Are Organic Vegetables More Nutritious than Others

3 Are Organic Vegetables More Nutritious than Others  

If we wish to start the stoiy where it began, we should travel back in time to an Ancient Age when soap-making was first discovered. What is soap If fats are boiled together with some aqueous alkali for a lengthy time, they will decompose. Chemically, they undergo alkaline hydrolysis (Fig. 2.6). Glycerol and soap are formed in this process soap is a mixture of the sodium (or potassium) salt of different fatly acids. In an ever-popular novel, The Mysterious Island L lle mysterieuse), French science-fiction writer Jules Verne very nicely described that soap could be made even on a deserted island (the movies supposedly based on this novel seldom make a point of this part). 

In a chemical sense, fats are triglycerides. This word may sound familiar to maiy as it is often used in the mass media. In blood tests, the level of triglycerides is often measured in addition to cholesterol. Triglycerides are compounds formed from glycerol (an alcohol with three hydroxyl groups) and fatty acids known as esters. They are fundamental substances in all living organisms, bacteria and humans alike. 

This decomposition process is called saponification. It can be halted at intermediate stages to produce mono- and di-glycerides. These are compounds in which only one or two of the hydroxyl groups of glycerol form ester bonds (Fig. 2.7). In layman s terms some of the fatty acids from the fat have been removed. In the human body, these intermediate compounds are formed when fats are broken down, and they are also formed when fat-containing ingredients are boiled for a long time 

Mixtures of acetic add, ete. derivatives, e.g. E472 Fig. 2.7 Structure of modified fats. (Authors own work) 

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