Saturated and unsaturated fatty acids: difference and benefits

Fat is absolutely essential for various vital functions in your body. Our body stores fat as energy reserves that it can use whenever it needs an energy boost. This article will increase your understanding of the different types of fat and how they affect your body. Increase your awareness of fat and learn what choices you can make in your everyday life to optimise your fat consumption. Above all, if you consume plenty of healthy fats, you will provide your body with the tools it needs to keep your brain and cardiovascular system healthy!

Fat in everyday life: tips for healthy fat consumption

If you want to achieve the healthiest possible fat consumption, you should first check how much fat you consume per day compared to the other macronutrients (carbohydrates and proteins). This is very easy to do with nutrient trackers. The EU has set the following guidelines for adults who consume 2000 kcal per day:

Fat (total): 70 grams
Of which unsaturated fatty acids: 20 grams
Of which trans fats: 0 grams

Many people eat too much saturated fatty acids and trans fats. To optimise your fat consumption, you should try to integrate as many unsaturated fats as possible into your everyday diet. Here are a few tips on how to do this in practice:

Avoid animal fat and use high-quality vegetable fat instead.
Use oil instead of butter when frying
Nibble on nuts and seeds instead of chocolate, cheese or biscuits.
Swap cheese and sausage for plant-based spreads or avocados.
Avoid processed convenience foods in general, especially frozen products that have been pre-fried or deep-fried.

What is the difference between saturated and unsaturated fatty acids?

Fatty acids are the most calorie-dense form of the three macronutrients: proteins (4 calories per gram), carbohydrates (5 calories per gram) and fat (9 calories per gram). But not all fats are the same. A distinction is made between saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. Within these two categories, there are different forms of these fats, some of which can have very different effects on your body. You can visually distinguish saturated fatty acids from unsaturated fatty acids by observing their consistency at room temperature. In general, unsaturated fatty acids are considered healthier and you should try to replace saturated fatty acids with unsaturated fatty acids in your daily diet.

What fatty acids are there?

Omega 3 - fatty acids for healthy blood vessels and a stable immune system

The three most important omega-3 fatty acids are alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Omega-3 fatty acids are essential components of the membranes that surround every cell in your body. Omega-3s are fats and therefore also provide calories and therefore energy. However, every fatty acid provides energy. The organ-specific functions of omega-3 fatty acids are therefore far more relevant. In general, omega-3 fatty acids are responsible for many functions relating to the cardiovascular system, the blood vessels, the lungs, the immune system and the endocrine system (the network of hormone-producing glands).

ALA

ALA is the most important of the omega-3 fatty acids. As an essential fatty acid, your body cannot produce it itself. It is therefore essential that you obtain it from the foods you consume. Your body can also convert a small amount of ALA into EPA and consequently into DHA.¹ ALA is mainly found in vegetable oils such as flaxseed, chia seed, soya and rapeseed oil.

ALA against diabetes

The intake of ALA can reduce blood sugar levels by up to 64%.² How ALA achieves this is still unexplored, but it is thought that ALA promotes mechanisms that remove fat that has accumulated in muscle cells. This fat reduces the effectiveness of insulin. ALA also alleviates the symptoms of nerve damage and reduces the risk of diabetic retinopathy (damage to the eye retina), which can occur with untreated diabetes.³ The cause of this mode of action has also not yet been found. It is assumed that the strong antioxidant properties of ALA make this possible.⁴

Although there is still an urgent need for research here, ALA has already established itself as an important active ingredient for preventing complications caused by diabetes, such as heart disease, loss of vision or kidney failure. Of course, ALA alone cannot fight diabetes. However, as a complementary treatment, it seems essential.

DHA and EPA

EPA is distributed throughout the body. DHA is particularly present in the retina (eye), brain cells and sperm cells. DHA and EPA work best when taken in combination. And they usually are, as both are mainly found in fish and seafood. EPA and DHA help to reduce your risk of chronic heart disease and inflammation.⁵

DHA against inflammation

DHA has powerful anti-inflammatory properties. Our modern diet often includes a lot of vegetable oils, such as soya bean, corn oil or sunflower oil, which contain a lot of omega-6 fatty acids. An increased increase in DHA can counteract the inflammatory effects caused by excessive omega-6 consumption⁶ DHA can also reduce your risk of chronic, age-related, inflammatory diseases such as gum disease, heart disease and autoimmune diseases.⁷

EPA for healthy skin

DHA is an important component of your skin cells. However, the intake of EPA in particular promotes healthy, soft, moisturised and wrinkle-free skin. Proven mechanisms of action of EPA on human skin:

Regulate the moisturisation and oil production of your skin.
Reduce skin ageing.
Reduce the risk of acne.[<[sup>8
Inhibits the hyperkeratinisation of your hair follicles (small red bumps that usually appear on the upper arms)
When your skin is exposed to strong sunlight, substances are produced that consume your skin's collagen. EPA inhibits the release of these substances⁹

Omega 3 fatty acids foods - what should vegans look out for?

As mentioned above, most people consume ALA via chia and flax seeds. In addition to ALA, they are also an important part of a balanced breakfast (e.g. in bread, smoothie bowls or breakfast cereals) due to their high fibre content. EPA and DHA are mainly consumed in the form of fish and seafood. Vegans can produce DHA and EPA from their ALA reserves, but only in very small quantities. Our bodies can only convert less than 1% of the available ALA into "physiologically effective levels" of DHA or EPA. The efficiency of these conversion mechanisms varies greatly from person to person. A simple blood test can diagnose how well your body can convert ALA to DHA and EPA; the vast majority of people cannot do this adequately. However, consuming DHA and EPA is especially important for cardiovascular and brain health.

Where do fish and seafood get their DHA and EPA from?

Fish consume marine plants such as microalgae. These plants are the primary source of high-quality EPA and DHA. Thus, EPA and DHA are produced from vegan sources. Unfortunately, the EPA and DHA content of nori seaweed, for example, varies too much for vegans to reliably consume EPA and DHA. The ideal solution for vegans? An omega-3 supplement that does not only contain flaxseed oil (i.e. pure ALA). Take a closer look at the ingredients: It should contain around 50% EPA and DHA per capsule and be produced from algae. As a vegan, you should also make sure that the gel capsules are not made from gelatine.

Omega-6 fatty acids - stabilise your DNA

Omega-6 fatty acids, just like omega-3 fatty acids, are healthy unsaturated fats. Just like the omega-3 fatty acid ALA, we need to obtain omega-6 fatty acids from our diet as our bodies cannot produce them themselves and they are required for vital functions. Omega-6 fats play an important role in stabilising our genes, in maintaining the immune system and in blood clotting. These fats can also alleviate the symptoms of dermatitis and rheumatoid arthritis. However, the effect of omega-6 is still partially unexplored and the opinions of nutritionists differ widely. There are four forms of omega-6 fatty acids:

Linoleic acid (LA)
Gamma-linolenic acid (GLA)
Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA)
Arachidonic acid (ARA)

Compared to omega-3 fatty acids, these four forms of omega-6 hardly differ from each other in terms of their mode of action. In addition, a deficiency of omega-6 is very unlikely as it is mainly found in vegetable oils, nuts and seeds.[<[sup>10

The real omega-6 problem: Chronic overconsumption

There is evidence that humans used to consume omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids in equal proportions in their diet, which was beneficial to health. However, due to our modern diet, which also consists of highly processed products such as fast food and fried food, this 1:1 ratio has begun to falter. It is thought that we now consume on average 20 times more omega-6 than omega-3 fatty acids.

An increased ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 leads to an increased risk of chronic inflammatory diseases. These include cardiovascular disease, obesity, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), rheumatoid arthritis and Alzheimer's disease (AD).[<[sup>12

Omega-9 fatty acids - against diabetes and inflammation

Compared to ALA (omega-3) and omega-6 fatty acids, omega-9 fatty acids are not essential. This means that your body can produce omega-9 fats itself. In addition, omega-9 is the fatty acid in your body that is most widely distributed. Nevertheless, an increased intake of omega-9 fatty acids can be beneficial to your health. Oleic acid is the most common omega-9 fatty acid and the most common monounsaturated fatty acid in the diet. Oleic acid is the best known and most common omega-9 fatty acid. It is also the most commonly consumed monounsaturated fatty acid in most people's diets.[<[sup>13

Omega-9 against diabetes and inflammation

A diet with unsaturated fats in diabetes patients was able to reduce plasma triglycerides in the blood by 19 per cent and the level of bad VLDL cholesterol (VLDL = very low-density lipoprotein) by 22 per cent.[<[sup>14¹⁵ Mice that were fed a high proportion of omega-9 fatty acids were able to improve their insulin sensitivity and reduce inflammation.

Saturated fatty acids - not always unhealthy

Nutritionists' opinions also differ to some extent here. Most consider saturated fatty acids to be unhealthy. Saturated fatty acids (such as butter or coconut oil) remain solid at room temperature. Unsaturated fatty acids (e.g. olive oil, corn oil or sunflower oil) are already liquefied at the same temperature.

There are many different fatty acids, which are defined by the length of their carbon chains. The saturated fatty acids that you are most likely to consume include:

Palmitic acid
Myristic acid
Lauric acid
Capric acid
Stearic acid
Caprylic acid
Caproic acid

How do saturated fatty acids affect your health?

Contrary to previous assumptions, it has already been proven that saturated fatty acids do not cause heart disease. [<[sup>16Nevertheless, you can reduce your risk of heart attack by replacing your saturated fatty acids with unsaturated ones (especially omega-3 fats).[<[sup>17

Although it has been proven that certain saturated fatty acids can increase your LDL cholesterol, this does not necessarily lead to heart disease, as saturated fats mainly increase the number of large LDL cholesterol particles in your blood. However, it is mainly the smaller particles that have been linked to heart disease.¹⁸

Saturated fatty acids are therefore not necessarily unhealthy, but neither are they beneficial to health. The latter applies to unsaturated fatty acids. You should therefore make sure that unsaturated fatty acids make up the majority of your fat consumption.

Trans fats - the really unhealthy fats

The health effects of the fatty acids described above are partly controversial, but there is a consensus on so-called trans fats: your body does not need them - the recommended daily requirement is 0 mg. Trans fats are very unhealthy and increased consumption of trans fats can lead to heart disease.

How do trans fats affect your cardiovascular system?

They increase your LDL cholesterol level and reduce your HDL cholesterol level.¹⁹ The bad cholesterol level is increased and the good HDL level is reduced. This causes cholesterol to build up in your arteries, significantly increasing your risk of heart disease and stroke. Swapping your saturated fats for trans fats for just four weeks can reduce arterial dilation (which is essential for a healthy cardiovascular system) by 29%.²⁰

Where to find trans fats?

Animal food sources, such as red meat or dairy products, contain small amounts of trans fats. However, most trans fats are found in highly processed convenience foods. Trans fats are created when food manufacturers convert liquid oils into more stable fats, such as margarine.

The following table gives you an overview of the various saturated and unsaturated fatty acids and in which natural foods you will find the most of them:

Food: Content per 100 g

Omega-6 fatty acids

Soybean oil: 50 g

Corn oil: 49 g

Mayonnaise: 39 g

Walnuts: 37 g

Sunflower oil: 34 g

Chia seeds: 4.9 g (ALA)

Salmon: 4 g (EPA and DHA)

Mackerel: 3 g (EPA and DHA)

Sardines: 2.2 g (EPA and DHA)

Sardines: 1.0 g (EPA and DHA)

Omega-3 fatty acids Omega-9 fatty acids

Olive oil: 83 g

Cashew kernel oil: 73 g

Almond oil: 70 g

Avocado oil: 60 g

Peanut oil: 47 g

Saturated fatty acids

Dried coconut: 57.2 g

Butter: 50.5 g

Chocolate (85% cocoa content): 24.5 g

Whipped cream: 19.3 g

Processed meat products: 17.7 g

As already mentioned, you should not ignore the omega-3/omega-6 ratio. Foods that are high in omega-3 and low in omega-6 are particularly recommended. This is the ratio of omega-3:omega-6 in the following foods:

Cod: 29:1
Tuna: 25:1
Spinach: 5:1
Flaxseed: 4:1
Mangoes: 3:1

You should remember these rules of thumb:

Not all fats are the same!
Saturated fatty acids are generally considered to be good for your health, but you should keep an eye on the omega-3/omega-6 ratio.
Saturated fatty acids are neither unhealthy nor good for your health.
Trans fats are always unhealthy.

FAQ

Fatty acids are fats. The different fatty acids are called this in nutritional science because they contain long-chain carboxylic acids.

As mentioned above, unsaturated fatty acids in particular are considered healthy. Omega-3, omega-6 and omega-9 are all healthy fatty acids. Omega-9 can be produced by your body and omega-6 is found in most vegetable fats. Most people would benefit health-wise from an increased intake of omega-3. Numerous studies prove the health-promoting effect of omega-3.

These are essential fatty acids that your body needs but cannot produce itself. These fatty acids are a basic building block of every cell membrane in your body. The three most important omega-3 fatty acids are alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). They have an anti-inflammatory effect, counteract diabetes symptoms and promote a healthy cardiovascular system and healthy skin.

Unsaturated fats are generally considered the healthier choice as they can increase 'good' HDL cholesterol and lower 'bad' LDL cholesterol, which reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease. Particularly beneficial monounsaturated fats include oleic acid from olive oil, rapeseed oil and nuts, while polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids from oily fish and algae have an anti-inflammatory effect. Saturated fats from animal sources such as butter, cream, sausage and bacon, on the other hand, should only be consumed in moderation, as they can promote heart disease.