Class on Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Joseph Dixon ♦ September 28, 2015 ♦ Leave a comment

Questions from the Class:

What are the ULs for vitamin D and selenium?  The ULs for vitamin D and selenium are both about 7 times the RDA.  This can be seen from the tables in the front cover of the 3rd edition of the text.

Why are fat and gas similar?

Fat and gasoline are both medium to long chain hydrocarbons-long chains of carbons with hydrogens attached – only difference is that fatty acids have a carboxyl group at one end. Makes all the difference in the world- you can drink vegetable oils with fatty acids attached to a glycerol backbone. I would not drink gasoline-it will kill you.  Both can be used for fuel with the correct engines.

How much glycogen is stored in the body?

There are about 2000 Kcal of glycogen stored in muscle and about 500 to 600 Kcal stored in liver – so a total of about 2500 Kcal in whole body- depends upon the size of the person.

Where is the Vitamin C balance study?    The Vitamin C balance study was described in an early lecture:  09-04-McGuire-3rd Ed Ch2 2015.  I also put it on the howtocureobesity.com website.

How were UL values determined?   The ULs are determined by a committee of experts who review toxicity studies and make a best guess what is a toxic amount to consume on a daily basis.  Some vitamins do not have a UL or it is very high.  Others like Vitamin A, D and E have ULs because there are well known examples of over consumption and it is apparent at what level toxicity is seen.  Because milk is supplemented with vitamin D, there are examples where the dairy put 100x more vitamin D in the milk and people who drank it developed toxicity – in this case hypercalcemia in blood and calcification of soft tissues including arteries.  Also, I have observed students in Nutrition and Health losing hair with an intake of 10,000 IU of vitamin D per day.  Obviously, we can’t feed toxic amounts of vitamins and minerals to people to see where toxicity occurs.

A question concerning the dietary assignment:

I am working on the dietary analysis, and I am confused on how we are supposed to calculate the greatest and lowest percent RDA for vitamin and minerals. 

Answer:  The target on the Nutrients report is your RDA or EAR.  If you put your information in the profile correctly these should be correct for you.
Then you divide your actual intake from the diet by the target and you have the % RDA.  Is it under 100% or above 100%?   The greatest or lowest percents are obtained by comparing all of them!