Biology Essay Example about Lipids

Lipids. One of the main macromolecules essential for life, along with carbohydrates, proteins, and nucleic acids. Lipids consist of a glycerol backbone, a hydrophilic phosphoric head, and a fatty acid chain that is hydrophobic. Generally, there are two main types of lipids. One is fats and oils and the other is sterols. Fats and oils have high-density energy storage that is essential for the human body to function. Also, their interaction with water affects how lipids function in the body. This interaction

defines the boundaries of the cell. Sterols, on the other hand, act as signals for the body and alter membranes in the body. Both types are equally important, but they have disparate functions. But, now that I have thrown all of these facts about lipids at you. You are probably wondering, why should I care about lipids? Well, you as a reader, will be able to relate to my relationship to why lipids are important for me. 

First, the main sterol in our body is cholesterol. Personally, cholesterol is something that I feel like everybody should care about. Typically when it is high in a human that is not a good thing. Although people may choose to avoid thinking about cholesterol, having high cholesterol has an adverse effect on your individual health. In my family, heart disease and high blood pressure is an issue, so that immediately means that cholesterol is something that has to be watched. If I didn’t know that cholesterol was a lipid, or better well know to the public as a fat, then I wouldn’t know what to look for when I am trying to eat healthier. Lipids affect us on a cellular level but it doesn’t have to be a cellular level. It can be you just worrying about your cholesterol levels. You can look at the bigger picture but also, the lipids that are involved in the structure of a cell are something that if anything was going wrong in your body, you wouldn’t want it to the lipids in your cell membrane. 

The lipids in your cell are mainly used in the phospholipid bilayer. They are the cell membrane and without it, your cells wouldn’t function properly. The cell membrane controls the flow of electrons and molecules in and out of the cell. Without it, a human wouldn’t be able to participate in basic human activities. I wouldn’t be able to figure skate because the cells in my blood wouldn’t be able to produce energy to fuel my body. In fact, cells wouldn’t be a thing because there is no boundary for the components of the cells. Nothing would make sense in your body. Humans just wouldn’t be living things. 

Lipids provide the structure for one of the most important components of biology. A cell. With sterol lipids, I worry about the effect that cholesterol has on my body but with lipids as a phospholipid bilayer, I just wouldn’t be who I am. Which I guess means that I wouldn’t be able to worry able it but that’s trifling. Let’s pretend that I can worry about it. With the overarching question of how important are lipids to the human body, I would say that they are pretty important because without them we as the human race wouldn’t be a thing.