Carbohydrate Week
Carbohydrate Model Research
My Model is of a monosaccharide, also known as glucose. Glucose is a simple sugar, which means it can not be broken down any further. Monosaccharides contain 12 hydrogen atoms, six carbon atoms, and six oxygen atoms. Its chemical formula is C6H12O6. In my model, the Hydrogens are represented with green balls, the Carbon atoms are represented by the teal/aqua colored balls, and the Oxygen atoms are represented as blue balls.
After we eat a carbohydrate rich food, such as fruit, rice, or potatoes, our body breaks down the sugar and starch into monosaccharides. Our body does this because monosaccharides can be easily converted into energy when needed. After digestion, the glucose is absorbed through the small intestine into the bloodstream where it is met by the hormone insulin. Insulin is responsible for controlling the levels of glucose in the bloodstream. People who have diabetes can not produce the right amount of insulin, so the glucose levels spike or drop.
Glucose is the main provider of energy in our bodies, and we can not function at all without it. The word Glucose has Greek roots, with its prefix meaning ‘sweet’ and its suffix meaning ‘sugar’. Glucose is very important to our ecosystem, because almost every living organism, from bacteria to humans, uses it as a primary energy source.
Key:
Hydrogen - Green balls
Carbon - Teal/Aqua balls
Oxygen - Blue balls
My Model is of a monosaccharide, also known as glucose. Glucose is a simple sugar, which means it can not be broken down any further. Monosaccharides contain 12 hydrogen atoms, six carbon atoms, and six oxygen atoms. Its chemical formula is C6H12O6. In my model, the Hydrogens are represented with green balls, the Carbon atoms are represented by the teal/aqua colored balls, and the Oxygen atoms are represented as blue balls.
After we eat a carbohydrate rich food, such as fruit, rice, or potatoes, our body breaks down the sugar and starch into monosaccharides. Our body does this because monosaccharides can be easily converted into energy when needed. After digestion, the glucose is absorbed through the small intestine into the bloodstream where it is met by the hormone insulin. Insulin is responsible for controlling the levels of glucose in the bloodstream. People who have diabetes can not produce the right amount of insulin, so the glucose levels spike or drop.
Glucose is the main provider of energy in our bodies, and we can not function at all without it. The word Glucose has Greek roots, with its prefix meaning ‘sweet’ and its suffix meaning ‘sugar’. Glucose is very important to our ecosystem, because almost every living organism, from bacteria to humans, uses it as a primary energy source.
Key:
Hydrogen - Green balls
Carbon - Teal/Aqua balls
Oxygen - Blue balls
RAS (Read, Annotate, & Summarize)
A Close-Up on Carbohydrates
Learned (Pg 1) “Most leading health professionals recommend that we eat a daily diet made up of approximately 50-55 percent carbohydrates... 15-20 percent protein... No more than 30 percent total fat.” Now I do not think that I eat enough protein because I am a vegetarian.
Knew (Pg 2) “Remember, carbohydrates provide us with important nutrients, and they are an excellent source of energy - specifically for those of us with active lifestyles.” My coach told me this before because they always make us eat bread before we swim at a meet so that we will have an energy spike.
Surprised/Learned (Pg 2) “The most basic carbohydrates are called simple sugars and included honey, jams, jellies, syrup, table sugar, candies soft drinks, fruits, and fruit juices.” I did not know that simple sugars were made of the same micro-nutrients as carbohydrates.
Learned (Pg 2) “Complex carbohydrates that come from plants are called starch and are found in quality foods such as grains, vegetables, breads, seeds, legumes, and beans.” What are Legumes?
Surprised (Pg 2) “Actually, all foods that contain carbohydrates (rice, pasta, potato, cakes, cookies, and yes, candy) can mix with bacteria in plaque and increase your risk of tooth decay.” This was very surprising because I thought that it was just sugar and sour acid things that gave you tooth decay.
Knew (Pg 3) “So your favorite sugary sweets are classified as carbohydrates - and you’re supposed to eat a lot of carbohydrates - so it’s okay to load up on gummy bears and licorice, right?” I knew that some carbohydrates are better than others, for example, whole wheat bread is better than white bread because they are less processed.
Surprised (Pg 3) “When you can, choose whole fruit over fruit juice: You get the same nutrients, as well as more complex carbohydrates and fiber.” I thought that fruit juice just was a more concentrated version of the fruit, so it would be the same.
Question (Pg 3) “After you ingest a complex carbohydrate (or starch), several enzymes break it down into its simplest form, called glucose.” So carbohydrates are made up of glucose atoms, then what is the difference between simple and complex carbohydrates?
Learned (Pg 3) “Many simple sugars are nutrition zeroes, whereas complex carbs often provide phytochemicals, vitamins, minerals, and even fiber, depending on the food.” I guess we should eat complex carbs because they provide our bodies with lots of other nutrients.
Surprised/Learned (Pg 4) “Carbohydrates will not make you fat! Consistently overeating calories will make you fat - and those calories may come from protein, fat and or carbohydrate.” This is good to know because some diets restrict the amount of carbs you eat.
Surprised (Pg 5) “Furthermore, carbs are the body’s preferred source of fuel. In fact, some of the body’s tissues can only use carbohydrates to function optimally.” I wonder which parts of us can only use carbohydrates? Is anyone allergic to carbohydrates?
Surprised (Pg 6) “Millet - Good as a side dish or stuffing for poultry and high in phosphorus and B-vitamins, millet is available in health food stores.” I thought it was really funny that they said stuffing poultry because my pet parakeet goes totally crazy for millet and usually eats a lot of it if I give it to him.
Learned (Pg 7) “Other studies suggest that artificial sweeteners might, in fact, make you hungrier.” I have heard rumors about artificial sweeteners and now I know that they are not as good as they sound.
Surprised (Pg 7) “...the first sugar substitutes to receive U.S. food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval was saccharin (Sweet & Low), and it continues to be popular.... large quantities can cause cancer.” It is scary that the FDA approved this still if it caused cancer. Can the FDA un-approve something later?
Summary
A Close-Up on Carbohydrates is a very interesting article about the difference between the different types of carbohydrates and which ones are the best to eat and which ones are bad for our diets. Even though simple sugars such, as candy and soda, and natural simple sugars both turn into glucose when digested, natural simple sugars are way better for your body. This is because food containing fructose such as fresh fruits, also provide vitamins and minerals. Regular processed sugars found in candy and soda are just empty calories with no nutritional value. The article then transitions to explain that artificial sweeteners can have bad effects for your health unless you are diabetic and can’t eat regular sugar. This article made me think about the amount of carbohydrates that I eat, but I think it is okay because I don’t eat a lot of simple sugars, I eat mostly fructose natural sugars.
Accounting for Calories
Surprised (Pg 1) “The long life of the calorie began not in the dieter’s mirror but in 19th century laboratories and factories.” That is interesting, but I guess it makes sense. It is weird to think of how people viewed food before they came up with the calorie.
Surprised (Pg 2) “Brickyard managers and proprietors used such studies to learn which diets would promote the greatest production of bric per man at the least cost to the employer.” It is very sad how they just treated these people like lab test subjects.
Knew (Pg 2) “...pamphlets and posters encouraging Americans to ration foods shipped off to allied countries, particularly meat, wheat, and sugar.” I knew that during the war, everyone had to be really careful to ration food so they wouldn’t run out.
Learned (Pg 2) “...a sea change in fashion encouraged women to take thyroid extracts, exercise, and buy rolling pins that promised to roll off the fat.” That is very interesting that before the war, plumpness was associated with wealth, but after the war, women were encouraged to be slim.
Question (Pg 2) “By the 1920s a flat-chested, narrow-hipped, long-legged figure epitomized feminine beauty among the fashion-conscious set.” What does epitomized mean?
Knew (Pg 2) “...images of the latest styles and featherweight models - real or illustrated - reached consumers via national advertisements, motion pictures, department store displays, and traveling fashion shows.” It sounds a lot like today still, everyone trying to look beautiful, but what the advertisements show us is fake, not beautiful.
Surprised (Pg 3) “You should know and also use the word calorie as frequently, or more frequently, than you use the words foot, yard, quart, gallon, and so forth, as a measures of length and liquids. Hereafter you are going to eat calories of food. Instead of saying one slice of bread, or a piece of pie, you will say 100 calories of bread, and 350 calories of pie.” This is a very interesting way of putting it. It makes me think about food differently now.
Learned (Pg 3) “Diet and Health sold like calorie-laden hotcakes. In 1922 alone the 105 page book went through 9 printings and topped the New York Tribune’s list of best selling nonfiction books.” Wow, people must have been really interested in dieting back then, but it was probably so popular because it was the only book of its type.
Surprised (Pg 3) “In this country the calories is a familiar word in the vocabulary of practically every adult, and anyone who doubts the possibility of popularizing it should observe a group of 10 year old children counting their calories.” It is kind of sad that children are so involved in counting every little thing they eat that they are hurting their self esteems and missing out on a normal childhood.
Summary
Accounting for Calories by Arthur Keller is an article that explains the increase in the new trend of counting calories. It explains how calories were originally discovered in laboratories during the 19th century. Soon after, in the 1880s, upper class women began to diet. People originally viewed plumpness as a sign of wealth and class, but soon thin women were being viewed as beautiful and healthy. Then fashion trends boomed and women all across america started dieting and counting their calories in order to fit in with the new trends. Calorie became such a common word, that it was slipped into almost all conversations, even conversations between children. This article was very interesting because it made me think about what real beauty is and maybe in a few hundred years, beauty will look completely different from it does now. It also made me think about how much movies, advertisements, and store displays can change what I think is beautiful. It is a little bit scary to think that the advertisements pretty much have control over deciding who is beautiful and who is not.
Carbohydrates
Learned/Questions (Pg 1) “They have the empirical formula CNH2NON or (CH2O)N.” What does empirical mean? and why do all carbohydrates have the same chemical formula?
Learned (Pg 1) “This type of carbohydrate is found in the structures of plants and is used in the reverse reaction of photosynthesis or is consumed as fuel by plants and animals.” So plants only use carbohydrates as fuel, not protein and sugar like us?
Knew (Pg 1) “Carbohydrates are widely available and inexpensive, and are used as an energy source for our bodies and for cell structures.” I know that you are supposed to eat almost half of your calories in carbohydrates.
Surprised (Pg 1) “Carbohydrates are divided into monosaccharides, disaccharides, and polysaccharides.” Those sound like very long scary words, I don’t know what they mean.
Learned (Pg 1) “Monosaccharides are single-molecule sugars that form the basic units of carbohydrates.” Now I know what monosaccharides means, it makes sense because mono means one.
Learned (Pg 2) “Although glucose and fructose are identical in chemical composition, they are very different in structure.” This surprised me because if they are the same composition, why are their structures so different?
Learned (Pg 2) “Disaccharides are two monosaccharide sugar molecules that are chemically joined by a glycosidic linkage to form a double sugar.” That makes sense also because di means two so they are like the monosaccharides but with a di beginning.
Surprised (Pg 3) “Starch is the predominant storage molecule in plants and provides the majority of the food calories consumed by people worldwide.” That is very interesting that people eat the most starch out of all the other types of carbohydrate.
Question (Pg 4) “Starch and cellulose are both homopolymers of glucose.” So what is the difference between starch and cellulose then if they are both the same homopolymer?
Surprised/Question (Pg 4) “Lactose is used in the manufacture of cheese food, is a milk solids replacer in the manufacture of frozen desserts, and is used as a binder in the making of pills/tablets.” Does this mean that people who are allergic to lactose can’t eat pills?
Learned (Pg 4) “Sugars with a free hemiacetal group can readily donate an electron to another molecule.” What does hemiacetal group mean?
Summary
This article was designed to prepare us for our carbohydrates lab. The article answered and explained all of the vocabulary words for the prelab questions, but I did the vocabulary before reading it so that would have been helpful to know before. It was very helpful because it gave a way deeper understanding of the vocabulary words and I was able to find some comparisons with the other reading packet about carbohydrates. This article made me think about how important carbohydrates are to our world, because they alone are supposed to make up almost half of a human diet. Starch alone provides the majority of calories to all animals worldwide so that shows how important it is to our bodies. The article also explained the differences between the different types of carbohydrates and talked about which ones are important and for what reason.
Counting Calories
Surprised (Pg 1) “...the calories became indispensable in the study of heat and energy in machines - especially steam engines - and later in human machines as part of food and metabolic studies.” It is very interesting that calories first were used to figure out how machines worked before it moved on to people.
Learned (Pg 2) “Chemist Wilbur Olin Atwater brought the calorie from Germany to the United States.” I did not know that calories began in Germany and were brought to the united states through teachers at the University of Tennessee.
Question (Pg 2) “Ironically, the only exception to Atwater’s otherwise austere appearance was his ample midsection, which stretched the vest of his three-piece suit.” I wonder if he was interested in calories because he was overweight? What does austere mean?
Surprised (Pg 3) “Atwater, the son of a Methodist minister, zealously preached the gospel of thrift.” It is very interesting that they compare Atwater’s spread of information with his dad’s Methodist ministering.
Knew/Surprised (Pg 3) “To consume more calories than recommended by the Food Administration’s nutrition experts for one’s respective age, sex, and activity level meant undermining both the war efforts and physiological efficiency.” I knew there were strict food rations during the war, but I didn’t know that they were this strict about it.
Questions (Pg 3) “A Food Administration pamphlet might instruct Americans to reduce their caloric intake by 200 calories or to replace the 500 calories in a slab of beef with additional serving of beans, for example.” Did the Food Administration people realize that people might be getting not enough nutrients from substituting all of their foods?
Knew (Pg 3) “Until the beginning of the 20th century Americans associated plumpness with beauty and wealth. Thinness implied illness or poverty.” They said this in all the other articles, this article sounds very similar to ‘Accounting for Calories’.
Learned (Pg 4) “The Hollywood 18 day diet, for example, restricted dieters to a spartan ration of citrus fruits, melba toast, vegetables, and hardboiled eggs, amounting to 585 calories per day.” I guess this was the beginning of eating disorders, because 500 calories a day sounds like starving yourself.
Surprised (Pg 2) “Physicians similarly assailed the so-called thinnes craze among young women, maintaining that diet jeopardized women’s physical and mental well-being as well as their looks.”
Summary
Counting Calories by Chin Jou is an article that describes the social shift of dieting after the World War I. The article is very similar to Accounting For Calories because they both talk about how calories began to be used by the public as a scientific approach to weight loss. The article begins by explaining that there was a social shift from plumpness being associated with wealth, to slimness indicating wealth. Women were encouraged to exercise, take thyroid extracts and buy rolling pins to roll the fat off of them. You can see evidence of the social change if you look back at womens fashions. The ideal body went from being plump, to being a curvy hourglass figure. Then people started studying calories to see how productive a bricklayer could be with the least cost to the employer. Then, during World War I, food rations began and encouraged people to not eat as many calories per day to help the war. Food Administration pamphlets told people to substitute more expensive foods for beans, or other cheaper and easier to get foods. The article then transitions to talking about extreme diets such as the 18 day Hollywood diet where women only eat 500 calories per day. The article finishes by explaining how experts believe that calorie counting will continue through the 21st century. This article made me think about how different our world would be if the social shift of counting calories never took place.
Mmmm... Flavorful Foods
Knew (Pg 6) “...but there are other factors, too. The smell of food, its texture, its color, and its temperature.” I knew that factors such as smell, texture, color and temperature change peoples’ reactions to the foods.
Question (Pg 7) “When you eat, the most immediate sensation is taste. But you actually smell food, too.” Do they mean smell it before you eat it or during eating it?
Question (Pg 7) “There are five taste sensations: sweet, bitter, sour, salty, and umami.” What is Umami? I knew about the other ones, but what about spicey?
Learned (Pg 7) “The umami taste was formally recognized in 1985... it is associated with savory foods, which includes meat, tomatoes and a food additive called monosodium glutamate.” I was excited to learn about the umami taste because I hadn’t heard of it before so it was interesting.
Learned (Pg 7) “When we chew, aromas are released that activate our sense of smell by way of a special channel that connects the back of our throat to the nose.” I always thought that we just smell the food before we eat it, I didn’t know we were smelling it while we ate it.
Surprised (Pg 7) “Smelling food is different from smelling roses. To smell a rose, you would bring the flower close to your nose and inhale the flowery scent...” I have always thought of smelling food and smelling roses as the same, but I now know they are very different.
Learned/Question (Pg 7) “Also, the color of food can affect its flavor. Dark red beverages need less sugar to achieve an acceptable level of sweetness because people perceive dark beverages to be naturally sweeter.” This was very interesting to me because I think it is weird how we perceive dark beverages to be sweeter even if they are not. Why does this happen?
Knew (Pg 7) “The flavor of food also changes depending on how it is prepared or cooked.” I knew this already because I always taste the difference in cooked food or raw food. Like broccoli, I only like cooked broccoli not raw.
Learned (Pg 7) “Chocolate, for instance, is a mixture of some 300 flavor compounds...” Wow! that is a lot of different flavors just to make up chocolate! I had no idea!
Question/Learned (Pg 7) “Chemists create artificial flavors from the chemical compounds present in plants and animals. They use them in their natural state, or they process them to make new flavors.” This is very interesting because I didn’t know how artificial flavors were made. What is the difference then between artificial flavors and natural flavors?
Surprised (Pg 7) “What’s interesting is that we don’t need all the flavor compounds in a given food to recreate its flavor.” That is very strange because it seems like you would need all the flavors to make it taste just like the real food, but I guess you can just take the biggest flavors and it is the same.
Surprised (Pg 7-8) “Also, the same flavor may not work in different types of food and beverages. For instance, the lemon-lime flavor that works in candy might not work in a soft drink.” This is very strange because it seems like a chemical flavor would be the same in all things, so I don’t understand why the flavor would work for candy but not for soda.
Learned (Pg 8) “Esters - chemical compounds formed by the chemical reaction of an alcohol with a carboxylic acid.” I learned what esters are, they are chemical compounds formed by alcohol and acid.
Surprised/Learned (Pg 8) “Isn’t ethanol the same type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages? It sure is, but when it combines with the acid, it loses the characteristics of drinking alcohol.” It is very interesting that the there is alcohol in flavors. Is the result similar to when you cook alcohol?
Surprised (Pg 8) paragraph 7 - Do you really need to do all of that before you can know the secret ingredients of fragrances? you have to get a degree in organic chemistry, train for five years, take a test, be a junior chemist for two years, take another test, then you can know? That all seems a little excessive to me.
Summary
Mmmm... Flavorful Foods by Renee Heiss is a very interesting and educational article about how people perceive tastes differently and the chemistry behind it. The article started off by explaining the five tastes which are sweet, bitter, sour, salty, and umami. Umami taste describes savory flavors like meat. It also explained that a huge part of how food tastes is how it smells. When we eat the aromas are sent from our mouth to the back of our sinus cavity allowing us to smell the foods. This is why people who have colds can’t taste foods as well as usual. Also, other things affect the way food tastes such as color. They did this test with colorless wine and the same wine with food dye and people said that the wine that was colored red tasted better. The next section of the article explained how chemists create natural and artificial flavors by extracting the most prominent flavor compounds from the food and recreating the taste. The article closed by explaining how flavors and scents are so closely connected that chemists make scents in a similar way to making flavor compounds. Scents are made of mixing an alcohol with an acid with an ester to make an odor. For example, pineapple odor is made by mixing the alcohol ethanol with the acid butanoic acid with the ester ethyl butanoate. This article really made me think about why I don’t like a lot of foods that my family likes such as eggs, or meat, or vinegar flavors. The article made it sound like everyone had the same five taste sensors, so why do things taste different to different people? I also really want to try to make a natural flavor or a natural air freshener scent, it sounds pretty easy once you have a recipe. Looking back on my favorite meal journal entry, I noticed how the flavors in my meal fell into all of the five taste categories so that was interesting.
Sugar in the Blood Boosts Energy
Learned (Pg 1) “...glucose. It is the primary energy storage molecule used by all living beings.” That is really cool to know. If you don’t get enough food to make glucose than you wouldn’t have very much energy.
Surprised (Pg 1) “People need about a teaspoon of glucose every 15 minutes to keep the energy going throughout their bodies.” That seems like a lot of glucose but I guess if it is distributed all around your body than it is not as much as it seems like.
Learned (Pg 1) “Plant cells take energy from the sun, add water, pick up carbon dioxide from the air, and produce glucose and oxygen.” How do plants do this? So does that mean that plants don’t need oxygen, if they have carbon dioxide?
Questions (Pg 1) “Although glucose is the body’s favorite food, we don’t usually eat it straight.” Usually? When do we ever eat straight glucose? What does glucose even taste like?
Questions (Pg 1) “ Regardless of the source of glucose, your body can use glucose immediately or store it in your liver for later use.” What would happen to you if your liver ran out of stored glucose?
Learned (Pg 1 - 2) “ There, the glucose molecules react with oxygen molecules coming from the lungs ... and through a series of chemical reactions, these molecules produce energy as well as carbon dioxide and water.” What happens to the carbon dioxide that gets produced, is it what we exhale?
Knew/Surprised (Pg 2) “ What happens in your body is essentially the reverse of what happens in plants...” I knew that plants produce oxygen and we produce carbon dioxide, but it is scary to think that we all will die if there are too many of us because there will not be enough plants to undo the chemical reactions.
Learned (Pg 2) “Could we live on sugar? The answer is a qualified no.” Sad. Living on sugar would be much tastier.
Surprised (Pg 2) “But recent research has shown that straight glucose may be the way to go. A stud on the memory-enhancing effect of glucose in college students was conducted by scientist at Swinburne University of Technology...” That is interesting. I guess that straight glucose would save your body a few steps and it would save energy in the end.
Summary
Sugar in the Blood Boosts Energy, by Gail Kay Harnes, is an article that explains how your body uses and needs glucose to give you energy. It started off by explaining how plants turn carbon dioxide, water, and energy into glucose and oxygen. Humans do the opposite, we turn glucose and oxygen into carbon dioxide, water, and energy for our bodies to work. It also talked about why we couldn’t live on straight glucose. It is because our body needs other chemicals to function, such as protein, fiber, vitamins, or fats. Also, we need to have the a good liver and pancreas to make and use glucose effectively. This article made me think about the difference between plants and people or animals and what would happen if there were an unbalance of either of them. I also learned a lot about how glucose, sucrose, and fructose molecules look.
The Big Reveal
Question (Pg 6) “I happen to know that in order to burn 680 calories at the gym, I would need to spend at least an hour on a stationary bicycle, spinning at high speed.” I was wondering how they calculate an estimate like this, is there some equation?
Learned/Question (Pg 6) “...calorie (uppercase C) is what chemists call a kilocalorie or 1,000 calories (lowercase c).” That is very confusing, I had no idea that there was a difference between a Calorie and a calorie. I wonder if a lot of people confuse the two.
Question (Pg 6) “To distinguish between the two, the nutritional calorie is sometimes written as a Calories... as opposed to a calorie. More specifically, one Calorie (kilocalorie) is the amount of energy it takes to raise 1 kilogram of 1º C at sea level.” But I thought each person burns energy at a different rate, so how is a calorie consistent for everyone?
Learned (Pg 6) “The calorie content of food was determined in the late 1800s by Wilbur O. Atwater, an agricultural chemist. He built a device called a respiration calorimeter to make direct measurements of heat released by humans from the food they consumed.” I learned how the calorie content of food is determined.
Question (Pg 7) “The basal metabolic rate is responsible for up to 70% of the calories used by our bodies, so it can plays a role in a person’s tendency to gain weight.” 70 percent seems like a lot of calories burned.
Knew (Pg 7) “Proteins are found in meat, beans, milk, and nuts. Fat is present in vegetable oil, dairy products, and fish. Carbohydrates are found in fruits, vegetables, and cereals.” I knew mostly which food belonged in which group, but I didn’t know that fruit and vegetables had carbohydrates.
Surprised (Pg 7) “The standard method for determining the amount of protein in food is called the Kjeldahl … method.” Why do they call it the kjeldahl method, that is a very weird name.
Learned (Pg 8) “Experts agree that 30% of our daily calories should come from fat. If you consume 2,000 Calories in a day, that means no more that 600 Calories should come from fat.” This is good information to know because then I will know how much fat is healthy for me to consume so I can monitor it.
Learned (Pg 8) “ About half of the calories that you consume should come from carbohydrates. This means that if you consume 2,000 Calories per day, 1,000 Calories should come from carbohydrates.” This is also good to know, because then I can make sure I am not eating too many or not enough carbohydrates so I can stay healthy.
Knew (Pg 8) “The average American diet is high in fat and sugar, so many teenagers consume too much sugar...” I know that most americans eat too much fat and sugar so it is important to try to eat foods with less sugar and fat.
Learned (Pg 9 - 10) ‘The Mallard Effect’ Basically states that cooking foods longer at a smaller setting makes the moisture vaporize better than cooking it fast on a high setting.
Learned/Surprised (Pg 11) “...biscotti that remains true to the meaning of the original French word, ‘biscuti’ which means ‘twice cooked’” I love biscuits so this was exciting information to know where the name came from.
Summary
The Big Reveal by Michael Tinnesand is an article that explains how the labels on the food products are calculated and what is hidden behind them. The article started off by explaining what a calorie is. They explained how a calorie is different from a Calorie; a calorie is actually 1 kilocalorie, which is a calorie. A Calorie is the amount of energy it takes to raise 1 kilogram of one degree carbon at sea level. Then the article transitions into explaining that for every calorie you eat, you have to burn that same amount, or your body will store the energy as fat. It also educated us about how the amount protein, carbohydrates, and fat is calculated. It also tells you the recommended amount of protein, carbohydrates, and fat to consume per day based on your daily recommended calorie intake, and your activity level. The next part of the article is about the maillard reactions that take place when cooking food. Maillard reactions are responsible for the browning of food as it cooks. It also prevents bread from just seeming stale after the moisture vaporizes. The Maillard reactions states that cooking food twice can improve the flavor and texture of foods. This article was basically to explain how food labels are calculated and what they mean. This information is very important to understand, because it will help us stay healthy.
24 Hours: Your Food on the Move
Surprised (Pg 1) “The digestive system looks like a narrow tube around 30 feet long...” This is really cool because I got to see a dog digestive system at career day last year after it ate a rock and had to get it removed. The vet had to take out all of its intestines to look for holes and it was so surprising how much intestines fit in a dog!
Learned (Pg 2) “There are four main parts of the digestive process: ingestion, digestion, absorption, and elimination.” This seems like an important thing to know for later in the project because we can study how the food reacts to all of the different stages.
Knew (Pg 2) “Your teeth break food into smaller pieces - which helps to mix the food more thoroughly with the saliva...” I knew that teeth were there to make your food smaller, but I didn’t know it was to mix in with the saliva.
Learned (Pg 2) “...the average mouthful of food is chewed 20 times before swallowed.” That seems like more chewing than is necessary, but I guess we do it without thinking.
Learned (Pg 2) “The three most important components of saliva are: Water (98%) mucus, and digestive enzymes.” It is very weird that there are enzymes living in us.
Learned/Knew (Pg 2) “enzymes are examples of catalysts - chemical compounds that speed up the rate of a chemical reaction without being consumed by the reaction.” That is a cool connection to the past chemistry reactions lab.
Surprised/Questions (Pg 2) “There are thousands of different types of enzymes in the body.” Wow! thousands of different types! That is a lot. Are they all good, or do some of them hurt us?
Learned (Pg 2) “...consider the enzyme carbonic anhydrase, which catalyzes a reaction that removes carbon dioxide from the cells before it goes to the lungs...” Those enzymes must work super fast to take the oxygen before you exhale! That is really cool.
Surprised (Pg 2) “Carbonic anhydrase catalyzes the conversion of carbon dioxide to bicarbonate ions 60,000 times every second!” That is a lot of times in only a short period of time! I had no idea that catalyzes were working inside of me all the time, its a little creepy.
Knew (Pg 2) “You do not need gravity to swallow...” I knew this, but I hadn’t given it any thought before. I guess it is like drinking water in a pool.
Question (Pg 3) “It is these enzymes, not the acid itself, that perform most of the chemical breakdown of food.” Then what is the point in having stomach acid if the enzymes do everything anyway?
Surprised/Question (Pg 3) “Your body produces 2 - 3 liters of gastric juice daily.” If our stomach can only hold two liters of food, then where does all the gastric juice go?
Learned (Pg 3) “Heartburn has nothing to do with the heart, but rather is caused by gastric juice moving upward into the esophagus, creating a burning sensation.” That is good, because I thought heartburn was a serious heart condition.
Surprised (Pg 3) “A lot of fiber can also cause food waste to pass through quickly.” I didn’t know this before so it is good information to know.
Surprised/Question (Pg 3) “Your body contains 3 - 5 pounds of bacteria, enough to fill a few soup cans! Most of the bacteria are found in the colon.” How did the bacteria get into us anyway? Because during surgery, everything has to be sanitary, so does the bacteria just get in when we are being made?
Summary
24 Hours: Your food on the Move by Brian Rohrig was a very interesting, and kind of creepy article about how the actual process of digestion takes place. The article explains about the four parts of the digestive process, the first is ingestion. Ingestion is just when you actually put the food in your mouth and your saliva formed a catalyst reaction to start breaking it up as your teeth break it too. Then the food travels down to the digestion section of the process. During digestion, food goes into the stomach where it is continuously churned and beaten into a pulp. Then stomach acid and enzymes start to chemically break down the food so it can be used throughout the body. Next is absorption, where the food is passing through the small intestine. Enzymes break down fat and allow the nutrients to travel to other parts of the body. The final step of the digestive process is elimination of the waste. The wet waste moves into the colon where the rest of the moisture is absorbed. This article will be very helpful for later in this project when we study the digestive process more closely. It made me think of how amazing our body is to do all of this and we barely even notice, we just take it for granted.
The Skinny on Sweeteners
Surprised (Pg 1) “According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Americans consume an average of 156 pounds of sugar each year. That’s a little more than 31 of the five-pound bags you might see in the baking goods aisle in the grocery store!” Wow that is a lot of sugar! No wonder so many Americans are getting diabetes.
Knew (Pg 1) “... sugar. It belongs to a family of molecules called carbohydrates that are found in fruits, vegetables, dairy products, breads, and sweets.” I knew that when you digest carbohydrates they turn into glucose, so I assume that sugar is just already glucose and it is a short cut.
Learned (Pg 1) “Second, when we eat or drink too much sucrose, the amount of insulin in our blood spikes. Insulin is a hormone that regulates the amount of sugar in our blood. Over time, too much insulin in the blood can lead to diabetes...” I thought that diabetes is when there is not enough insulin in your blood, so how does having too much insulin cause diabetes?
Learned (Pg 1) “1878 - That’s the year that an American chemist named Constantin Fahlberg discovered saccharin, the first artificial sweetener...” Was Constantin a girl? Why did chemists want to find an alternative for sugar?
Surprised/Question (Pg 1) “Also, the digestive system does not break it apart to derive energy the same way it does with sugar. Instead, saccharin dissolves into the bloodstream and is flushed out of the body in urine.” So this is how come fake sugar sweeteners don’t have any calories. They are not digested at all, just absorbed like water into our bodies.
Questions (Pg 2) “Unlike other artificial sweeteners, aspartame is metabolized in the body, so aspartame is higher in calories.” Then what is the point of using aspartame instead of just sugar? Do sugar and aspartame both turn into glucose in digestion?
Surprised (Pg 2) “... rats that were fed saccharin developed bladder cancer. The rats however had to eat an amount of saccharin comparable to a human drinking hundreds of cans of soda each day.” This is absolutely horrible! How could anyone take such amazing, loving creatures and force feed them some fake sugar product so they could die horrible deaths in the lab. I am never going to ever eat saccharine now that I know they support such horrible animal abuse.
Summary
The Skinny on Sweeteners by Christen Brownlee was an article that explained the myths about fake sweetener products such as saccharin or aspartame. Artificial sweeteners were originally designed to provide people with diseases such as diabetes a way to enjoy sweet tasting foods without spiking their blood insulin levels. Some artificial sweeteners, such as saccharin have no calories because they are not digested the same way as sugar or food. Instead they are absorbed through the intestines into the bloodstream and flushed out in urine. Other forms of artificial sweeteners, like asparame, are digested and contain some calories, but they are still used to sweeten candy and soda because they contain less calories per amount of sweetness. Sucralose is 600 times sweeter than sucrose (plant sugar) so it is often chosen to sweeten foods for less calories. This article made me think about how much sugar us, as Americans, eat and how different sugar consumption is around the world. I bet we are one of the only countries that consumes so much artificial sweetening products.
A Close-Up on Carbohydrates
Learned (Pg 1) “Most leading health professionals recommend that we eat a daily diet made up of approximately 50-55 percent carbohydrates... 15-20 percent protein... No more than 30 percent total fat.” Now I do not think that I eat enough protein because I am a vegetarian.
Knew (Pg 2) “Remember, carbohydrates provide us with important nutrients, and they are an excellent source of energy - specifically for those of us with active lifestyles.” My coach told me this before because they always make us eat bread before we swim at a meet so that we will have an energy spike.
Surprised/Learned (Pg 2) “The most basic carbohydrates are called simple sugars and included honey, jams, jellies, syrup, table sugar, candies soft drinks, fruits, and fruit juices.” I did not know that simple sugars were made of the same micro-nutrients as carbohydrates.
Learned (Pg 2) “Complex carbohydrates that come from plants are called starch and are found in quality foods such as grains, vegetables, breads, seeds, legumes, and beans.” What are Legumes?
Surprised (Pg 2) “Actually, all foods that contain carbohydrates (rice, pasta, potato, cakes, cookies, and yes, candy) can mix with bacteria in plaque and increase your risk of tooth decay.” This was very surprising because I thought that it was just sugar and sour acid things that gave you tooth decay.
Knew (Pg 3) “So your favorite sugary sweets are classified as carbohydrates - and you’re supposed to eat a lot of carbohydrates - so it’s okay to load up on gummy bears and licorice, right?” I knew that some carbohydrates are better than others, for example, whole wheat bread is better than white bread because they are less processed.
Surprised (Pg 3) “When you can, choose whole fruit over fruit juice: You get the same nutrients, as well as more complex carbohydrates and fiber.” I thought that fruit juice just was a more concentrated version of the fruit, so it would be the same.
Question (Pg 3) “After you ingest a complex carbohydrate (or starch), several enzymes break it down into its simplest form, called glucose.” So carbohydrates are made up of glucose atoms, then what is the difference between simple and complex carbohydrates?
Learned (Pg 3) “Many simple sugars are nutrition zeroes, whereas complex carbs often provide phytochemicals, vitamins, minerals, and even fiber, depending on the food.” I guess we should eat complex carbs because they provide our bodies with lots of other nutrients.
Surprised/Learned (Pg 4) “Carbohydrates will not make you fat! Consistently overeating calories will make you fat - and those calories may come from protein, fat and or carbohydrate.” This is good to know because some diets restrict the amount of carbs you eat.
Surprised (Pg 5) “Furthermore, carbs are the body’s preferred source of fuel. In fact, some of the body’s tissues can only use carbohydrates to function optimally.” I wonder which parts of us can only use carbohydrates? Is anyone allergic to carbohydrates?
Surprised (Pg 6) “Millet - Good as a side dish or stuffing for poultry and high in phosphorus and B-vitamins, millet is available in health food stores.” I thought it was really funny that they said stuffing poultry because my pet parakeet goes totally crazy for millet and usually eats a lot of it if I give it to him.
Learned (Pg 7) “Other studies suggest that artificial sweeteners might, in fact, make you hungrier.” I have heard rumors about artificial sweeteners and now I know that they are not as good as they sound.
Surprised (Pg 7) “...the first sugar substitutes to receive U.S. food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval was saccharin (Sweet & Low), and it continues to be popular.... large quantities can cause cancer.” It is scary that the FDA approved this still if it caused cancer. Can the FDA un-approve something later?
Summary
A Close-Up on Carbohydrates is a very interesting article about the difference between the different types of carbohydrates and which ones are the best to eat and which ones are bad for our diets. Even though simple sugars such, as candy and soda, and natural simple sugars both turn into glucose when digested, natural simple sugars are way better for your body. This is because food containing fructose such as fresh fruits, also provide vitamins and minerals. Regular processed sugars found in candy and soda are just empty calories with no nutritional value. The article then transitions to explain that artificial sweeteners can have bad effects for your health unless you are diabetic and can’t eat regular sugar. This article made me think about the amount of carbohydrates that I eat, but I think it is okay because I don’t eat a lot of simple sugars, I eat mostly fructose natural sugars.
Accounting for Calories
Surprised (Pg 1) “The long life of the calorie began not in the dieter’s mirror but in 19th century laboratories and factories.” That is interesting, but I guess it makes sense. It is weird to think of how people viewed food before they came up with the calorie.
Surprised (Pg 2) “Brickyard managers and proprietors used such studies to learn which diets would promote the greatest production of bric per man at the least cost to the employer.” It is very sad how they just treated these people like lab test subjects.
Knew (Pg 2) “...pamphlets and posters encouraging Americans to ration foods shipped off to allied countries, particularly meat, wheat, and sugar.” I knew that during the war, everyone had to be really careful to ration food so they wouldn’t run out.
Learned (Pg 2) “...a sea change in fashion encouraged women to take thyroid extracts, exercise, and buy rolling pins that promised to roll off the fat.” That is very interesting that before the war, plumpness was associated with wealth, but after the war, women were encouraged to be slim.
Question (Pg 2) “By the 1920s a flat-chested, narrow-hipped, long-legged figure epitomized feminine beauty among the fashion-conscious set.” What does epitomized mean?
Knew (Pg 2) “...images of the latest styles and featherweight models - real or illustrated - reached consumers via national advertisements, motion pictures, department store displays, and traveling fashion shows.” It sounds a lot like today still, everyone trying to look beautiful, but what the advertisements show us is fake, not beautiful.
Surprised (Pg 3) “You should know and also use the word calorie as frequently, or more frequently, than you use the words foot, yard, quart, gallon, and so forth, as a measures of length and liquids. Hereafter you are going to eat calories of food. Instead of saying one slice of bread, or a piece of pie, you will say 100 calories of bread, and 350 calories of pie.” This is a very interesting way of putting it. It makes me think about food differently now.
Learned (Pg 3) “Diet and Health sold like calorie-laden hotcakes. In 1922 alone the 105 page book went through 9 printings and topped the New York Tribune’s list of best selling nonfiction books.” Wow, people must have been really interested in dieting back then, but it was probably so popular because it was the only book of its type.
Surprised (Pg 3) “In this country the calories is a familiar word in the vocabulary of practically every adult, and anyone who doubts the possibility of popularizing it should observe a group of 10 year old children counting their calories.” It is kind of sad that children are so involved in counting every little thing they eat that they are hurting their self esteems and missing out on a normal childhood.
Summary
Accounting for Calories by Arthur Keller is an article that explains the increase in the new trend of counting calories. It explains how calories were originally discovered in laboratories during the 19th century. Soon after, in the 1880s, upper class women began to diet. People originally viewed plumpness as a sign of wealth and class, but soon thin women were being viewed as beautiful and healthy. Then fashion trends boomed and women all across america started dieting and counting their calories in order to fit in with the new trends. Calorie became such a common word, that it was slipped into almost all conversations, even conversations between children. This article was very interesting because it made me think about what real beauty is and maybe in a few hundred years, beauty will look completely different from it does now. It also made me think about how much movies, advertisements, and store displays can change what I think is beautiful. It is a little bit scary to think that the advertisements pretty much have control over deciding who is beautiful and who is not.
Carbohydrates
Learned/Questions (Pg 1) “They have the empirical formula CNH2NON or (CH2O)N.” What does empirical mean? and why do all carbohydrates have the same chemical formula?
Learned (Pg 1) “This type of carbohydrate is found in the structures of plants and is used in the reverse reaction of photosynthesis or is consumed as fuel by plants and animals.” So plants only use carbohydrates as fuel, not protein and sugar like us?
Knew (Pg 1) “Carbohydrates are widely available and inexpensive, and are used as an energy source for our bodies and for cell structures.” I know that you are supposed to eat almost half of your calories in carbohydrates.
Surprised (Pg 1) “Carbohydrates are divided into monosaccharides, disaccharides, and polysaccharides.” Those sound like very long scary words, I don’t know what they mean.
Learned (Pg 1) “Monosaccharides are single-molecule sugars that form the basic units of carbohydrates.” Now I know what monosaccharides means, it makes sense because mono means one.
Learned (Pg 2) “Although glucose and fructose are identical in chemical composition, they are very different in structure.” This surprised me because if they are the same composition, why are their structures so different?
Learned (Pg 2) “Disaccharides are two monosaccharide sugar molecules that are chemically joined by a glycosidic linkage to form a double sugar.” That makes sense also because di means two so they are like the monosaccharides but with a di beginning.
Surprised (Pg 3) “Starch is the predominant storage molecule in plants and provides the majority of the food calories consumed by people worldwide.” That is very interesting that people eat the most starch out of all the other types of carbohydrate.
Question (Pg 4) “Starch and cellulose are both homopolymers of glucose.” So what is the difference between starch and cellulose then if they are both the same homopolymer?
Surprised/Question (Pg 4) “Lactose is used in the manufacture of cheese food, is a milk solids replacer in the manufacture of frozen desserts, and is used as a binder in the making of pills/tablets.” Does this mean that people who are allergic to lactose can’t eat pills?
Learned (Pg 4) “Sugars with a free hemiacetal group can readily donate an electron to another molecule.” What does hemiacetal group mean?
Summary
This article was designed to prepare us for our carbohydrates lab. The article answered and explained all of the vocabulary words for the prelab questions, but I did the vocabulary before reading it so that would have been helpful to know before. It was very helpful because it gave a way deeper understanding of the vocabulary words and I was able to find some comparisons with the other reading packet about carbohydrates. This article made me think about how important carbohydrates are to our world, because they alone are supposed to make up almost half of a human diet. Starch alone provides the majority of calories to all animals worldwide so that shows how important it is to our bodies. The article also explained the differences between the different types of carbohydrates and talked about which ones are important and for what reason.
Counting Calories
Surprised (Pg 1) “...the calories became indispensable in the study of heat and energy in machines - especially steam engines - and later in human machines as part of food and metabolic studies.” It is very interesting that calories first were used to figure out how machines worked before it moved on to people.
Learned (Pg 2) “Chemist Wilbur Olin Atwater brought the calorie from Germany to the United States.” I did not know that calories began in Germany and were brought to the united states through teachers at the University of Tennessee.
Question (Pg 2) “Ironically, the only exception to Atwater’s otherwise austere appearance was his ample midsection, which stretched the vest of his three-piece suit.” I wonder if he was interested in calories because he was overweight? What does austere mean?
Surprised (Pg 3) “Atwater, the son of a Methodist minister, zealously preached the gospel of thrift.” It is very interesting that they compare Atwater’s spread of information with his dad’s Methodist ministering.
Knew/Surprised (Pg 3) “To consume more calories than recommended by the Food Administration’s nutrition experts for one’s respective age, sex, and activity level meant undermining both the war efforts and physiological efficiency.” I knew there were strict food rations during the war, but I didn’t know that they were this strict about it.
Questions (Pg 3) “A Food Administration pamphlet might instruct Americans to reduce their caloric intake by 200 calories or to replace the 500 calories in a slab of beef with additional serving of beans, for example.” Did the Food Administration people realize that people might be getting not enough nutrients from substituting all of their foods?
Knew (Pg 3) “Until the beginning of the 20th century Americans associated plumpness with beauty and wealth. Thinness implied illness or poverty.” They said this in all the other articles, this article sounds very similar to ‘Accounting for Calories’.
Learned (Pg 4) “The Hollywood 18 day diet, for example, restricted dieters to a spartan ration of citrus fruits, melba toast, vegetables, and hardboiled eggs, amounting to 585 calories per day.” I guess this was the beginning of eating disorders, because 500 calories a day sounds like starving yourself.
Surprised (Pg 2) “Physicians similarly assailed the so-called thinnes craze among young women, maintaining that diet jeopardized women’s physical and mental well-being as well as their looks.”
Summary
Counting Calories by Chin Jou is an article that describes the social shift of dieting after the World War I. The article is very similar to Accounting For Calories because they both talk about how calories began to be used by the public as a scientific approach to weight loss. The article begins by explaining that there was a social shift from plumpness being associated with wealth, to slimness indicating wealth. Women were encouraged to exercise, take thyroid extracts and buy rolling pins to roll the fat off of them. You can see evidence of the social change if you look back at womens fashions. The ideal body went from being plump, to being a curvy hourglass figure. Then people started studying calories to see how productive a bricklayer could be with the least cost to the employer. Then, during World War I, food rations began and encouraged people to not eat as many calories per day to help the war. Food Administration pamphlets told people to substitute more expensive foods for beans, or other cheaper and easier to get foods. The article then transitions to talking about extreme diets such as the 18 day Hollywood diet where women only eat 500 calories per day. The article finishes by explaining how experts believe that calorie counting will continue through the 21st century. This article made me think about how different our world would be if the social shift of counting calories never took place.
Mmmm... Flavorful Foods
Knew (Pg 6) “...but there are other factors, too. The smell of food, its texture, its color, and its temperature.” I knew that factors such as smell, texture, color and temperature change peoples’ reactions to the foods.
Question (Pg 7) “When you eat, the most immediate sensation is taste. But you actually smell food, too.” Do they mean smell it before you eat it or during eating it?
Question (Pg 7) “There are five taste sensations: sweet, bitter, sour, salty, and umami.” What is Umami? I knew about the other ones, but what about spicey?
Learned (Pg 7) “The umami taste was formally recognized in 1985... it is associated with savory foods, which includes meat, tomatoes and a food additive called monosodium glutamate.” I was excited to learn about the umami taste because I hadn’t heard of it before so it was interesting.
Learned (Pg 7) “When we chew, aromas are released that activate our sense of smell by way of a special channel that connects the back of our throat to the nose.” I always thought that we just smell the food before we eat it, I didn’t know we were smelling it while we ate it.
Surprised (Pg 7) “Smelling food is different from smelling roses. To smell a rose, you would bring the flower close to your nose and inhale the flowery scent...” I have always thought of smelling food and smelling roses as the same, but I now know they are very different.
Learned/Question (Pg 7) “Also, the color of food can affect its flavor. Dark red beverages need less sugar to achieve an acceptable level of sweetness because people perceive dark beverages to be naturally sweeter.” This was very interesting to me because I think it is weird how we perceive dark beverages to be sweeter even if they are not. Why does this happen?
Knew (Pg 7) “The flavor of food also changes depending on how it is prepared or cooked.” I knew this already because I always taste the difference in cooked food or raw food. Like broccoli, I only like cooked broccoli not raw.
Learned (Pg 7) “Chocolate, for instance, is a mixture of some 300 flavor compounds...” Wow! that is a lot of different flavors just to make up chocolate! I had no idea!
Question/Learned (Pg 7) “Chemists create artificial flavors from the chemical compounds present in plants and animals. They use them in their natural state, or they process them to make new flavors.” This is very interesting because I didn’t know how artificial flavors were made. What is the difference then between artificial flavors and natural flavors?
Surprised (Pg 7) “What’s interesting is that we don’t need all the flavor compounds in a given food to recreate its flavor.” That is very strange because it seems like you would need all the flavors to make it taste just like the real food, but I guess you can just take the biggest flavors and it is the same.
Surprised (Pg 7-8) “Also, the same flavor may not work in different types of food and beverages. For instance, the lemon-lime flavor that works in candy might not work in a soft drink.” This is very strange because it seems like a chemical flavor would be the same in all things, so I don’t understand why the flavor would work for candy but not for soda.
Learned (Pg 8) “Esters - chemical compounds formed by the chemical reaction of an alcohol with a carboxylic acid.” I learned what esters are, they are chemical compounds formed by alcohol and acid.
Surprised/Learned (Pg 8) “Isn’t ethanol the same type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages? It sure is, but when it combines with the acid, it loses the characteristics of drinking alcohol.” It is very interesting that the there is alcohol in flavors. Is the result similar to when you cook alcohol?
Surprised (Pg 8) paragraph 7 - Do you really need to do all of that before you can know the secret ingredients of fragrances? you have to get a degree in organic chemistry, train for five years, take a test, be a junior chemist for two years, take another test, then you can know? That all seems a little excessive to me.
Summary
Mmmm... Flavorful Foods by Renee Heiss is a very interesting and educational article about how people perceive tastes differently and the chemistry behind it. The article started off by explaining the five tastes which are sweet, bitter, sour, salty, and umami. Umami taste describes savory flavors like meat. It also explained that a huge part of how food tastes is how it smells. When we eat the aromas are sent from our mouth to the back of our sinus cavity allowing us to smell the foods. This is why people who have colds can’t taste foods as well as usual. Also, other things affect the way food tastes such as color. They did this test with colorless wine and the same wine with food dye and people said that the wine that was colored red tasted better. The next section of the article explained how chemists create natural and artificial flavors by extracting the most prominent flavor compounds from the food and recreating the taste. The article closed by explaining how flavors and scents are so closely connected that chemists make scents in a similar way to making flavor compounds. Scents are made of mixing an alcohol with an acid with an ester to make an odor. For example, pineapple odor is made by mixing the alcohol ethanol with the acid butanoic acid with the ester ethyl butanoate. This article really made me think about why I don’t like a lot of foods that my family likes such as eggs, or meat, or vinegar flavors. The article made it sound like everyone had the same five taste sensors, so why do things taste different to different people? I also really want to try to make a natural flavor or a natural air freshener scent, it sounds pretty easy once you have a recipe. Looking back on my favorite meal journal entry, I noticed how the flavors in my meal fell into all of the five taste categories so that was interesting.
Sugar in the Blood Boosts Energy
Learned (Pg 1) “...glucose. It is the primary energy storage molecule used by all living beings.” That is really cool to know. If you don’t get enough food to make glucose than you wouldn’t have very much energy.
Surprised (Pg 1) “People need about a teaspoon of glucose every 15 minutes to keep the energy going throughout their bodies.” That seems like a lot of glucose but I guess if it is distributed all around your body than it is not as much as it seems like.
Learned (Pg 1) “Plant cells take energy from the sun, add water, pick up carbon dioxide from the air, and produce glucose and oxygen.” How do plants do this? So does that mean that plants don’t need oxygen, if they have carbon dioxide?
Questions (Pg 1) “Although glucose is the body’s favorite food, we don’t usually eat it straight.” Usually? When do we ever eat straight glucose? What does glucose even taste like?
Questions (Pg 1) “ Regardless of the source of glucose, your body can use glucose immediately or store it in your liver for later use.” What would happen to you if your liver ran out of stored glucose?
Learned (Pg 1 - 2) “ There, the glucose molecules react with oxygen molecules coming from the lungs ... and through a series of chemical reactions, these molecules produce energy as well as carbon dioxide and water.” What happens to the carbon dioxide that gets produced, is it what we exhale?
Knew/Surprised (Pg 2) “ What happens in your body is essentially the reverse of what happens in plants...” I knew that plants produce oxygen and we produce carbon dioxide, but it is scary to think that we all will die if there are too many of us because there will not be enough plants to undo the chemical reactions.
Learned (Pg 2) “Could we live on sugar? The answer is a qualified no.” Sad. Living on sugar would be much tastier.
Surprised (Pg 2) “But recent research has shown that straight glucose may be the way to go. A stud on the memory-enhancing effect of glucose in college students was conducted by scientist at Swinburne University of Technology...” That is interesting. I guess that straight glucose would save your body a few steps and it would save energy in the end.
Summary
Sugar in the Blood Boosts Energy, by Gail Kay Harnes, is an article that explains how your body uses and needs glucose to give you energy. It started off by explaining how plants turn carbon dioxide, water, and energy into glucose and oxygen. Humans do the opposite, we turn glucose and oxygen into carbon dioxide, water, and energy for our bodies to work. It also talked about why we couldn’t live on straight glucose. It is because our body needs other chemicals to function, such as protein, fiber, vitamins, or fats. Also, we need to have the a good liver and pancreas to make and use glucose effectively. This article made me think about the difference between plants and people or animals and what would happen if there were an unbalance of either of them. I also learned a lot about how glucose, sucrose, and fructose molecules look.
The Big Reveal
Question (Pg 6) “I happen to know that in order to burn 680 calories at the gym, I would need to spend at least an hour on a stationary bicycle, spinning at high speed.” I was wondering how they calculate an estimate like this, is there some equation?
Learned/Question (Pg 6) “...calorie (uppercase C) is what chemists call a kilocalorie or 1,000 calories (lowercase c).” That is very confusing, I had no idea that there was a difference between a Calorie and a calorie. I wonder if a lot of people confuse the two.
Question (Pg 6) “To distinguish between the two, the nutritional calorie is sometimes written as a Calories... as opposed to a calorie. More specifically, one Calorie (kilocalorie) is the amount of energy it takes to raise 1 kilogram of 1º C at sea level.” But I thought each person burns energy at a different rate, so how is a calorie consistent for everyone?
Learned (Pg 6) “The calorie content of food was determined in the late 1800s by Wilbur O. Atwater, an agricultural chemist. He built a device called a respiration calorimeter to make direct measurements of heat released by humans from the food they consumed.” I learned how the calorie content of food is determined.
Question (Pg 7) “The basal metabolic rate is responsible for up to 70% of the calories used by our bodies, so it can plays a role in a person’s tendency to gain weight.” 70 percent seems like a lot of calories burned.
Knew (Pg 7) “Proteins are found in meat, beans, milk, and nuts. Fat is present in vegetable oil, dairy products, and fish. Carbohydrates are found in fruits, vegetables, and cereals.” I knew mostly which food belonged in which group, but I didn’t know that fruit and vegetables had carbohydrates.
Surprised (Pg 7) “The standard method for determining the amount of protein in food is called the Kjeldahl … method.” Why do they call it the kjeldahl method, that is a very weird name.
Learned (Pg 8) “Experts agree that 30% of our daily calories should come from fat. If you consume 2,000 Calories in a day, that means no more that 600 Calories should come from fat.” This is good information to know because then I will know how much fat is healthy for me to consume so I can monitor it.
Learned (Pg 8) “ About half of the calories that you consume should come from carbohydrates. This means that if you consume 2,000 Calories per day, 1,000 Calories should come from carbohydrates.” This is also good to know, because then I can make sure I am not eating too many or not enough carbohydrates so I can stay healthy.
Knew (Pg 8) “The average American diet is high in fat and sugar, so many teenagers consume too much sugar...” I know that most americans eat too much fat and sugar so it is important to try to eat foods with less sugar and fat.
Learned (Pg 9 - 10) ‘The Mallard Effect’ Basically states that cooking foods longer at a smaller setting makes the moisture vaporize better than cooking it fast on a high setting.
Learned/Surprised (Pg 11) “...biscotti that remains true to the meaning of the original French word, ‘biscuti’ which means ‘twice cooked’” I love biscuits so this was exciting information to know where the name came from.
Summary
The Big Reveal by Michael Tinnesand is an article that explains how the labels on the food products are calculated and what is hidden behind them. The article started off by explaining what a calorie is. They explained how a calorie is different from a Calorie; a calorie is actually 1 kilocalorie, which is a calorie. A Calorie is the amount of energy it takes to raise 1 kilogram of one degree carbon at sea level. Then the article transitions into explaining that for every calorie you eat, you have to burn that same amount, or your body will store the energy as fat. It also educated us about how the amount protein, carbohydrates, and fat is calculated. It also tells you the recommended amount of protein, carbohydrates, and fat to consume per day based on your daily recommended calorie intake, and your activity level. The next part of the article is about the maillard reactions that take place when cooking food. Maillard reactions are responsible for the browning of food as it cooks. It also prevents bread from just seeming stale after the moisture vaporizes. The Maillard reactions states that cooking food twice can improve the flavor and texture of foods. This article was basically to explain how food labels are calculated and what they mean. This information is very important to understand, because it will help us stay healthy.
24 Hours: Your Food on the Move
Surprised (Pg 1) “The digestive system looks like a narrow tube around 30 feet long...” This is really cool because I got to see a dog digestive system at career day last year after it ate a rock and had to get it removed. The vet had to take out all of its intestines to look for holes and it was so surprising how much intestines fit in a dog!
Learned (Pg 2) “There are four main parts of the digestive process: ingestion, digestion, absorption, and elimination.” This seems like an important thing to know for later in the project because we can study how the food reacts to all of the different stages.
Knew (Pg 2) “Your teeth break food into smaller pieces - which helps to mix the food more thoroughly with the saliva...” I knew that teeth were there to make your food smaller, but I didn’t know it was to mix in with the saliva.
Learned (Pg 2) “...the average mouthful of food is chewed 20 times before swallowed.” That seems like more chewing than is necessary, but I guess we do it without thinking.
Learned (Pg 2) “The three most important components of saliva are: Water (98%) mucus, and digestive enzymes.” It is very weird that there are enzymes living in us.
Learned/Knew (Pg 2) “enzymes are examples of catalysts - chemical compounds that speed up the rate of a chemical reaction without being consumed by the reaction.” That is a cool connection to the past chemistry reactions lab.
Surprised/Questions (Pg 2) “There are thousands of different types of enzymes in the body.” Wow! thousands of different types! That is a lot. Are they all good, or do some of them hurt us?
Learned (Pg 2) “...consider the enzyme carbonic anhydrase, which catalyzes a reaction that removes carbon dioxide from the cells before it goes to the lungs...” Those enzymes must work super fast to take the oxygen before you exhale! That is really cool.
Surprised (Pg 2) “Carbonic anhydrase catalyzes the conversion of carbon dioxide to bicarbonate ions 60,000 times every second!” That is a lot of times in only a short period of time! I had no idea that catalyzes were working inside of me all the time, its a little creepy.
Knew (Pg 2) “You do not need gravity to swallow...” I knew this, but I hadn’t given it any thought before. I guess it is like drinking water in a pool.
Question (Pg 3) “It is these enzymes, not the acid itself, that perform most of the chemical breakdown of food.” Then what is the point in having stomach acid if the enzymes do everything anyway?
Surprised/Question (Pg 3) “Your body produces 2 - 3 liters of gastric juice daily.” If our stomach can only hold two liters of food, then where does all the gastric juice go?
Learned (Pg 3) “Heartburn has nothing to do with the heart, but rather is caused by gastric juice moving upward into the esophagus, creating a burning sensation.” That is good, because I thought heartburn was a serious heart condition.
Surprised (Pg 3) “A lot of fiber can also cause food waste to pass through quickly.” I didn’t know this before so it is good information to know.
Surprised/Question (Pg 3) “Your body contains 3 - 5 pounds of bacteria, enough to fill a few soup cans! Most of the bacteria are found in the colon.” How did the bacteria get into us anyway? Because during surgery, everything has to be sanitary, so does the bacteria just get in when we are being made?
Summary
24 Hours: Your food on the Move by Brian Rohrig was a very interesting, and kind of creepy article about how the actual process of digestion takes place. The article explains about the four parts of the digestive process, the first is ingestion. Ingestion is just when you actually put the food in your mouth and your saliva formed a catalyst reaction to start breaking it up as your teeth break it too. Then the food travels down to the digestion section of the process. During digestion, food goes into the stomach where it is continuously churned and beaten into a pulp. Then stomach acid and enzymes start to chemically break down the food so it can be used throughout the body. Next is absorption, where the food is passing through the small intestine. Enzymes break down fat and allow the nutrients to travel to other parts of the body. The final step of the digestive process is elimination of the waste. The wet waste moves into the colon where the rest of the moisture is absorbed. This article will be very helpful for later in this project when we study the digestive process more closely. It made me think of how amazing our body is to do all of this and we barely even notice, we just take it for granted.
The Skinny on Sweeteners
Surprised (Pg 1) “According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Americans consume an average of 156 pounds of sugar each year. That’s a little more than 31 of the five-pound bags you might see in the baking goods aisle in the grocery store!” Wow that is a lot of sugar! No wonder so many Americans are getting diabetes.
Knew (Pg 1) “... sugar. It belongs to a family of molecules called carbohydrates that are found in fruits, vegetables, dairy products, breads, and sweets.” I knew that when you digest carbohydrates they turn into glucose, so I assume that sugar is just already glucose and it is a short cut.
Learned (Pg 1) “Second, when we eat or drink too much sucrose, the amount of insulin in our blood spikes. Insulin is a hormone that regulates the amount of sugar in our blood. Over time, too much insulin in the blood can lead to diabetes...” I thought that diabetes is when there is not enough insulin in your blood, so how does having too much insulin cause diabetes?
Learned (Pg 1) “1878 - That’s the year that an American chemist named Constantin Fahlberg discovered saccharin, the first artificial sweetener...” Was Constantin a girl? Why did chemists want to find an alternative for sugar?
Surprised/Question (Pg 1) “Also, the digestive system does not break it apart to derive energy the same way it does with sugar. Instead, saccharin dissolves into the bloodstream and is flushed out of the body in urine.” So this is how come fake sugar sweeteners don’t have any calories. They are not digested at all, just absorbed like water into our bodies.
Questions (Pg 2) “Unlike other artificial sweeteners, aspartame is metabolized in the body, so aspartame is higher in calories.” Then what is the point of using aspartame instead of just sugar? Do sugar and aspartame both turn into glucose in digestion?
Surprised (Pg 2) “... rats that were fed saccharin developed bladder cancer. The rats however had to eat an amount of saccharin comparable to a human drinking hundreds of cans of soda each day.” This is absolutely horrible! How could anyone take such amazing, loving creatures and force feed them some fake sugar product so they could die horrible deaths in the lab. I am never going to ever eat saccharine now that I know they support such horrible animal abuse.
Summary
The Skinny on Sweeteners by Christen Brownlee was an article that explained the myths about fake sweetener products such as saccharin or aspartame. Artificial sweeteners were originally designed to provide people with diseases such as diabetes a way to enjoy sweet tasting foods without spiking their blood insulin levels. Some artificial sweeteners, such as saccharin have no calories because they are not digested the same way as sugar or food. Instead they are absorbed through the intestines into the bloodstream and flushed out in urine. Other forms of artificial sweeteners, like asparame, are digested and contain some calories, but they are still used to sweeten candy and soda because they contain less calories per amount of sweetness. Sucralose is 600 times sweeter than sucrose (plant sugar) so it is often chosen to sweeten foods for less calories. This article made me think about how much sugar us, as Americans, eat and how different sugar consumption is around the world. I bet we are one of the only countries that consumes so much artificial sweetening products.