Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Six Hours

It is now 9:30. I started studying at 2:30. I took an hour break for dinner. I have reviewed 55 pages of notes, 1 past test, 1 study review guide, and memorized around 9 structures. If you have any questions on carbohydrates--chemistry, functionality, physical nature, properties, reactions I'll know at least something. I better do well on my midterm Friday.

4 comments:

Maggie said...

I think that person was misinformed or at least telling half the story. I have a whole philosophy on processed foods, but that's another question and I can save it for when, or if, people ask to hear it.
White sugar is a refined sugar that was originally taken from sugar cane. The difference between white sugar and brown sugar (the less refined state)is molasses. There is dark brown sugar, light brown sugar and white sugar (at least that's the forms you could see if you went to the grocery store). The difference is the molasses to sucrose ratio. White sugar is refined sucrose. Sucrose is a disaccharide (carbohydrate with two units) consisting of glucose and fructose.
Our body stores energy as fat for long term storage and glycogen for short term. Glycogen is a polysaccharide (carbohydrate with many units) consisting of glucose. (Hence the practice of Carbohydrate loading before hard physical activites). Sucrose is just a way for your body to get energy in a hurry. It's the "in a hurry" part that bothers a lot of people.
What it does in your body is get metabolized easily. Complex carbohydrates like whole grains take longer to digest and metabolize. Simple sugars, like sucrose, hit your system quickly causing a spike in insulin (your body's way of trying to get energy while maintaining homeostasis). Over time (years and years) of over-eating refined sugars and candy your body becomes resistant to insulin. That's one idea about how eating sugar can contribute to type II diabetes. So be moderate in your eating of refined sugar. Don't overeat it everyday because in the end that will be bad. Eating it ocassionally and not in excess wont really be detrimental to your health. Hope that was what you were looking for. If you need more or any clarification tell me and I'll try to help.

be said...

I wanna hear your philosophy on processed foods. I love those things. I had
a post about it once, but it didn't work out.

Maggie said...

I didn't know anyone would actually take me up on the processed foods offer. It's pretty long so I think I'll do it in installments.

be said...

How about preservatives? Can you talk about those, too? I can't imagine how something that makes your food last longer could be bad for you. Like those fries on the Supersize Me DVD. Sure they outlast every other food product ever made, but who says that's bad?