Fatty acids are the building blocks of lipids that can be made by both animals and plants. There are two forms of these acids, called essential fatty acids and non-essential fatty acids, depending on how these chemicals are obtained. According to Rudin and Felix (1996), the fatty acids that we can make are called nonessential fatty acids because we do not need to get them from the foods we eat. In comparison, essential fatty acids are those that can only be obtained through diet. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get the original essay Fatty acids are an important component of lipids made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen arranged in a carbon chain skeleton linear, of variable length. and a carboxyl group at one end. Fatty acids are represented by a general formula, CH3-(CH3) ????-OOH (Athithan et al., 2012). The classification of fatty acids is based on chain length; short chain fatty acid (SCFA), medium chain fatty acid (MCFA), long chain fatty acids (LCFA) and very long chain fatty acid (VLCFA) and depending on the degree of saturation, double bonds are present or absent . According to Kelly and Ching (2008), fatty acids can be saturated (no double bonds), monounsaturated (one double bond), or polyunsaturated (two or more double bonds). Saturated Fatty Acids Most saturated fatty acids found in nature have unbranched fatty acids. structures with an even number of carbon atoms (Ching, 2008). Fats made from saturated fatty acids (SFA) are solid at room temperature. SFAs can be grouped into short or long chain fatty acids based on the number of carbon atoms presented in the chain. SFA is rated CN:M; C is denoted for carbon, N for the number of carbon atoms, and M represents the number of double bonds presented in the chain. Examples of saturated fatty acids are butyric acid (C4:0), capronic acid (C6:0), palmitic acid (C16:0), and stearic acid (C18:0). Unsaturated fatty acid Unsaturated fatty acid (UFA) can be monounsaturated. fatty acid (MUFA) or polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA). The difference between these two UFAs is the number of double bonds presented in the carbon chain. According to Jonak and Fialova (nd), monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) have one double bond and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) have more than one double bond. Oleic acid or omega-9 is an example of a MUFA. Diets high in oleic acid improved participants' fasting blood sugar, insulin sensitivity, and blood flow (Richardson, 2017). Oleic acid can be found widely in nature and the highest sources of oleic acid are avocados, olive oils and canola oil. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized article from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Two families of PUFAs, n-6 and n-3 fatty acids (FAs) are physiologically and metabolically distinct (Danijela et. al., 2013). For omega-6, the location is between the 6th and 7th carbon atom of the methyl end of the fatty acids while for omega-3, the location is between the 3rd and 4th carbon atom from the methyl end of fatty acids. According to Guesnet et. al., (2005), Consumption of omega 6 and omega 3 fatty acids in balanced proportions could be crucial in the regulation of cellular physiology and in the prevention of pathologies such as cardiovascular, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, diabetes and obesity, certain neuropsychiatric pathologies. ailments, etc...