With all the talk about fat these days, some people wonder why they ally need it. The nutrient fat has several important functions in health. Fat is known by the scientific name lipid. Lipids are fatty substances at do not dissedye in water. Fats are composed of the same three elements as carbohydrates-car on, hydrogen and oxygen. The chemical makeup of fats deternines heir type: saturaled. or polyunsaturated. Fats are made up of fatty acids racked to a glycerol molecule. Each fattv acid is a long chain of car- on, hydrogen, and oxygen. A latu acid is saturated when the carbon hain holds all the hydrogen it can. Polvunsaturated fatty acids have wo or more missing hydrogen atoms on the carbon chaini There are about 30 different fatty acids. Fats are neither totally satu ated nor totally unsaturated. Instead, thev are a mixture. zat Animal fats and some vegetable oils(palm, palm kernel, and coconut) ave a high proportion of saturated fats. Fats in beef, pork, egg yolk