Talk:Monounsaturated fat

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Since the article on monounsaturated fat is quite short and there was already a vote to merge (but on the talk page instead of the main article) I think that it should be merged with unsaturated fat. I will change my mind if this article is expanded. Freddie 04:36, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] i vote to merge them

The pages regarding

Fats that are saturated, mono-unsaturated, poly-unsaturated and unsaturated are relatively short and are not all structured the same way or contain similar information and references.

I vote to merge them if only to structure the presentation of the data more clearly as well as add missing data such as a list of sourced of polyunsaturated fat.

[edit] re: merge

I agree. Monounsaturated should be merged into unsaturated.

[edit] vote against merge

The properties of monosaturated fats are quite different from those of unsaturated fats and I think that the distinction should be maintained and explained. I agree that this article is short and needs to be expanded, which means that if I am against the merger that I should take responsibility for adding material. I will try to do this, but it may take me a week to find the time. This "debate" has been going on in slow motion for nearly two months, so perhaps I will have a week to do the elaboration. --Ben Best 23:58, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

I fail to see how a monounsaturated fat's properties are all that much different than a polyunsaturated fat. If there is such a difference, perhaps pointing it out in the article would be a good idea. In any case, I'm for the merger, and I'll do it in a couple days if no one else has major objections. Isopropyl 05:36, 2 May 2006 (UTC)
The differences should now be more clear. I have just done a substantial re-write of this page, which emphasizes the differences between monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. From a catagorical point of view, it would be a mistake to merge the monounsaturated fats into unsaturated fats without also merging polyunsaturated fats into unsaturated fats. The category unsaturated fats includes both monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats. I will now do some revision of the pages for unsaturated fats and polyunsaturated (fats) --Ben Best 18:27, 2 May 2006 (UTC)
The revisions on the page for unsaturated fat most strongly emphasizes differences between monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat. --Ben Best 10:11, 5 May 2006 (UTC)
Sweet. Isopropyl 18:20, 6 May 2006 (UTC)
Actually, the differences are confined to one or two finer points, which may as well go into a general discussion of unsaturated fats. It's probably easier to have these three separate short descriptions on one page. Thank you for expanding the differences beyond "one has one double bond, the other has lots". Isopropyl 18:22, 6 May 2006 (UTC)
I still contend that merging only unsaturated fats with monosaturated fats makes no sense. Your argument only makes sense if you are going to merge the three pages, polyunsaturated fat, monounsaturated fat and unsaturated fat. But this was not the proposed discussed merger. I won't complain if you merge the three, but I do complain if you only merge the two. Either merge the three or leave them independent. I realize that your statement implies you will merge the three, but this was not discussed previously. --Ben Best 20:06, 6 May 2006 (UTC)
Oppose merger. --Arcadian 20:52, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

The issue has been resolved. Monounsaturated Fat now has sufficient information to be a page on its own. Freddie 01:18, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Monounsaturated fat and insulin resistance

This article claimed that monounsaturated fat promotes insulin resistance while polyunsaturated fat reduces it. A source was cited but it does not seem to be making this claim or documenting research that supports it.

monounsatuated fatty acids may promote insulin resistance, whereas polyunsaturated fatty acids are protective against insulin resistance. [1]

I am not a medic or biologist so I am not an expert in the field but to me the source cited seems to be saying that insulin resistance is accompanied by an increase in monounsaturated fat and a decrease in polyunsaturated fat in the blood stream of rats. This is not evidence for monounsaturated fat causing insulin resistance but evidence that insulin resistance causes higher levels of monounsaturated fat.

If you look at the bottom of the first paragraph of the introduction to that paper you will see the phrase "However, with all of these taken together, it can be concluded that MUFA may promote, whereas PUFA may protect against, the progression of insulin resistance", which is intended to summarize the first paragraph of the introduction. So the paper DOES support the original contention. --Ben Best 23:12, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

I have done a limited search of medical papers and found no papers supporting the claim that monounsaturated fat causes greater insulin resistance than other types of fat. I have found a study that shows evidence that when saturated fat is replaced with monounsaturated fat as part of a low fat diet insulin resistance is reduced. This seems to be evidence that monounsaturated fat is better than saturated fat as far as insulin resistance is concerned. [2]

The fact that saturated fat does more to impare insulin sensitivity than monosaturated fat says more about the harmful effects of saturated fat that about the "beneficial" effects of monosaturated fat -- ie, not being as bad as saturated fat is not proof of benefit of monosaturated fat. --Ben Best 23:12, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

I did found a second article which shows evidence to support the claim that polyunsaturated fat reduces insulin resistance in rats compared to saturated fat. [3]

Yes, this is well-known and supported by many papers. PUFAs increase membrane fluidity and this increases insulin sensitivity.--Ben Best 23:12, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Since the claim in the original article was not supported by the study it cited I removed it. I have not replaced it with any further comments on the effects of monounsaturated fat on insulin resistance because I feel that I do not know enough about this area to confidently comment on it. If someone else with a medical background reads this perhaps they could add something to the article about insulin resistance.

  1. ^ Satoshi Fukuchi (2004). "Role of Fatty Acid Composition in the Development of Metabolic Disorders in Sucrose-Induced Obese Rats". Experimental Biology and Medicine 229 (6): 486–493. PMID 15169967. 
  2. ^ Vessby B, Unsitupa M, Hermansen K, Riccardi G, Rivellese AA, Tapsell LC, Nalsen C, Berglund L, Louheranta A, Rasmussen BM, Calvert GD, Maffetone A, Pedersen E, Gustafsson IB, Storlien LH; KANWU Study (2001). "Substituting dietary saturated for monounsaturated fat impairs insulin sensitivity in healthy men and women: The KANWU Study". Diabetologia 44 (3): 312–319. PMID 11317662. 
  3. ^ Jong Sam Lee, Srijan K. Pinnamaneni, Su Ju Eo, In Ho Cho, Jae Hwan Pyo, Chang Keun Kim, Andrew J. Sinclair, Mark A. Febbraio, Matthew J. Watt (2006). "Saturated, but not n-6 polyunsaturated, fatty acids induce insulin resistance: role of intramuscular accumulation of lipid metabolites". Journal of Applied Physiology 100 (5): 1467–1474. PMID 16357064. 

Sipos0 17:09, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

I have made my comments above, but will not immediately restore the reference (it is an EXCELLENT reference which deserves to be read carefully by anyone interested in insulin sensitivity or the metabolic syndrome) so as to allow time for further discussion, if that seems to be required. --Ben Best 23:12, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
In the absence of further discussion I have restored the reference. --Ben Best 07:40, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Monounsaturated Fats Examples Suspect

According to the American Heart Association page http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=532 Oils such as Sesame are listed as Polyunsaturated fats. This article lists them as Monounsaturated. Is this in error, or should the text be revised to be more explicit?

Check out Essential_fatty_acid#Food_sources for places you can go online to get the fatty acid composition of whatever. Following the first link [1], page 734, shows that safflower oil comes in at least two types - 'high linoleic', which is high in PUFA, and 'high oleic' which is high in MUFA. In general, all vegetable fats and all animal fats have some saturated fat, some MUFA and some PUFA. It's just a question of the proportions.
But yes, I'd agree that both the AHA and this article could use some revision. Be bold. David.Throop 21:53, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Health Benefits??

Nowhere in this article are the potential health benefits, such as a reduction in risk of cardiovascular diseases discussed. This information should easy double this article's length.

Merging this with unsaturated fats is a poor idea, given the distinction in structure/ nutritional properties of mono vs. poly unsaturated fats. -- Tymothy

I agree there needs to be more coverage of the health effects of SatFat/MUFA/PUFA. But I suggest that it would be best to start the discussion out in a single article. The benefit of MUFA or PUFA is only well-defined in comparison to some other nutrient. I.e, if 100 kcal/d of oleic acid is added to your diet, without anything being taken away, you're likely to start gaining about a pound a month. Not so good. If you add that oleic acid and take away 100 kcal/d of PUFA, that probably won't be so good for you.
If you instead take away 100 kcal/d of corn syrup, probably pretty good. Etc. But is the effect really due to the oleic acid? or the decrease in fructose? Further, since virtually all sources of MUFA also have some satfat and PUFA, most studies have confounded changes in all three at once. For that reason, I'd prefer to see an article that reviews all the fats together. And the first source to use is
G Taubes (2001-03-30). "The soft science of dietary fat". Science l 291: 2536-2545. PMID 11286266.  (subscriber link)
There was a popular version of the same article in [The New York Times]. – David.Throop 22:53, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
After looking around, I realized there already is such an article at Diet and heart disease. I places a See.. link at the head of the article. David.Throop 00:16, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Butter

I see references where butter is listed as having more MUFA than corn oil.

Butter is relatively high in MUFA, but we tend to overlook this because of the even higher saturate content, whereas corn oil is chock-a-block with PUFAs, which carries its own set of issues concerning omega-3 / omega-6 dietary balance. MaxEnt 00:58, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Insulin resistance

In this study, palmitoleic acid and oleic acid were used. In terms of cholestrol, palmitoleic acid acts like a saturated fat. This may be true for insulin resistance, Oleic acid and other monounsaturated fats may actually prevent insulin resistance. Whatever it is, palmitoleic acid behaves like a saturated fat not a monounsaturated fat. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Press olive, win oil (talk • contribs) 20:57, 15 February 2008 (UTC)