Is there a difference in caloric values between saturated and unsaturated fats?
Answer:
Fats are classified as saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated based on their chemical structure. Although types of fat differ, they're all approximately equal in caloric value.
No, in biology class we were just taught that 1 gram of fat is worth 9 calories.
You could argue that saturated are more reduced and unsaturated are more oxidized, so saturated have higher caloric values than unsaturated. But really, you're talking about substances that are esters of three fatty acid molecules of 18 carbons each with glycerol. So caloric differences vanish into the "noise." Also, "caloric values" are calculated according to calorimeter-measured data, corrected according to the "efficiency" of metabolism in getting and using the energy. So that reduces the importance still further.
A small difference. The caloric value of a fat is generally considered to be 9 Calories/gram. The heat of combustion of vegetable oils is about 9.30 Calories/gram while the heat of combustion of animal fat is 9.50 Calories/gram. The value to be used for ingested fats is 9.02 Calories/g (animal fat) and 8.84 Calories/g (vegetable oil). The animal fat (lard) tends to contain about 55% unsaturated fat while vegetable oil averages 75 to 80% unsaturated fat.
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