Glucose enters our body from the foods that we eat. Our food is digested and broken down into sugars which then enter the blood stream. This sugar (glucose) converts into pyruvate by a reaction pathway called Glycolysis. Our body makes ATP during Glycolysis. Using Glucose as the starting material we end up with 2 usable ATP (energy source). Using Glycogen as the starting material we end up with 3 usable ATP.
Glycolysis is a system of 10 steps starting with Glucose + ATP. Glucose gets a phosphate added onto it from the ATP. Then this glucose-phosphate molecule gets rearranged to give you a fructose-phosphate molecule. The fructose-phosphate molecule + ATP molecule to add another phosphate, giving a fructose-bisphosphate molecule. The fructose-bisphosphate molecule is then split into two molecules which are both then rearranged to give 2 G3P's (which we all learned about in high school). The -CHO group on the G3P is oxidized (lose electrons) then there is a transfer of phosphate from these new molecules to ADP creating 2 ATP! Molecules are then rearranged again in these new molecules that gave up their phosphate. Our bodies then remove a water molecule from the rearranged molecule. Water is then added to this molecule producing the pyruvate that we wanted and an inorganic phosphate. ADP reacts with the inorganic phosphate and gives us an ATP molecule and water.
After that long process (that actually happens very quickly) we are left with 2 ATP molecules that our bodies can use as energy!
The pyruvate that we made can be converted to lactate and sent to the liver. The liver then converts the lactate to glucose which can enter Glycolysis!
Friday, April 23, 2010
Questions from Glycogen Loading Presentation
Just wanted to take a minute to answer a few questions that were asked after my presentation.
1. How do we know how many carbs to take in? Does it vary from person to person?
-Yes, it does vary from person to person. They say that 55-60% of our caloric intake should be carbohydrates. This obviously is going to differ in the actual amount of carbs from person to person. Someone who consumes 3000 calories a day should have 1650-1800 of those calories come from carbohydrates, where someone who only consumed 1500 calories a day should only have 825-900 of those calories come from carbohydrates.
2. Do you think carb loading is worth it?
-Personally, I do not think that it works well enough to do. I also am not a person who runs marathons or anything like that. I was a cheerleader in high school and it was a tradition that we had a pasta party the Friday before our Sunday competition. While this is now just tradition, it sort of started off as a way to obtain more "energy" from the carbs in pasta. I think that even if I was training for the marathon, I still would not try carb loading. I do not think that it has a significant enough impact.
1. How do we know how many carbs to take in? Does it vary from person to person?
-Yes, it does vary from person to person. They say that 55-60% of our caloric intake should be carbohydrates. This obviously is going to differ in the actual amount of carbs from person to person. Someone who consumes 3000 calories a day should have 1650-1800 of those calories come from carbohydrates, where someone who only consumed 1500 calories a day should only have 825-900 of those calories come from carbohydrates.
2. Do you think carb loading is worth it?
-Personally, I do not think that it works well enough to do. I also am not a person who runs marathons or anything like that. I was a cheerleader in high school and it was a tradition that we had a pasta party the Friday before our Sunday competition. While this is now just tradition, it sort of started off as a way to obtain more "energy" from the carbs in pasta. I think that even if I was training for the marathon, I still would not try carb loading. I do not think that it has a significant enough impact.
Friday, April 9, 2010
What knowledge have you connected with past knowledge?
Since our last connecting knowledge blog, we have touched upon many things in class that most of us probably have had some sort of understanding of from previously taken classes. For example, in chapter 6 we talked about proteins as enzymes. Many of us have probably gone over the basics of enzymes in almost every science class we have taken. I learned about enzymes in general biology and learned about rate of reactions and thermodynamics in anatomy and a little bit in organic chemistry as well. I had already learned about exergonic/spontaneous and endergonic/nonspontaneous reactions as well as catalysis.
We covered catalysis in some detail in my anatomy course as we discussed the fact that our bodies cannot possibly survive without the use of catalysts. The reactions that happen in our body are far too slow on their own to sustain life, but with the use of catalysts the reactions become fast enough for us to live. I also learned about rates of reactions a lot in organic chemistry. We learned about reaction orders in organic as well.
I learned a little bit about lipids in my anatomy class including fatty acids and phospholipids. Hydrogenation was learned about in organic chemistry, which we now can connect more clearly with biology, as hydrogenated foods enter and affect our body. When talking about fatty acids and their carboxyl group being at the polar end and the hydrocarbon chain being at the nonpolar tail, that incorporates knowledge learned both in anatomy and organic chemistry. I learned about carboxyl groups and hydrocarbons in organic chemistry and polar and nonpolar ends in both organic and anatomy. I knew that molecules with double bonds were considered unsaturated, while molecules with single bonds were considered saturated from organic chemistry. I learned about phospholipids in anatomy and how they are used in our body. Waxes I learned a little bit about in general biology when talking about the waxes on plant leaves and stems. The waxes are used for plant protection as a type of skin.
I learned about peripheral, integral and transmembrane proteins in anatomy as well as passive (simple and facilitated) and active (primary and secondary) diffusion. The sodium potassium pump was covered extensively in anatomy. I'm sure we all knew the basics of DNA while coming into this class and I know that some of my classes have covered it fairly well, but there was still a lot that I had forgotten or just had never learned. Learning about eukaryotic versus prokaryotic DNA processes was new to me. I also knew the basics of transcription and translation from previous science classes (anatomy and general biology), but definitely needed to be taught again. I did not remember a lot of the differences and had never learned the prokaryotic and eukaryotic differences. I learned about codons previously but went into much more detail on both transcription and translation in this course than I ever have before.
As we get into metabolism, I have learned about catabolism and anabolism in anatomy and redox reactions in organic chemistry. We went through Glycolysis and the Krebs Cycle in anatomy, but I could use a refresher on those. I am getting more interested in the metabolism section because that seems to be the most interesting to me so far this semester. I have a basis of understanding some things that we will go over, so I am looking forward to going over those areas again. Once again I am able to see so many different science classes all interconnected and brought into one class.
We covered catalysis in some detail in my anatomy course as we discussed the fact that our bodies cannot possibly survive without the use of catalysts. The reactions that happen in our body are far too slow on their own to sustain life, but with the use of catalysts the reactions become fast enough for us to live. I also learned about rates of reactions a lot in organic chemistry. We learned about reaction orders in organic as well.
I learned a little bit about lipids in my anatomy class including fatty acids and phospholipids. Hydrogenation was learned about in organic chemistry, which we now can connect more clearly with biology, as hydrogenated foods enter and affect our body. When talking about fatty acids and their carboxyl group being at the polar end and the hydrocarbon chain being at the nonpolar tail, that incorporates knowledge learned both in anatomy and organic chemistry. I learned about carboxyl groups and hydrocarbons in organic chemistry and polar and nonpolar ends in both organic and anatomy. I knew that molecules with double bonds were considered unsaturated, while molecules with single bonds were considered saturated from organic chemistry. I learned about phospholipids in anatomy and how they are used in our body. Waxes I learned a little bit about in general biology when talking about the waxes on plant leaves and stems. The waxes are used for plant protection as a type of skin.
I learned about peripheral, integral and transmembrane proteins in anatomy as well as passive (simple and facilitated) and active (primary and secondary) diffusion. The sodium potassium pump was covered extensively in anatomy. I'm sure we all knew the basics of DNA while coming into this class and I know that some of my classes have covered it fairly well, but there was still a lot that I had forgotten or just had never learned. Learning about eukaryotic versus prokaryotic DNA processes was new to me. I also knew the basics of transcription and translation from previous science classes (anatomy and general biology), but definitely needed to be taught again. I did not remember a lot of the differences and had never learned the prokaryotic and eukaryotic differences. I learned about codons previously but went into much more detail on both transcription and translation in this course than I ever have before.
As we get into metabolism, I have learned about catabolism and anabolism in anatomy and redox reactions in organic chemistry. We went through Glycolysis and the Krebs Cycle in anatomy, but I could use a refresher on those. I am getting more interested in the metabolism section because that seems to be the most interesting to me so far this semester. I have a basis of understanding some things that we will go over, so I am looking forward to going over those areas again. Once again I am able to see so many different science classes all interconnected and brought into one class.
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