Fat Trivia Quiz Questions With Answers
What is fat?
A: Fats are one of the three main macronutrients, along with carbohydrates
and proteins.
Fat molecules consist of primarily of what?
A: Carbon and
hydrogen atoms and are therefore hydrophobic and are soluble
in organic solvents and insoluble in water.
The terms lipid, oil, and fat are often what?
A: Confused.
Lipid is the general term, though a lipid is not
necessarily a what?
A: A triglyceride.
Oil normally refers to a lipid with short or
unsaturated what?
A: Fatty acid chains that is liquid at room temperature.
Fat (in the strict sense) specifically refers to lipids
that are what?
A: Solids at room temperature.
Fat (in the broad sense) may be used in food
science as
what?
A: A synonym for lipid.
Fat is an important foodstuff for what?
A: Many forms of life, and fats serve both structural and metabolic
functions.
They are a necessary part of the
diet of most heterotrophs (including humans) and are the most energy what?
A: Dense, thus the most efficient form of energy storage.
Why are some fatty acids that are set free by the
digestion of fats are called essential?
A: Because they cannot be synthesized in the
body from simpler constituents.
What are the two essential fatty acids (EFAs) in human
nutrition?
A: Alpha-linolenic acid (an omega-3 fatty acid) and linoleic acid (an
omega-6 fatty acid).
Other lipids needed by the body can be what?
A: Synthesized from these and other fats.
Fats and other lipids are broken down in the body by
what?
A: Enzymes called lipases produced in the pancreas.
Fats and oils are categorized according to what?
A: According to the number and bonding of the carbon atoms in the aliphatic
chain.
Fats that are saturated fats have no what?
A: Double bonds between the carbons in the chain.
Unsaturated fats have one or more what?
A: Double bonded carbons in the chain.
Some oils and fats have multiple double bonds and are
therefore called what?
A: Polyunsaturated fats.
Unsaturated fats can be further divided into cis fats,
which are the what?
A: Most common in nature, and trans fats, which are rare in nature.
How can unsaturated fats be altered?
A: By reaction with hydrogen effected by a catalyst.
This action is called what?
A: Hydrogenation.
Hydrogenation tends to break all the double bonds and
makes a what?
A: A fully saturated fat.
To make vegetable shortening, then, liquid cis-unsaturated
fats such as vegetable oils are what?
A: Hydrogenated to produce saturated fats.
Saturated fats have more desirable physical properties e.g., they melt at a desirable temperature (30–40 °C), and store well.
Polyunsaturated oils go rancid when they react with
what?
A: Oxygen in the air.
Trans fats are generated during hydrogenation as
contaminants created by what?
A: An unwanted side reaction on the catalyst during partial hydrogenation.
Saturated fats can stack themselves in a closely packed
arrangement, so they can do what?
A: Solidify easily and are typically solid at room temperature.
Animal fats tallow and
lard are high in saturated fatty
acid content and are what?
A: Solids.
Olive and linseed oils are unsaturated and what?
A: Liquid.
Fats serve both as energy sources for the body, and as
what?
A: Stores for energy in excess of what the body needs immediately.
Each gram of fat when burned or metabolized releases
about how many food calories?
A: 9.
Fats are broken down in the healthy body to release
what constituents?
A: Glycerol and fatty acids.
Glycerol itself can be converted to glucose by what?
A: By the liver.
There are many different kinds of fats, but each is a
variation on what?
A: The same chemical structure.
All fats are derivatives of what?
A: Fatty acids and glycerol.
The properties of any specific fat molecule depend on
what?
A: The particular fatty acids that constitute it.
Fatty acids form a family of compounds that are
composed of increasing numbers of what?
A: Carbon atoms linked into a zig-zag chain (hydrogen atoms to the side).
The more carbon atoms there are in any fatty acid, the
longer its “what”will be?
A: Chain.
Long chains are more susceptible to intermolecular
forces of and so the longer ones melt at what?
A: A higher temperature (melting point).
What is the principal trans unsaturated fatty acid
often found in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils?
A: Elaidic acid.
Oleic acid is a cis unsaturated fatty acid making up
what percentage of olive oil?
A; 55–80%.
Stearic acid is a saturated fatty acid found in what?
A: Animal fats and is the intended product in full hydrogenation.
Stearic acid is neither cis nor trans because it has
what?
A: No carbon-carbon double bonds.
Long chain fats are exemplified by tallow (lard) whose
chains are how long?
A: 17 carbons.
Most fats found in food, whether vegetable or animal,
are made up of what?
A: Medium to long-chain fatty acids, usually of equal or nearly equal
length.
Despite long-standing assertions to the contrary, fatty
acids can also be used as a source of
fuel for what type of cells?
A: Brain cells.
Vitamins A, D, E, and K are fat-soluble, meaning they
can only be digested, absorbed, and transported in conjunction with what?
A: Fats.
Fats play a vital role in maintaining what?
A: Healthy skin and hair, insulating body organs against shock, maintaining
body temperature, and promoting healthy cell function.
Fat also serves as a useful buffer against what?
A: A host of diseases.
