Dietary fats are large, complex molecules that require a longer time to digest than simpler molecules like carbohydrates. Your body must go through several steps in order to break down fats, absorb them from the intestines, and transport them to other parts of the body. This process requires the involvement of several organs, including the liver and pancreas.
Dissolution
Fats are hydrophobic, meaning that they cannot dissolve in water and instead form large clumps when they encounter water. In order to break down fat molecules, your body must first break up the large clumps. This process is accomplished by bile salts, chemicals produced by the liver that act like soap and dissolve the large clumps of fat into tiny droplets inside your intestines, explains the National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse.
Breakdown
After the large clumps of fat are broken up into tiny droplets, enzymes produced by the pancreas can reach the individual fat molecules and break those down into the smaller molecules that make up fats, including fatty acids and monoglycerides. These smaller molecules remain dissolved in the bile salts and clump together into droplets called micelles, Colorado State University explains.
Absorption
As the tiny micelles pass through your intestines, they run into the inside walls of the intestines, which are covered with fingerlike projections, called microvilli, that stick out into the intestines to catch micelles and other nutrients. When a micelle runs into a microvillus, it is absorbed and enters your body. Once inside the cells lining the intestines, the small monoglycerides and fatty acids are then reformed into larger fat molecules, such as triglycerides. The triglycerides are then bulked together with cholesterol and proteins to form transport particles called chylomicrons.
Transport
Once the fats are reformed into larger molecules, the chylomicrons are secreted from the intestinal cells into lymph ducts. The chylomicrons then travel through the lymphatic system into the blood stream. Once in the blood stream, the chylomicrons are then transported to wherever they are needed and distributed into the fat molecules, which can then be used to generate energy or be stored as fat.
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