Meat Fats

MEAT FATS

  • Meat fats contain ample amount of essential fatty acids (EFA) and the nutritional demand of EFA human beings is easily met by intramuscular fat itself.
  • The calorific value of fat in meat is attributed to fatty acids in triglycerides.
  • The number of calories from lean meat is frequently less than those derived from equal weights of many other foods.
  • In fact, the calorific value of particular meat depends on the amount of fat in the meat cuts.
  • The most important fatty acid in meat fat is oleic acid (mono unsaturated FA) followed by palmitic and stearic acids (saturated FA).
  • The EFA in human diets are linoleic, linolenic, and arachidonic acids.
  • Pork and organ meats are relatively good sources of linoleic and linolenic acids.
  • It may be noted that excess dietary linoleic acid is converted to arachidonic acid in human body to meet its demand.
  • The phospholipids are essential components of the cell wall as well as mitochondria and play a vital role in cellular metabolism.
  • Meat fat always contains some quantity of cholesterol and blood cholesterol level increases after ingestion of cholesterol in food.
  • However, dietary and serum cholesterol are not directly related .
  • Organ meats have remarkable high cholesterol content as compared to skeletal meat.
Last modified: Friday, 23 December 2011, 12:14 PM