Class 8A – Nutrition and Health – Questions from Students for Exam 1
Here are great questions from 2 students in class:
Student 1:
Hello Professor, I have some questions on material regarding the first exam, which I am honestly a bit nervous about. I haven’t taken a science class since my sophomore year of high school and was never really good at it. I’d also like to come to one of your office hours after the exam to go over it if that’s possible, but here are the questions I have:
– Is DSHEA a good or bad thing? From the lecture and research I’ve done, I’ve seen more thing saying it is a negative addition to the field of nutrition, but I thought it was good because it had such benefits like making FDA responsible, established a term for dietary supplements, etc.
Answer: DSHEA is a terrible law! It totally tied the hands of the FDA to regulate dietary supplements. It has caused the supplement industry to become huge! And the 40 billions of dollars Americans spend on supplements is probably 98% wasted money. I believe it is one of the earlier examples of the assault on science and the truth.
– Do we need to know the specifics on experiments? For example, the Vitamin C experiment?
Answer: You do not have to know the specifics. The nutrient balance study is performed by giving an animal or human a specific nutrient free diet and depleting them of a specific vitamin or mineral. Then it is added back to their diet. Many of these studies were done in the early 1900s. We learned an amazing amount from these students. The vitamin C one was just an example. I call these studies the first Foundation of Nutrition – without them we would not know much about vitamins. The “Media Nutrition Experts,” who push supplements, would have think we don’t know much about vitamins, but we do. So I want you to know about these.
– Chapter 3 is where I had the most questions and where most of my confusion began. Am I right to say that we discussed the mechanism of fire because their use of energy is similar? Also I did not understand the question “Does the cell use little fires for energy?”
Answer: Fire and metabolism are similar in ways and not similar in ways. I have made a list:
Fuel – both use reduced compounds for fuel – long hydrocarbons are the best!
Oxygen – both use oxygen in the exact proportions to the carbons burned
Carbon dioxide – both produce carbon dioxide
Steps involved – fire – only needs a few direct steps; metabolism is in a human – may require 20 to 40 enzyme reactions – a long process
Where it takes place – fire – in an open space; metabolism in a human – inside the cells of the body, which are very small.
– Also I did not understand the question “Does the cell use little fires for energy?”
Answer: Well, do they??? No, it is impossible, so the cell must get energy using a different process – it is called metabolism. This question is a thought question.
– It’s not on the review sheet, but will we need to know the process of photosynthesis and how to create/draw the bonds involved in that process?
Answer: Photosynthesis is one of the most complicated processes ever conceived – you don’t need to know it or draw bonds! I wish I knew it!
– Is glucose transported into the intestinal enterocyte through hepatic portal circulation?
Answer: Glucose is transported into the intestinal enterocyte from the lumen of the intestine into the enterocyte cell using the sodium/glucose co-transporter (discovered by Dr. Crane). Only after it is transported out of the enterocyte does glucose enter the blood of the portal vein and go to the liver.
– Is the storage polysaccharide in animal cells starch or glycogen? In my notes I have references to both being the answer. Answer: Starch is in plants; Glycogen is in human cells
– Would the total kcal of glycogen stored in humans be located in your chapter 4 part 1 powerpoint on page 34? Answer: It is located in several places – especially the big diagram where I went over glucose uptake and distribution. Total amount is about 2600 Kcal total. Liver holds what_______? Muscle holds ______?
– Do we need to know how to draw the mono/di/polysaccharides or be able to say it’s for example glucose-glucose, glucose connected with alpha bonds, etc.?
Answer: You do not need to drawn anything right now. It is good to know that they are linked with alpha bonds because human digestive enzymes can break them down.
– Will we have to describe the historical story of carbohydrates? Answer: Everything that is on the story of carbohydrates Super diagram is in the other slides. You just need to know the BIG Stuff, like historically, all grain were hand ground. Also, we make high fructose corn syrup from mostly cornstarch.
– I was unable to find the major tissue that will not take glucose up if a person is Type 2 diabetic.
Answer: It is muscle: I mentioned this several times in class- after hundreds of millions of dollars of research we still don’t know why muscle stops taking up glucose in Type 2 diabetes. Therefore, the glucose goes very high in blood – called hyperglycemia!
Student 2:
I am emailing in regards to a question I had about the exam. I am wondering if we need to memorize the nutrition timeline or the years, or should we just know why it is important? Hope to hear from you soon.
Answer: It is a hard question to answer. I think the ages of Nutrition as opposed to individual years are important to know and DSHEA is important to know. But I think it is good to have an idea how nutrition has advanced over the past 120 years or more.
Thanks for the Great Questions! Joe Dixon
Class 7A – Nutrition and Health – What We Went Over About Carbohydrates
In today’s class (Tuesday, Feb 12, 2019 – lots of hail, snow and rain)) we went over three things:
-
Reviewed Digestion of starch and absorption of glucose. Then we went over how glucose is distributed throughout the body. See presentation on Blackboard.
-
We talked glycemic Index and what are the factors that affect it.
-
We talked a little bit about fiber.
Class 7 – Nutrition and Health – Spring 2019 – Chapter 4 of McGuire – Finish Carbohydrates
There is class today, but attendance will not be taken and the lecture will be gone over very slowly and repeated on Friday for the most part. So if you have a long commute, don’t worry about attending. If you are near campus, come to lecture if you feel up to it. LOOK OVER THE LECTURE ON SAKAI AND READ THE TEXT. Exam 1 next Tuesday will only cover up to Chapter 4.
For most of Early Agriculture, grains were hand cleaned and ground using a mortar and pestle. Below is a photo from Mensel & DAluisio 2005 “Hungry Planet;” Chapter on Ecuador, page 107
However, starting in about 1880, grains in the United States were ground using the steel roller milling machines. This is from my book, “The Obesity Explosion.”
“The mechanical roller milling machine was invented in Hungary
in the 1860s and later improved in several countries in Europe.4
The new method, the “Hungarian method,” included finely
spaced steel rollers, that could be adjusted to grind wheat into
different flour grades. The steel rollers lasted longer than the
grinding stones and could be adjusted to produce the desired
product. Also, they produced less heat than the large grinding
stones, and therefore the flour was not damaged or discolored
as much. The steel rollers were still driven by water power, but
they were far more easier to operate. An exhibition of milling
machines was held in Vienna in 1875 and companies from the
United States attended the meeting and realized that they needed
to quickly adopt the new method. The mill owners even sent spies
over to Hungary to get information on their technology. German
and Hungarian engineers were brought to the U.S. to establish
the technology here. Minneapolis had become the main grain
milling center in the U.S.; with over 20 stone grinding mills using
water power from the Mississippi River. But the new machines
were so efficient that by about 1880 almost all the mills had been
converted from stone grinding to roller milling.”
If you wish to read about the development of milling, read:
The Technology That Launched a City: Scientific and Technological Innovations in Flour Milling during the 1870s in Minneapolis https://www.jstor.org/stable/20188202
Class 6 – Nutrition and Health – Spring 2019 – Chapter 4 of McGuire – Start Carbohydrates
Salad Friday – similar to last week:
Low Carbohydrate vs Low Fat for weight loss:
This article can be read for free at:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5839290/
The most interesting part of this study is shown in the next figure. On both diets, people lost weight, people stayed at the same weight, and some people even gained weight! Why would this happen?
Go to the paper at this Website and read it if you are very interested!!
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5839290/
Class 5 – Nutrition and Health – Spring 2019 – Chapter 3 of McGuire – First Half – Energy
Why is there a Photo of a fire on the screen?
Warning: First Exam is on Tuesday, February 19th
Today: First TopHat Quiz (On Energy) – Quiz 1
How I will Handle TopHat grades:
Class 4 – Nutrition and Health – Spring 2019 – Diet Assignment and Start Chapter 3 of McGuire
First – the Salad for Salad Friday – February 1, 2019; This salad was put together at the Harvest restaurant in the Institute of Food, Nutrition and Health
Class 3 – Nutrition and Health – Spring 2019 – Chapter 2 of McGuire and Beerman
Photos of the Blackboard Presentation on 1-25-2019:
Recent Comments