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Carbs are like Lego blocks. The singular blocks are called "sugars" and include things such as fructose (fruit sugar) and blood sugar. When fructose or glucose

Carbs are like Lego blocks. The singular blocks are called "sugars" and include things such as fructose (fruit sugar) and blood sugar. When fructose or glucose enter the digestive system, they are readily processed and enter the bloodstream as glucose. Here, cells take up as much glucose as they can, which can turn into a problem if decades-long oversaturation continues unabated. The only way cells can block glucose from entering is by becoming resistant to a key that unlocks the entryway, insulin. Thus, diabetes develops. In any case, carbs can become extremely long chains, forming things such as chitin, the sturdy outer carapace of insects. If you ever failed to squash a cockroach, now you know why. A type of these complex sugars aka polysaccharids is called "fiber". Again, this includes things such as cellulose, which you can see if you tear apart a piece of paper, or lignine, which are the strands seen when you break a branch off of a tree. We can't fully digest this fiber, but there are herbivores and especially ruminants who can. For example, cows have a special digestive system consisting of several stomachs, where they chew some plants, digest them, chew them again, digest some more and so on. Now for why that's important for humans. In our digestive system, the dietary fiber becomes partially digested, turning into a soft gel that travels down our 30-foot digestive tract and helps push things along. To date, the entirety of our medicine hasn't created a medication that cleans the digestive system with same efficiency as dietary fiber. Cats and dogs have a relatively simple digestive tract; they can live off of turned salami but we can't. Also, dietary fiber swells up, giving you a feeling of fullness and slowing down the rate of absorption of sugars. You see, now the digestion actually has to work to extract food, which reduces the onslaught of sugar into the bloodstream. The problem is that dietary fiber makes the food harder to cook, chew and digest. And boy, do food companies hate that. Dietary fiber reduces the throughput of customers. Why would a fast food company want you to eat a hamburger for 30 minutes? They want you chewing that badboy in 2 minutes, out the door and then back right away, since food without dietary fiber does not satiate. Do you see the situation? Source: dietary writer

AndyNemmity 10y ago
That was enjoyable to read, do you have a link to other articles you've posted, like a blog or something?
- greendestiny_re 10y ago
  The best stuff I ever wrote is here: https://zmiblog.wordpress.com https://zmiblog.wordpress.com Though I haven't gotten the habit of writing regularly there.
laichzeit0 10y ago
>When fructose or glucose enter the digestive system, they are readily processed and enter the bloodstream as glucose. Here, cells take up as much glucose as they can An excellent reason to have as much muscle as possibile so all these delicious carbs go into making your muscles look nice and full. Mmmm I love carbs. I also hate it when people try and make carbs look evil, it's so necessary for me. My daily maintenance calories is 2700. Anything less than that and I'm losing weight. Without carbs I'd look flat and have to eat that all from solid food :( Unless you have little muscle. Then you should probably avoid carbs.
- greendestiny_re 10y ago
  Carbs do have a purpose, of course. They are just a source of energy and by themselves completely neutral. There are only two problems with them: the way we eat them and the way our body uses them. In nature, carbs are never found isolated. They always come with dietary fiber and in varying degrees of complexity. But in processed food, carbs are artificially designed to be as simple as possible. From bread and pastry to candy and fruit, the food we eat has been scientifically engineered to contain the lowest common denominator. Food companies see nothing wrong with this: they want every Fig Newton to be the exact same, but this ultimately means depriving us of variety of tastes and nutrients that naturally should exist in food. This hurts us in the long run tremendously. Even the fruit we eat and which is arguably the source of healthiest carbs we can find has no resemblance to what is found in nature. Bananas are a fine example of this. The variety of bananas commercially available in the world has been reduced to a single variety: Cavendish. From Ecuador to Estonia, you can walk into any store and find the exact same bananas, right down to shape, size and color. If you open those bananas up and take a bite, you will notice they have no seeds. How do they reproduce then? They don't: they are sterile, genetically engineered clones of one another. There are enormous banana plantations all around the world, and they are all growing the exact same clone of the exact same plant. Have you ever heard of a term "banana republic" and chuckled a bit? The term has a grave history, as it denotes a country where the banana cartel (such a thing does exist) established a puppet government and shifted the entire economy towards a single commodity: bananas. But, as it turns out, this is completely unsustainable in the long run. The problem with growing genetic clones of any plant on a global scale is that an ecosystem is only as healthy as it is diverse. Once you create uniformity for the sake of marketability, the entire structure is vulnerable to a single agent of catastrophic failure. In this case, the culprit has a perfectly fitting ominous name: Fusarium oxysporum aka Tropical Race 4. The description of this fungus reads like the description of the Terminator: it is indestructible, has no mercy and never stops. When this fungus that's been honing its banana-slaying skills for millennia reaches the sterile, cloned Cavendish plantations, the effect is utterly devastating. Every single plant gets infected, wilts and then the fungus lies in wait in the soil for decades, rendering it toxic to bananas. For now, the majority of banana plantations are safe while customers remain blissfully unaware of the entire fracas. Now to consider carbs as a source of energy. Carbs are like rocket fuel for the body. But, if they are taken into the body but aren't actually used, they start causing problems. I do want to point out the abundance of fat in the modern diet. It is needed in minute quantities in our diet, and yet we're swimming in it. Ideal diet for a bodybuilder or an athlete would have 50% carbs, 45% protein and 5% or less fat.
graycat 10y ago
Nice! Thanks! Yup, in a convenience store can see lots of evidence of the five main food groups -- sugar, fat, caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine! :-) Can see a lot of the first three at fast food restaurants! Or at a donut shop, 24 x 7, can see sugar, caffeine, and fat. So, right: Late at night, a dozen glazed donuts and a gallon of strong coffee with a lot of sugar and real cream will keep one awake a few more hours! That case of pig out gives a lot of instant energy that will likely pay for later: Get fat; develop some insulin immunity; raise blood pressure. So, the body pumps out too much insulin; the blood sugar is all burned off; and now the insulin has the blood sugar too low; the person feels weak or sleepy and returns for some more coffee and donuts! Better to get off that addiction to fat, sugar, and caffeine. Maybe wheat bread is better for this than the usual US white bread. Thanks for the clear definition, description, and use of fiber. Gee, for all the insults I've done to my 30' feet of intestines over the years, I just got back the results of a blood test of my stool sample: "Normal". So, apparently so far I've avoided colon cancer! Supposedly the fiber and its actions can help avoid colon cancer.
08-15 10y ago
This is almost right, but still manages to be dangerously wrong. Frustose and glucose are very different, one never gets converted to the other. All cells can and will take up and metabolize glucose, but only the liver can import and metabolize fructose. Metabolically, fructose does not behave like a carbohydrate, but like alcohol. Insulin affects mostly fat, muscle and liver cells. They react by storing the excess glucose, which they do harmlessly. Excess glucose does not cause insulin tolerance; fructose seems to do that, thought I don't remember the whole mechanism. Neither chitin nor lignin are carbohydrates, lignin isn't even chemically related. Even ruminants can't digest lignin, only a few funghi can do that. At any rate, the bottom line is that frustose is a problem, glucose isn't, and lumping both under "carbs" confuses matters. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM for lots of details. (But don't take Dr. Lustig's words at face value---check other sources. Most of it is uncontroversial.)
- maxerickson 10y ago
  Conversion to glucose in the liver is a major metabolic pathway for fructose. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3533803/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3533803/ The main similarity with alcohol metabolism is the "in the liver" part.
- greendestiny_re 10y ago
  I appreciate your input on the matter. You know as well as I do the complexity of dietary matters. You also know that there is a worrying dearth of first-hand information regarding diet. We mostly rely on aggregate studies that lump individuals together and try to answer extremely complex questions. What we find raises new questions without answering the old ones. Now, as soon as you mentioned "fructose" and "alcohol" in the same sentence, I thought about a Youtube video I watched a while back. In that video, an energetic professor had a rapid-fire exposition of how fructose is toxic and affects the liver like alcohol, how cholesterol indicates risk of heart disease and that people are in danger because they have no idea what they're eating or how it affects them. I scroll down through your comment and see a familiar name "Dr. Lustig". Hey, that's the name of the guy in the video I watched! Isn't that a coincidence? Don't you find it disconcerting that we both use a singular source of information, simply because there is no other? I'm not saying Dr. Lustig is lying; I actually trust what he's saying, I think he has good intentions but our knowledge of diet is so limited, he's like a guy looking through a pinhole and trying to convey to us the wondrous sights he sees. Now, that brings me back to my original comment. I've been a professional writer for 4 years now. I quickly discovered what I call "Writer's dilemma". In theory, there is a perfect piece for every occasion, the only problem is it takes an infinite amount of time to write it. So, I have to decide on where to cut corners. No matter what I write, someone will disagree with it. No matter how I write it, there will be those who don't understand what I said. In that case, I can only make a bona fide effort to convey the information while making a good story. But simply quoting someone else doesn't make a good story. In fact, it's called plagiarism and can result in my client's AdSense account getting suspended. Also, chitin is a derivative of glucose. I checked that in 5 seconds on Wikipedia, it's the very first sentence. So, in trying to correct me, you also got at least one of your facts wrong. But I wrote a good story.

AndyNemmity 10y ago

That was enjoyable to read, do you have a link to other articles you've posted, like a blog or something?

greendestiny_re 10y ago
The best stuff I ever wrote is here: https://zmiblog.wordpress.com https://zmiblog.wordpress.com Though I haven't gotten the habit of writing regularly there.

laichzeit0 10y ago

>When fructose or glucose enter the digestive system, they are readily processed and enter the bloodstream as glucose. Here, cells take up as much glucose as they can An excellent reason to have as much muscle as possibile so all these delicious carbs go into making your muscles look nice and full. Mmmm I love carbs. I also hate it when people try and make carbs look evil, it's so necessary for me. My daily maintenance calories is 2700. Anything less than that and I'm losing weight. Without carbs I'd look flat and have to eat that all from solid food :( Unless you have little muscle. Then you should probably avoid carbs.

greendestiny_re 10y ago
Carbs do have a purpose, of course. They are just a source of energy and by themselves completely neutral. There are only two problems with them: the way we eat them and the way our body uses them. In nature, carbs are never found isolated. They always come with dietary fiber and in varying degrees of complexity. But in processed food, carbs are artificially designed to be as simple as possible. From bread and pastry to candy and fruit, the food we eat has been scientifically engineered to contain the lowest common denominator. Food companies see nothing wrong with this: they want every Fig Newton to be the exact same, but this ultimately means depriving us of variety of tastes and nutrients that naturally should exist in food. This hurts us in the long run tremendously. Even the fruit we eat and which is arguably the source of healthiest carbs we can find has no resemblance to what is found in nature. Bananas are a fine example of this. The variety of bananas commercially available in the world has been reduced to a single variety: Cavendish. From Ecuador to Estonia, you can walk into any store and find the exact same bananas, right down to shape, size and color. If you open those bananas up and take a bite, you will notice they have no seeds. How do they reproduce then? They don't: they are sterile, genetically engineered clones of one another. There are enormous banana plantations all around the world, and they are all growing the exact same clone of the exact same plant. Have you ever heard of a term "banana republic" and chuckled a bit? The term has a grave history, as it denotes a country where the banana cartel (such a thing does exist) established a puppet government and shifted the entire economy towards a single commodity: bananas. But, as it turns out, this is completely unsustainable in the long run. The problem with growing genetic clones of any plant on a global scale is that an ecosystem is only as healthy as it is diverse. Once you create uniformity for the sake of marketability, the entire structure is vulnerable to a single agent of catastrophic failure. In this case, the culprit has a perfectly fitting ominous name: Fusarium oxysporum aka Tropical Race 4. The description of this fungus reads like the description of the Terminator: it is indestructible, has no mercy and never stops. When this fungus that's been honing its banana-slaying skills for millennia reaches the sterile, cloned Cavendish plantations, the effect is utterly devastating. Every single plant gets infected, wilts and then the fungus lies in wait in the soil for decades, rendering it toxic to bananas. For now, the majority of banana plantations are safe while customers remain blissfully unaware of the entire fracas. Now to consider carbs as a source of energy. Carbs are like rocket fuel for the body. But, if they are taken into the body but aren't actually used, they start causing problems. I do want to point out the abundance of fat in the modern diet. It is needed in minute quantities in our diet, and yet we're swimming in it. Ideal diet for a bodybuilder or an athlete would have 50% carbs, 45% protein and 5% or less fat.

graycat 10y ago

Nice! Thanks! Yup, in a convenience store can see lots of evidence of the five main food groups -- sugar, fat, caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine! :-) Can see a lot of the first three at fast food restaurants! Or at a donut shop, 24 x 7, can see sugar, caffeine, and fat. So, right: Late at night, a dozen glazed donuts and a gallon of strong coffee with a lot of sugar and real cream will keep one awake a few more hours! That case of pig out gives a lot of instant energy that will likely pay for later: Get fat; develop some insulin immunity; raise blood pressure. So, the body pumps out too much insulin; the blood sugar is all burned off; and now the insulin has the blood sugar too low; the person feels weak or sleepy and returns for some more coffee and donuts! Better to get off that addiction to fat, sugar, and caffeine. Maybe wheat bread is better for this than the usual US white bread. Thanks for the clear definition, description, and use of fiber. Gee, for all the insults I've done to my 30' feet of intestines over the years, I just got back the results of a blood test of my stool sample: "Normal". So, apparently so far I've avoided colon cancer! Supposedly the fiber and its actions can help avoid colon cancer.

08-15 10y ago

This is almost right, but still manages to be dangerously wrong. Frustose and glucose are very different, one never gets converted to the other. All cells can and will take up and metabolize glucose, but only the liver can import and metabolize fructose. Metabolically, fructose does not behave like a carbohydrate, but like alcohol. Insulin affects mostly fat, muscle and liver cells. They react by storing the excess glucose, which they do harmlessly. Excess glucose does not cause insulin tolerance; fructose seems to do that, thought I don't remember the whole mechanism. Neither chitin nor lignin are carbohydrates, lignin isn't even chemically related. Even ruminants can't digest lignin, only a few funghi can do that. At any rate, the bottom line is that frustose is a problem, glucose isn't, and lumping both under "carbs" confuses matters. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM for lots of details. (But don't take Dr. Lustig's words at face value---check other sources. Most of it is uncontroversial.)

maxerickson 10y ago
Conversion to glucose in the liver is a major metabolic pathway for fructose. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3533803/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3533803/ The main similarity with alcohol metabolism is the "in the liver" part.
greendestiny_re 10y ago
I appreciate your input on the matter. You know as well as I do the complexity of dietary matters. You also know that there is a worrying dearth of first-hand information regarding diet. We mostly rely on aggregate studies that lump individuals together and try to answer extremely complex questions. What we find raises new questions without answering the old ones. Now, as soon as you mentioned "fructose" and "alcohol" in the same sentence, I thought about a Youtube video I watched a while back. In that video, an energetic professor had a rapid-fire exposition of how fructose is toxic and affects the liver like alcohol, how cholesterol indicates risk of heart disease and that people are in danger because they have no idea what they're eating or how it affects them. I scroll down through your comment and see a familiar name "Dr. Lustig". Hey, that's the name of the guy in the video I watched! Isn't that a coincidence? Don't you find it disconcerting that we both use a singular source of information, simply because there is no other? I'm not saying Dr. Lustig is lying; I actually trust what he's saying, I think he has good intentions but our knowledge of diet is so limited, he's like a guy looking through a pinhole and trying to convey to us the wondrous sights he sees. Now, that brings me back to my original comment. I've been a professional writer for 4 years now. I quickly discovered what I call "Writer's dilemma". In theory, there is a perfect piece for every occasion, the only problem is it takes an infinite amount of time to write it. So, I have to decide on where to cut corners. No matter what I write, someone will disagree with it. No matter how I write it, there will be those who don't understand what I said. In that case, I can only make a bona fide effort to convey the information while making a good story. But simply quoting someone else doesn't make a good story. In fact, it's called plagiarism and can result in my client's AdSense account getting suspended. Also, chitin is a derivative of glucose. I checked that in 5 seconds on Wikipedia, it's the very first sentence. So, in trying to correct me, you also got at least one of your facts wrong. But I wrote a good story.