May 18 2005
antecedents
My package of linguine has a little splashy note down in the bottom corner, reminiscent of the general mills food pyramid splashes:
“Pasta and Other Complex Carbohydrates are the Preferred Fuel for the Brain and Body. A Nutrition Message for the American Dietetic Association.”
Which leads me to ask: preferred by whom, precisely? The American Council of Pasta Manufacturers? The Italian Restaurant Coalition? Citizens Against Atkins? Carbohydrate Loaders United? Your Neighborhood Neuron Association? Semolina Watch (a 501(c)(3) organization)?
I hate statements like that.
5 responses so far
To put it more precisely, the *only* chemical your brain can derive energy from is glucose, the sugar into which your body rapidly metabolizes pasta. Your body, as a whole, can burn fats just as well as sugars, though, so that part’s not as accurate.
(a biochemist will tell you that your brain can also burn complex ketone/aldehyde breakdown products during extended starvation, but that’s hopefully not where you’re at.)
To be *really* precise, it’s not glucose that your brain derives energy from, but glycogen, but really that’s a formality since the liver takes glucose/sucrose/fructose/lactose/galactose & turns it all into glycogen which is stored by the liver for 4-8 hours typically)…
One’s body requires glycogen also to burn fat (the duo are *fabulous* for energy in combination). Otherwise it turns to burning muscle mass (creating ketones which are not so efficient at burning fat) which is why despite the amount of protein eaten on the high protein diets most of the weight loss is in water & muscle mass.
< /ex-nutritionist >
< coughgakcough > Damn, that stuff comes out like hairballs from a cat.
Shall we be really, REALLY precise and start talking about G6P and isomerases? Coz when you start talking about glycogen I get all wiggly.
Lets not & say we did, shall we? There’s a reason I’m an *ex*nutritionist.
sheesh, people, I try & make a joke & you leave me a thesis