The Comparative Rate of Absorption of Different Fats

Abstract

The percentage of fat absorbed from the alimentary canal of rats was determined at 2, 4, 6, 8 and 12 hours after feeding definite quantities of fat. It was found that: 1) partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, as sold commercially for home and bakers' use, were absorbed as rapidly as lard or corn oil, and 2) that butter oil, halibut liver oil, and cod liver oil were absorbed uniformly at a more rapid rate than lard, corn oil, or the partially hydrogenated fats. Eleven other samples of fat tested after a 4-hour absorption period could be arranged in the following descending order of their percentage absorption: linseed oil, olive oil, whale oil, soya bean oil, peanut oil, rancid lard, cottonseed oil, cocobutter, coconut oil, palm oil, and oleo stock. Although the difference between any of these fats and the one immediately preceding or following in the list may not be significant, certainly there were very real differences in the absorption rates of those widely separated. Besides differences in the character of the fats themselves, it appears that the quantity of unsaponifiable matter in a crude fat may influence the rate of absorption of the total. No very striking differences occurred in the production of fatty livers when diets containing 30 % of lard, butter fat, oleo stock, partially hydrogenated vegetable fat, coconut oil, or olive oil were fed to young, growing rats.