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Head of the Oils and Fats Department at the Food Industries and Nutrition Research Institute, National Research Centre.
"Before oils and fats became a focal point of contemporary nutritional debate, they had embarked on an astonishing journey from the very essence of life. The story began with the 'soap' of early civilizations, then delved deeper to reveal the role of fats as a cornerstone in building our cells, leading to the innovation of industrial alternatives and the formulation of the most precise questions about health and nutrition. This is not merely a story of a cooking ingredient; rather, it is a scientific journey that unveiled how what we perceive as simple in our kitchens is, in reality, one of the pillars of human existence and a fundamental key to the industry and food of the future."
When oils and fats are mentioned, the mind often turns to food, calories, and cholesterol. However, this reduction fails to do justice to a substance that resides within cells, forms part of the brain's structure, participates in regulating inflammation, immunity, and hormones, and is present in the bodies of all living organisms, from microorganisms to plants, animals, and humans.
Therefore, the history of lipid science is not just a tale of a food substance, but a long scientific journey in which humanity progressed from observation to understanding, from use to explanation, and from explanation to reshaping and industrial application. In this article, we trace the major beginnings of this science: how its first applications emerged, how modern lipid chemistry was formed, and how fats transformed our understanding of the cell, food, and health.
The importance of oils and fats extends beyond the realm of food alone. The human brain, in its dry weight, is rich in fats, and all cell membranes possess an organized fatty nature. Furthermore, one gram of fat provides more energy than proteins or carbohydrates. Oils and fats also form a broad foundation for applications ranging from food to medicine, cosmetics, detergents, and biofuels.
It is important here to correct a common misconception that reduces oils and fats to a bottle of oil or a block of ghee; they are not just separate consumer products, but a fundamental component at the core of life. They are present in the bodies of all living organisms, participating in cell building, regulating vital functions, and maintaining structural and metabolic efficiency. They are also found in countless foods, either naturally or as additives.
If we broaden our perspective further, we find that oils and fats cannot be understood in isolation from the other essential components of life. The structure and functions of living organisms rely on the integration of a precise system that includes fats, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and water. Fats build cell membranes, transmit vital signals, carry fat-soluble vitamins, and participate in regulating metabolic processes.
Perhaps the most eloquent way to understand the importance of fats is to imagine the exact opposite scenario: What if we removed all fats from the human body, from foods that naturally contain them, and from those added during processing?
Then we would not only remove a nutritional component, but also touch one of the hidden pillars upon which life itself stands.
Thus, it becomes clear that fats are not a burden on life, but rather an integral part of a precise system where structure and function are integrated, and that a rational understanding of them, not their exclusion, is the path to true health and nutritional balance.
A complete understanding of this topic means we should not view oils and fats with an exclusionary or single-minded approach, but rather with a focus on balanced diversification between their various sources. The value of oils and fats, whether derived from plant, animal, or marine sources, is not solely determined by common names, but by the quality of their origin, the safety of their production, their composition, and their suitability for the intended nutritional or industrial purpose.
Herein lies the wisdom of diversification; neither nature nor proper nutrition can be reduced to a single source. Instead, it lies in a balance that allows for a variety of fatty acids, accompanying compounds, and functional and sensory properties, all within a framework governed by quality and safety standards.
Thousands of years ago, in the civilizations of Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, humans discovered through experimentation that mixing animal fats or oils with alkaline substances derived from ash produced a material with cleaning properties. Thus emerged, in its rudimentary form, the first practical engagement with fat chemistry: Saponification.
The ancients did not possess the language of molecules or the concepts of fatty acids and glycerol, but they did have practical observation. They utilized the reaction's product thousands of years before understanding its explanation.
While the ancient period revealed the practical application of fats, the early 19th century marked the true shift from mere use to understanding. The significant transformation came about through the French chemist Michel Eugène Chevreul in 1813, when he demonstrated that fats were not a single, amorphous mass, but rather compounds composed of glycerol and fatty acids.
With this discovery, the science of lipids moved from external description to structural understanding. Chevreul also contributed to the chemical characterization of cholesterol around 1815. This moment can truly be considered the birth of modern lipid chemistry.
After the chemical understanding of fats became established, the early 20th century brought a highly impactful development. Hydrogenation brought about a major industrial shift, making it possible to convert liquid oil into a more solid and stable fat by adding hydrogen in the presence of a catalyst. This appeared to be a significant achievement for the food industry in terms of improving texture, increasing stability, extending shelf life, and reducing cost.
But scientific history reminds us that industrial success alone is not enough to judge the safety of an innovation. It later became clear that partial hydrogenation leads to the formation of trans fats, a structural form linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases.
In 1869, the fat industry witnessed a remarkable milestone when the French chemist Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès succeeded in inventing margarine, in response to a practical need for an economical alternative to natural butter. This innovation represented a significant moment in the history of fatty foods, as it revealed early on science's ability to reshape fats to perform a specific function.
In its early days, margarine relied on processed animal fats, then later evolved to incorporate vegetable oils. With the development of the food industry, it gained significant importance in baking and confectionery, offering crucial technical properties such as ease of spreading and control over its melting point.
However, this journey was not without continuous scientific review; some traditional forms of margarine were linked to trans fats, which later prompted its redevelopment into formulations more compliant with modern health standards.
One of the most prominent intellectual shifts in the history of this science is that fats were no longer understood merely as biological fuel, but as a fundamental structure for life. This understanding crystallized with the fluid mosaic model introduced by Singer and Nicolson in 1972.
This model explained that every cell is surrounded by a membrane primarily composed of a phospholipid bilayer (phosphorylated fats), in which hydrophilic heads are arranged outwards, while hydrophobic tails face inwards. From this point, the status of fats in biological thought changed: they became an essential prerequisite for the cell to perform its function.
In the 1970s, studies drew attention to a significant paradox in fish-dependent communities (such as Greenland): high fat consumption, coupled with excellent cardiovascular health.
These observations contributed to the rise of scientific interest in omega-3 fatty acids (especially EPA and DHA), as fatty components that play vital and precise roles in supporting the heart, brain, and immunity. This understanding became more established with the study of the Mediterranean diet which relies on a balance between various fat sources (good vegetable oils, fish, nuts).
The question was no longer: Should we eat fats or not? but became: What type of fat? And in what balance?
When the dangers of trans fats became apparent, the need for safer, practical alternatives emerged. This is where the technique of interesterification (Interesterification) emerged during the 1990s.
The idea can be simplified as a type of fatty acid rearrangement, either within the molecule itself (on the glycerol molecule), or by exchanging their positions between different molecules. This means that fatty acids do not turn into trans fats; instead, their positions are reorganized in a way that gives the fat new properties in terms of texture, melting point, and stability.
This technique has evolved chemically and enzymatically, representing an important shift from merely replacing one substance with another, to the organized engineering of fat's functional properties.
If we were to summarize the journey of oils and fats up to this point, we could say that the story began with usage, then moved to understanding, and then to re-evaluating the relationship of fats with food, life, and health. From ancient saponification to Chevreul, and from hydrogenation and margarine to Omega-3 and interesterification, fats are no longer a silent ingredient in the kitchen, but have become a vibrant scientific field that is changing our understanding of cells, nutrition, and food manufacturing.
But the journey of oils and fats does not stop at understanding. After science revealed their structure and functions, a new, deeper phase began: the phase of fat design, analyzing their molecular maps, and linking them to health, the microbiome, and sustainability.
