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Lipids are one of the biologically essential compounds apart from carbohydrates,
proteins and nucleic acids. They are small bio-molecules with molecular weight
ranges between 100 and 5000 and also vary in polarity. Lipids are stored in adipose
tissue and function as the best energy reserve. Lipids provide the major part of calories, on average, 9 kcal/g whereas carbohydrates and proteins give 4 kcal/g on an
average. Lipids serve as the structural component of living organisms. It is utilized
for the construction of biological membranes and contributes as a barrier in separating intracellular and extracellular contents. It aids in maintaining the integrity of the
cellular compounds. Lipids also serve as essential nutrients (Vitamin A, D, E, K)
and most of the hormones are lipids. It helps to facilitate the digestive process,
depressing gastric secretion, slowing gastric emptying and stimulating biliary and
pancreatic flow. In foods, they affect the texture, flavor and palatability of foods.
Lipids in Foods
Lipids that are consumed by humans are either from plant or animal sources. They
are extracted in the industries by pressing or solvent extraction and heating in case
of plant and animals lipids respectively. Except few plant sources, all other plant
based raw materials contain notable quantity of lipids in it.
Food products that are devoid of lipids are honey, sugar, juices etc. Most of the
fruits and vegetables belong to category of foods with low amount of fat. A wellknown exception is the avocado also called as butter fruit contains about 15% lipids.
Table 1 represents the total lipid (g/100 g) in different plant and animal based food
Table 1 Total lipid content in plant and animal based food products
Fruits and vegetables
Cereal products
Nuts and seeds
Avocado
15.41
Rice bran
20.85
Macadamia nuts
75.77
Potato
14.95
Wheat germ
9.72
Pecan nut
71.97
Plantain
11.81
Oats
6.90
Walnut
65.21
Sweet potato
11.10
Quinoa
6.07
Sunflower seeds
51.46
Soybean
6.80
Millet
4.22
Almond
49.93
Sweet corn
1.50
Sorghum
3.46
Sesame seeds
49.67
Pomegranate
1.17
Cornstarch
0.05
Pistachio nut
45.32
Fig
0.93
Meat products
Cashew nut
43.85
Beans
0.70
Pork
94.16
Coconut
33.49
Mushroom
0.57
Beef
70.89
Chia seeds
30.74
Spinach
0.39
Turkey
38.93
Dairy products
Papaya
0.26
Egg yolk
26.54
Butter oil
99.48
Eggplant
0.18
Lamb
23.41
Butter
81.11
Orange juice
0.12
Smoked fish
20.14
Condensed milk
8.70
Cabbage
0.10
Quail
12.05
Buffalo milk
6.89
Fruit cocktail
0.01
Raw Salmon
10.43
Dried whey
1.07
S. Asokapandian et al.
Lipids are one of the biologically essential compounds apart from carbohydrates,
proteins and nucleic acids. They are small bio-molecules with molecular weight
ranges between 100 and 5000 and also vary in polarity. Lipids are stored in adipose
tissue and function as the best energy reserve. Lipids provide the major part of calories, on average, 9 kcal/g whereas carbohydrates and proteins give 4 kcal/g on an
average. Lipids serve as the structural component of living organisms. It is utilized
for the construction of biological membranes and contributes as a barrier in separating intracellular and extracellular contents. It aids in maintaining the integrity of the
cellular compounds. Lipids also serve as essential nutrients (Vitamin A, D, E, K)
and most of the hormones are lipids. It helps to facilitate the digestive process,
depressing gastric secretion, slowing gastric emptying and stimulating biliary and
pancreatic flow. In foods, they affect the texture, flavor and palatability of foods.
Lipids in Foods
Lipids that are consumed by humans are either from plant or animal sources. They
are extracted in the industries by pressing or solvent extraction and heating in case
of plant and animals lipids respectively. Except few plant sources, all other plant
based raw materials contain notable quantity of lipids in it.
Food products that are devoid of lipids are honey, sugar, juices etc. Most of the
fruits and vegetables belong to category of foods with low amount of fat. A wellknown exception is the avocado also called as butter fruit contains about 15% lipids.
Table 1 represents the total lipid (g/100 g) in different plant and animal based food
Table 1 Total lipid content in plant and animal based food products
Fruits and vegetables
Cereal products
Nuts and seeds
Avocado
15.41
Rice bran
20.85
Macadamia nuts
75.77
Potato
14.95
Wheat germ
9.72
Pecan nut
71.97
Plantain
11.81
Oats
6.90
Walnut
65.21
Sweet potato
11.10
Quinoa
6.07
Sunflower seeds
51.46
Soybean
6.80
Millet
4.22
Almond
49.93
Sweet corn
1.50
Sorghum
3.46
Sesame seeds
49.67
Pomegranate
1.17
Cornstarch
0.05
Pistachio nut
45.32
Fig
0.93
Meat products
Cashew nut
43.85
Beans
0.70
Pork
94.16
Coconut
33.49
Mushroom
0.57
Beef
70.89
Chia seeds
30.74
Spinach
0.39
Turkey
38.93
Dairy products
Papaya
0.26
Egg yolk
26.54
Butter oil
99.48
Eggplant
0.18
Lamb
23.41
Butter
81.11
Orange juice
0.12
Smoked fish
20.14
Condensed milk
8.70
Cabbage
0.10
Quail
12.05
Buffalo milk
6.89
Fruit cocktail
0.01
Raw Salmon
10.43
Dried whey
1.07
S. Asokapandian et al.