How can these guys be taken seriously?!Follow

Could that explain why my original post got owned? -_-

Okay, gonna revert back to my biochem days for a moment here...

Carbs, whether bread, pasta, or sugar, all end up as glucose in the bloodstream. The only difference is whether the sugar is a mono-, di-, or polysaccharide. Fructose, from fruits and vegetables, is a monosaccharide. Table sugar, sucrose, is a disaccaride composed of glucose and fructose. Lactose (milk) and maltose (beer) are also disaccharides. They up being handled metabolically as two molecules of glucose. Starch, however, is a polysaccharide. Which means a lot more glucose enters the metabolic process per gram of starch than per gram of sugar. This can be a good thing, in increased long-term energy (polysaccarides take longer to break down and therefore don't give the initial energy surge that monosaccharides do) or a bad thing (glucose levels end up higher, therefore more synthesis and storage of fat occurs if there is not an energy requirement.)

Carbs enter the metabolic process phosphorilized to glucose-6-phosphate. If blood glucose concentrations are high, glycogenesis occurs and the glucose-6-phosphate is converted to glycogen. If blood glucose is dropping, glucose-6-phosphate undergoes glycolysis and becomes pyruvate, which is oxydized to become acetyl-SCoA and enter the citric acid cycle, which is where energy (in ATP) is actually produced. When glucose in the blood is rising, glycogen is synthesized to lipids in the liver where it is stored in the adipose tissue as fat. There are 30-32 ATP per molecule of glucose.

Fats are either stored immediately or enter the metabolic process as triacylglycerols (TAGs), where they are broken down into glycerol and fatty acids. The glycerol is phosphorilized to glycerol-3-phosphate and then either undergoes glycolysis to become acetyl-SCoA and enter the citric acid cycle or gluconeogenesis to become glucose and be stored handled as described above. The fatty acids are undergo beta-oxidation and become acetyl-SCoA and enter the citric acid cycle. The amount of ATP (energy) from each fatty acid depends on the number of carbons in the fatty acid chain (7N-6, where N is the number of carbons in the chain.)

The point of this? The system is predisposed to handle carbs first and store fats, because fats come pre-packaged as easily storable units (TAGs) and carbs have to undergo a lot of processing to be storable, so it's more efficient for the system to gets its primary energy from the carbs, since they are already being metabolized, than to mobilize and process the TAGs. However, fat has much more energy potential (ATP yielded in the citric acid cycle) than carbs. A molecule of fat compared to a molecule of carbs is really like comparing a drop of rocket fuel to a drop of lighter fluid.

Thus, if you eat a lot of carbs, even with very little fat and protein, unless you are physically active (work out regularly, etc) you are basically creating a system whereby not only are the fats and proteins automatically stored and ignored by the system, but the excess carbs are ALSO stored by the system, because you have too many of them to meet your body's energy requirements.

That's the biochem take on the whole fats v. carbs thing. However, the process is a little more complicated than just the metabolic chemistry, because of the idea of "carbohydrate addiction" or hyperinsulimia. To break it down, it works like this:

Your body releases insulin in two shots. One happens as you eat, the second one happens about 20 minutes later. The first of these shots is calculated based upon how many carbs you generally consume when you eat. The second shot is based upon how many carbs you consumed in this particular meal. If you habitually eat a lot of carbs, and if you consume fewer carbs than your body is expecting, you have some excess insulin in your system.

When insulin levels in the blood drop, you get a hit of seratonin. This is the neurotransmitter that says, "hey, I'm happy, I'm satisfied." If you still have the excess insulin in your system, you don't get that hit of seratonin, and therefore never get that "mmm, that was good, but I'm done now" post-meal contented feeling. This is why people who are susceptible to carb addiction tend to "graze" after a meal, they are still trying to get that hit of seratonin. Unfortunately, if what they are grazing on is more carbs, it's only going to exacerbate the problem. This leads to a continued cycle of overeating.

I will agree with this the statement about exercise being important. Ultimately, your level of physical activity is what is going to make the most difference in how your body handles your caloric intake, but from a biochemical standpoint, the ratio of carbs in one's diet DOES matter, and eating more carbs and less meat isn't going to correct the problem.

Impressive.... Obi Wan has taught you well..


Wanna go do it?