loscheiner

Like yogurt, but bad for you. And some science.

Best summer dessert I’ve invented, ever. It’s like yogurt, but bad for you! 

For each serving you’ll need:

  • 1 ripe peach, sliced/chopped into small pieces
  • 1 /3 c. full fat coconut milk
  • 1 squirt of lime
  • 1 drizzle agave nectar

Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and set in the freezer for 30 minutes. Go do your laundry or something. Contemplate what you’re going to do with the 60% of your daily saturated fats requirement that you’ll be fulfilling with this dish. Try to remember the difference between saturated and unsaturated fats. Fail to remember the difference between saturated and unsaturated fats. Keep reading.

Fats are basically a long chain-type molecule. The chain is made of carbon atoms and it can be different lengths, depending how many carbons attach together. At each carbon in the chain, the carbon can bond to another carbon, creating a new link in the chain. Each carbon to carbon link takes up one bonding site. But there’s spots for bonds to other atoms, too. When hydrogen fills those extra spaces, the molecule is said to be saturated. If the carbon instead makes a double bond to its chainlink neighbor then there isn’t room for a hydrogen, and it’s called unsaturated. 

Single, saturated bonds are straight, but double bonds cause the chain to kink. This means that when you have a bunch of unsaturated fats together they can’t stack as nicely as straight saturated fats can. Since unsaturated fats don’t pack as tightly together, they are less dense and are typically liquids at room temperature. The more double bonds, the more kinks, the less dense. If the fat molecule has only one double bond it is called monounsaturated. Olive oil is a good example. A cool thing to notice: monounsaturated fats are only 1 bond away from being unsaturated, so they’re like almost on the cusp. Take a monounsaturated fat and cool it down and you’ll see it turn to a solid. This is what happens when you put olive oil in the fridge. Polyunsaturated fats have more than one double bond. Vegetable oils (corn, sunflower, etc) are polyunsaturated. Saturated fats, which can pile together densely  (including in your arteries) are typically solids at room temperature. Coconut milk (the fatty part) is therefore a great example of a saturated fat. Meat fats are saturated, too. Basically, you don’t want to eat too many of them. But really, the coconut yogurt concoction is damn good and worth every saturated bond.

If you’re still reading this far you only have a few more minutes before you can have your dessert. Here is an animation of fatty acids from youtube. I tried to find something more ridiculous, but there weren’t any videos matching “dancing fat molecule”. Lame.

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Tags: vegan vegetarian gluten free dessert recipe science organic chemistry

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  1. whatwehadfordinner posted this