Phospholipids are fats that become critical parts of our cell membranes. They are functional fats and differ from triglyceride, which is the storage form of fat, in that they do not get shuttled to adipocytes for storage but are directly incorporated into cell membranes.

The cell membrane is critical for every organ and system in the body, but most people don’t consume good quality sources of phospholipids – and in fact in our diets there are really only a few sources. They are eggs, full fat dairy, and offal (brain, liver, etc).

Cell and mitochondrial membranes are prone to oxidation and according to the antioxidant theory of aging, oxidation damages membranes both cellular and mitochondrial and the solution is to consume abundant antioxidants.

This strategy has been proven to be useless and that is because oxidation is not the only issue with membranes. Phospholipids can be built from different kinds of fat, polyunsaturated, saturated, or monounsaturated. These fats in either form, triglyceride or phospholipid are not broken down before incorporation into tissues – the type of fat you consume alters your fat tissue and membrane composition.

Another theory of aging is the Membrane Pacemaker which establishes that hat aging is driven by the composition of cell membranes.

The antioxidant theory basically states that if your house is built of straw (easily oxidized fatty acids), keep a firehose (antioxidants) nearby, while the cell membrane pacemaker theory suggests it’s better to build a house out of brick.

What kind of fat is best for cell membranes? While it varies and we cannot entirely control it, polyunsaturated fat is highly reactive and is damaged rapidly by normal processes within the body, but it is more flexible.

Monounsaturated fat is much more resistant to oxidation and maintains flexibility.

Saturated fat is the most resilient but the least flexible.

The best cell membranes are structured with all three kinds of fat, but are more weighted towards monounsaturated fats.

Phospholipids are the ideal source of this fat for building membranes, but if we don’t consume adequate phospholipid, the body can use triglyceride to manufacture them.

When we consume phospholipid it also includes choline, serine, and inositol – these substances are not only critical for building membranes for cells, choline serves a host of other processes that are absolutely critical. While many people have genes that can produce some amount of choline endogenously, not everyone does and no person can make up for a diet severely lacking in choline – though a failure to ingest adequate choline will not result in any immediate signs, it does begin to trigger a cascade of events that eventually leads to metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, estrogen dominance, diabetes, heart disease, and many other issues.

Eggs and whole fat dairy contain protein, growth factors, antioxidants within the phospholipid structure – that prevents oxidation from spreading.

Another component found within egg yolk and milk fat is sphingolipid which prevents cellular growth from becoming uncontrolled. This lipid is found in eggs and in whole fat dairy because these are areas in which rapid cell division is expected to occur.

Baby chickens in embryo and calves are rapidly growing faster than any time in their lives and are being pumped full of growth factors like IGF which has been linked to cancer – but yet, baby calves and embryonic chickens rarely develop tumors.

Colostrum contains lactoferrin, MFGM (Milk Fat Globule Membrane), and complex sugars which boost immune function, cell signaling, and other tumor suppressing and infection preventing processes in the body.

Vegetarians and people who eschew eating eggs and dairy will not be able to get enough choline without resorting to lecithin supplementation, and even then, lecithin, while containing ample phospholipids – does not have a resilient antioxidant system in place. What it did have is removed by heavy processing.

Supplements like Alpha-GPC can provide choline but lack the phospholipid component. Gut bacteria compete with human cells for free choline and produce toxic byproducts which cause inflammation and other long term issues.

The bottom line is cell membranes are important and most people have no idea of the roles they play in health or how to look after them.