GLOSSARY

Fatty Acids is the plural of fatty acid and includes members with different lengths and bonds, rather than one uniform nutritional substance.

Most foods contain mixtures of fatty acids: olive oil is not exclusively monounsaturated, and nuts do not contain only one fat type. Naming a food after its predominant fraction does not imply purity. Food selection should consider the overall composition, portion, accompanying fibre or protein and what the food replaces.

In fatty-acid notation, the number before the colon usually gives carbon count and the next number gives double-bond count. An omega family or bond position may follow. This is not an intake weight or recommended dose. Distinguishing some isomers also requires specifying bond positions and spatial geometry beyond the basic code.

Saturation concerns carbon–carbon double bonds in a fatty-acid chain, not fullness after eating or a food's energy content. One double bond defines monounsaturation; multiple bonds define polyunsaturation. Their positions and cis or trans geometry also matter, so counting bonds alone cannot explain every physical property or biological effect.