My PBL Project

Fats are lipids, that do not dissolve in water, and are broken down by the body to be used as energy. Although organisms use different methods to obtain energy, humans consume food in order to obtain energy. There are three categories in which food groups fall under, 1)fats and oils, 2)meat poultry and fish, 3)dairy foods. In order to achieve a visual representation of the amount of fat in certain foods. We will use acetone will act as the solute, which will extract the fat from the actual food. The food will be crushed into smaller particles. The idea of the experiment is to create a visual representation of the amount of fat in certain foods, by melting the food above an open flame. Therefore, we can distinguish how much fat is within certain foods. Different types of foods fall under 2 subcategories , food with visible fats, and foods with invisible fats. Foods with visible fats and oils consist of, butter, cream, chips and even salad. The oils and grease are easily identifiable. However, food with invisible fats such as avocados.

Investigative Question: How much fat are in the foods we eat daily, and of those foods chosen to tests, which of those will contain the most fat, and does having a lot of fat make the food unhealthy?

Materials:

• • Mason jars (18), 8 oz

  • Permanent marker

  • Masking tape

  • Hammer

  • Foods to test (potato chips, almonds [skinned and slivered], bittersweet chocolate chips)

  • Small, sturdy plastic baggies (sealable) (9)

  • Digital scale with 0.1 g increments. A digital scale that would be suitable is the Fast Weigh MS-500-BLK Digital Pocket Scale; available from Amazon

  • Safety goggles

  • Latex gloves

  • Acetone (approximately 500 mL); available at your local hardware store

  • Graduated cylinder, 50 mL; available from Amazon

  • Small, fine-meshed strainer

  • Large box in which you can fit all your jars

  • Cheesecloth or other small meshed netting (large enough to fit over the box)

  • Timer

  • Pen

  • Lab notebook

Procedures:

1. Use marker and masking tape to label the mason jars according to their corresponding food (almond, potato chips, and and chocolate)

2. Weigh each mason jar with digital scale (without lid)

3. Then, use scale to weigh 10 grams of each mason jar according to their food (each food will have 3, one for each trial) and record

4. Label all 9 bags with their corresponding food and trial

5. Pour each 10 grams of food into their corresponding bag. Use a hammer to crush the foods once in the baggies.

6.Once crushed, put it back into the mason jars

7. Weigh the mason jars again with the crushed food and record

8. Measure out 20 mL of acetone into the graduated cylinder and pour it into the mason jar with the crushes potato chips. You will do one trial at a time.

9. Swirl the acetone and potato chips for 2 min

10. After swirling for 2 min, pour the acetone into the mason jar labeled potato chips acetone. But, while pouring, use the strainer to prevent food from falling into the jar

11. Put all the potato chips that were caught in the strainer back into the potato chips jar

12. Repeat the same fat extraction one more time, but with the soggy potato chip. Use 20 mL of acetone again (this is still trial 1)

13. Continue with the fat extraction with the new sets of potato chips (trial 2 and 3)

14. Once you have performed the fat extraction with all three sets of potato chips, do the same with the crushes chocolate samples and almonds

15. After completing the extraction for all the crushed foods, let the mason jars sit overnight. Make sure to not put the lids back on, so the acetone can evaporate and leave behind the extracted fats.

16. Once all the acetone has evaporated, use the digital scale to weigh each of the jars and record

17. Examine the jars with the extracted fats (texture and consistency)

Safety:

Since Acetone is a flammable liquid, make sure to keep away from open flames, sparks or heat. Also, Acetone is irritating to skin and eyes, so make sure to wear safety goggles and gloves. Overall, work in an are with adequate ventilation and adult supervision is recommended. DO NOT eat the foods that you mixed with acetone!

Weighing the results after the The jar with the crushed The results of potato chips.

extraction. chocolate chips- before

inserting acetone.

All excess foods after being Acetone and graduated The results for chocolate

filtered with acetone. cylinder. chips.

Real life connection:

The connection between the experiment and real life, is how each of the foods being used, mainly foods consist of oils and fats. Our current generation of people have fixated their lifestyle to exercise and concern of health. The experiment connect to real life on a full 100 percent. Everything about this experiment is based on an action possessed by humans on an everyday basis: eating foods which contain oils and fats. But, in the experiment, we will be digging deep into how much of those fats and oils are actually within what we eat. Being able to complete this experiment will give us deeper understanding into our nutritional benefits and the positive and negative outcomes from eating these certain foods.

Scientific Principles/ Essential Understanding:

The essential understand that w were able to grasp from conducting this experiment was that all foods have fat. Some may have more than we expect and others could have much less than what we expected. But, essentially, even though some foods (such as the avocado) may surprisingly have fat, it does not mean it is not good fat! But, overall, the point of this experiment was to gain a visual representation of the amount of fat the food we eat contain.

Data:

FOOD BEING TESTED

The results from after the extraction with the

avocado.

Observation:

One of the changes during the experiment was the change of color during the extraction. Whenever we would mix the acetone with the food before draining it into the second mason jar, the acetone would change color based on the food. For example, when we mixed the acetone with the avocado, the acetone turned into a strong green color. Also, another observation we made was when we got the results. There was oil on the bottom of the mason jars, which was very impressive to see the actual amount of fat in the food we used.

Analysis/ Discussion/Conclusion:

For this experiment, we were able to gather a clear conclusion: the chocolate had th3e most fat. then came thje potato chips along with the almonds and lastly, the avocado. When the acetone evaporated, we were able to distinguish the fat, which commonly consisted of oils such as grease. Chocolate which left a hard, or solid structure, when the fat was extracted, had proven to be the must fat extracted of the food variables used. The potato chips, followed the chocolate in the amount of fats it contained. The almonds although are healthy, also contained much fat however, significantly lower than the chocolate or the potato chips. We decided to choose the avocado as it is included in many diets, and is a food that associated with good health, no questions asked. It was interesting to see how the foods used within the experiment correlated with one another, and can be applicable to our current daily lives.

Post-investigative questions:

Which of the foods contain HDL and LDL?

Primarily LDL is known as the bad cholesterol, and this bad cholesterol is often associated with foods that contain much oil and butter or are greasy at the touch. Within the foods used in the experiment, 2 of the foods, contain much butter and or oils; the potato chips and the chocolate. The almonds and the avocado consist of much fat, however this does not make these two foods unhealthy, or puts them under the subcategory of LDL. These 2 foods contain high amounts of HDL, which restricts the LDL from entering rtrhe arteries.

How does acetone manage to extract fat from food?

When it is being stirred with the food, it s taking it the lipids and then draining them into the second jar. Lastly, when the acetone evaporates, it leaves behind the extracted fat!

To whom and in what ways could the results from the experiment benefit someone?

In reality, it could benefit anyone who is concerned with having a healthy lifestyle. But, specifically, it could benefit nutritionists. Nutritionist and to help people who want to control their body appearance and being able to have the knowledge of the amount of fat in foods could make their job a lot easier.

Whats the difference between HDL and LDL?

LDL stands low density lipo-protein cholesterol, which is also known as "bad" cholesterol. LDL is considered a healthy cholesterol, where it is believed to carry LDL cholesterol away from the arteries and back into the liver where it is broken down.