What makes a molecule fat soluble

Tissue respiration; metabolism of carbohydrates, amino acids, and fats; growth and repair of body tissues; blood cell development and iron metabolism a -Tocopherol Vitamin E. Antioxidant protects cells from toxic compounds, heavy metals, radiation, and free radicals ; retinal development; protects vitamin A in eyes Table 1 The 2D representations shown in this table were drawn using CS ChemDraw Pro, and the 3D coordinates were obtained by MM2 minimization using CS Chem3D Pro.

Note: The 2D and 3D representations for each vitamin are drawn from the same view. The 3D but not the 2D representations are all drawn to the same scale.

In the 3D representations, carbon atoms are gray, hydrogen atoms are light blue, oxygen atoms are red, and nitrogen atoms are dark blue. Olestra and Vitamin Solubility The solubility properties of vitamins determine how well they will be absorbed by the body. Water-soluble vitamins can easily enter the bloodstream by diffusion, since the stomach contents, extracellular fluid, and blood plasma are all aqueous solutions.

Fat-soluble vitamins must be consumed together with dietary fat to be absorbed. The vitamins are first dissolved in the dietary fat. Then, bile released from the gall bladder acts like a detergent and allows the fat with the vitamins dissolved in it to be solubilized in micelles. Recall the discussion of detergents and micelles from the "Membranes, Proteins, and Dialysis" experiment.

However, some newly-developed food products, unfortunately, have been found to disrupt this pathway for absorbing fat-soluble vitamins in the body. In recent years, many types of "fat-free" foods have come into the marketplace. One such type of these foods contains artificial fats that are substituted for the natural fats and oils found in the foods.

These artificial fats add no fat or calories to the diet, because they are not digested or absorbed by the body. The main artificial fat commercially in use is Olestra. Olestra is marketed under the name Olean by Proctor and Gamble, Inc. It is a synthetic sucrose ester that is not digested or absorbed by the body.

How does this work? Olestra, like natural fat, has nonpolar hydrocarbon chains. But whereas fat has only three such chains attached to a glycerol molecule and thus is known as a " triglyceride " , Olestra contains eight such chains attached to a sucrose molecule. Refer to the figure on membrane structure in the "Membranes and Proteins" experiment for the structure of glycerol.

To digest natural fats in the body, lipase an intestinal enzyme that breaks down lipid molecules removes the hydrocarbon chains from the glycerol. The hydrocarbon chains are then emulsified incorporated into micelles with bile, and absorbed into the bloodstream.

Because Olestra has so many hydrocarbon chains, there is not enough room for lipase to reach the place where they are attached to the sucrose, and so the side chains cannot be removed. Therefore, the nonpolar Olestra molecule is too large to form absorbable micelles, so it passes through the intestinal tract, undigested and unabsorbed by the body.

Olestra has been approved by the FDA for use in savory snacks, such as potato chips. Unfortunately, Olestra may not be as healthy as it first sounds. It has been shown to cause gastrointestinal symptoms including abdominal discomfort, flatulence, and changes in stool consistency. More importantly, it interferes with the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins from food when present in the small intestine at the same time as other foods.

Because it is nonpolar, Olestra can dissolve fat-soluble vitamins. Hence, Olestra in the small intestine competes with fat-containing micelles in the intestine for absorption of fat-soluble vitamins.

Anything the Olestra absorbs is carried out of the body with it and is therefore not available for absorption by the body. Adding more fat-soluble vitamins to food containing Olestra seems to be effective in preventing Olestra from depleting the body's supply of fat-soluble vitamins. However, long-term studies are not yet conclusive on the effects of continued ingestion of Olestra on humans. This is the 2D ChemDraw structure of ascorbylpalmitate, which was synthesized by Liu et.

Could this newly formulated vitamin C derivative, ascorbylpalmitate, be added as a supplement, instead of "normal" vitamin C, to fortify fruit juices? Briefly, explain your answer. Mineral Solubility Most minerals in the diet are in the form of water-soluble salts. When these salts dissolve, they dissociate into aqueous cations and anions. It is customary to describe the solubility of these salts i.

To quantify the solubility of the ionic salts containing dietary minerals, two distinct quantities are used: the solubility product , K sp , and the solubility , S.

These are the same quantities that you determined for calcium hydroxide in the experiment. The solubility product K sp is the equilibrium constant of the dissociation reaction of the mineral-containing salt in water. Hence, K sp is a constant at a given temperature. The solubility S of a mineral salt is the amount of the salt that is dissolved per unit volume. This quantity may vary, depending on the conditions. Suppose that you take a zinc supplement in the form of ZnSO 4.

How does this affect the solubility of ZnSO 4? Although the body's absorption of minerals depends in large part on their solubility, we must be very careful not to equate solubility of the salt containing a mineral with absorption of that mineral. In the example with zinc and phytic acid described above, the absorption of zinc decreases with phytic acid even though the solubility of zinc sulfate is increased. This is because the zinc is not present as the free ion in solution; rather it is bound to phytic acid and is therefore unavailable for absorption by the body.

One way to overcome the problem of poor zinc absorption due to phytic acid is to eat leavened, rather than unleavened bread. Our bodies contain a staggering g of calcium. The calcium in the blood is important for a number of functions, including blood clotting, transmission of nerve impulses, muscle contraction, stability of cell membranes, and cell metabolism. This mineral provides the structural integrity of the skeleton. Of these three, the free cation is the most important for the physiological functions described in the paragraph above, and its concentration must be carefully maintained.

For instance, muscle contraction is initiated by a sudden increase in calcium concentration in the muscle cells. The body has several mechanisms to maintain these ion concentrations. The cells have channels and pumps that regulate the flow of calcium ions between the cells and the extracellular fluids via the cell membrane.

In addition, the calcium ions can be removed from or bound to the calcium-binding proteins in order to increase or decrease, respectively, the free-ion concentration. What happens if the overall amount of calcium in the fluids gets too low?

In this case, calcium can be supplied from two sources. The normal calcium dietary requirement for an adult is approximately 1 gram mg per day. Women and young people may need to consume even more than 1 g of calcium per day. Hence, if too little calcium is supplied in the diet, the body will take the calcium it needs from the bones. If this borrowing from the bones' calcium store continues over time, bone mass will decrease, resulting in the condition known as osteoporosis.

Hence, it is clear that we must consume an adequate amount of calcium in the diet in order to minimize loss of bone mass. But not all of the calcium that we consume ends up in our body fluids. Several factors influence the absorption of the calcium that we consume. Two requirements must be met in order for calcium to be absorbed: 1 it must be dissolved in the intestine, and 2 it must pass through the intestinal walls into the body fluids.

Some of the most important factors are listed below: Factors controlling the solubility of calcium in the intestine The form of the dietary calcium affects calcium solubility. Different calcium salts have different solubility products and therefore different solubilities in the intestinal environment. Calcium citrate, for instance, is more soluble than calcium carbonate. Adjusting to Cancer.

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Cancer Health Disparities. Childhood Cancers Research. Global Cancer Research. Cancer Research Infrastructure. Clinical Trials. Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research. They, too, are almost completely nonpolar hydrocarbon molecules. Like dissolves like! Related questions What factors affect solubility in a solid-liquid combination? What factors affect solubility in water? What factors affect solubility of ionic compounds? What factors affect the solubility of gases in liquids?

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