and associated topics. Tasks will be subtitled at the bottom of each weeks page. They will involve adding a comment to the MOOC page and completing written summary, no more that 1 A4 side per week, for you too keep as a record of you learning on this MOOC. Some weeks also include fat fanatic tasks that go off on a bit of a tangent that you may want to explore.

 Fat terminology:
This week we will start be clarifying our terminology and develop your understanding of what fats are at a molecular level.

 Fats belong to a family of molecules called lipids. Lipids can exist as fats, oils and waxes.  Fats and oils are very similar in structure. At room temperature, fats are solids and oils are liquids. Fats are of animal origin, while oils tend to be found in plants. Waxes have a different structure (esters of fatty acids with long chain alcohols) and can be found in both animals and plants. This MOOC will focus on fats and oils.

 One main group of fats and oils are triglycerides. Triglycerides are molecules made of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms only. Triglycerides have 2 main components; a glycerol molecule and 3 (hence the "tri" in the name) fatty acid molecules:


Task:

  • Summarise the information above onto half an A4 side so you can refer back to it during the MOOC should you need. 
  • In the diagram above two fatty acids are the same, but the third contains a double bond. Your task is to find out a what is meant by the terms saturated, mono-unsaturated and polyunsaturated and add write a definition, in your own words, it to the comments section below.


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