Nuts, Seeds, LNA and CLA...

Lots of letters huh?

I read some interesting info a few other blogs in the past few days about nuts and thought I would post more on fatty acid sources because that is what we will be discussing in class tomorrow afternoon ( again!)

I have this chart from my biochemistry book of the make up of 20 varieties of nuts. All nuts provide sources of BOTH saturated fats AND Monounsaturated fats. Nuts also provide essential fatty acids ( which are omega-6, omega-3 and LNA)

For comparison, nuts/seeds such as walnuts, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, peanuts, seasame seeds- they all offer a good source of fat and fiber. however, they are different in specific make-ups of their nutrition profiles. i.e:

Walnuts (1 oz) are made up of:

6% Saturated fat, 14% Mono-unsaturaed fat, 58% Omega-6, 14% Omega-3 and offer 2.6 gm of Linoleic Acid.

Flaxseeds (1 oz) are made up of:

9% Saturated fat, 18% Mono-unsaturated fat, 16% Omega-6, 57% Omega-3 and offer 5.2 gm of Linoleic Acid

Omega-6 fats do offer some benefits, but have also been shown to increase risk of prostate cancer among other illnesses.
Omega-3 fats are more beneficial.
Linoleic Acid and Linolenic Acid are "essential fatty acids"- They are both Omega 3 because of their nomenclature.... ( check out my post http://runlmo1.blogspot.com/search/label/Advanced%20Nutrient%20Metabolism for even more info on Lipids and naming fats) .... is also thought to have anti-cancer properties ( specifically Conjugated Linoleic Acid or CLA).

Flaxseed is higher in both Omega-3 and Linloeic Acid and Unsaturate fats in general.

Macadamia nuts are made up of 16% saturated fat which is actually LOWER than both Pumpkin Seeds (19%) and Cashews (20%). The saturated fat in macademia nuts is very close in saturated fat with Tofu and Peanuts, both of which are made up of 14% saturated fat.
But, Cashews are much higher in monounsaturated fats (57%) than lots of other nuts...( i love cashews)


Essential Fatty Acid:
Conjugated Lineoleic Acid is naturally present in meat and dairy fats and may inhibit certain types of cancer. Studies creating synthetic CLA have found it to inhibit human tumor cells in the skin, colon, breast, and lung as well as preventing spread of cancers in animal models.

The problem with consuming CLA from its natural sources are the sources of saturated fat in both meat and dairy. In in vitro studies ( where the cells are in an artificial environment and not in the actual body), CLA inhibits breast cancer cell growth ( Margot, from Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY) and it also prevents the development of new blood vessels in the mammiary gland which reduces the rate of mammary tumor growth. ( this was from the American Institute for Cancer Research Newsletter).

Organic Cows, grass fed, have higher levels of CLA in their meat and in their milk ? which also means they have less saturated fats than conventional cows.

Did you also know that conventional milk is thought to increase the release of insulin-growth factor in women, which is thought to increase your risk of both diabetes AND breast cancer?
Ladies- go for organic dairy products!!!


Long chain fatty acids are very important as well ( and do not really come from nuts)
-The best sources of one long chain fatty acid: APA ( alpha-lineoleic acid) are: spinach, linseed oil, english walnut oil, and canola oil.

-The best sources of EPA ( eicosapentaenoic acid) are: Anchovies (18%), scallops (21%), haddock, sole, mackeral, and albacore tuna.

-The best sources of DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) are: Cod (37%), Anchovies (11%), scallops (26%), haddock, herring, cod, mackerel, sole, tuna, human milk, and egg yolk

Advanced Nutrient Metabolism: Pyruvate--Acetyl CoA and Pyruvate-- Lactate, Lactate Metabolism and PPP

I mentioned before , fructose ( which is excited by glucokinase in the liver) gets phosphorylated in the cell into fuctose 1-P ( using up one ATP) which then gets converted to glyceraldehyde 3-P. This glyceraldehyde is the backbones of triglycerides ( glycerol with three attached fatty acids). High fructose syrups/ high fructose intake is thought to impact this process by 1. Exciting glucokinase , stimulating the glycolysis of glucose--> pyruvate-->acetyl CoA.

Acetyl CoA is the building blocks of..... Lipids! More fat!
and 2. Fructose turning into glyceraldehydes ups your triglyceride levels- which can increase your insulin resistence - which increases insulin release- which increases blood glucose-- which means Diabetes to follow!




PPP is the pentose phosphate pathway.

We use this pathway to bar off glucose for a little while. Why you may ask? Of course, to make it into other important stuff -
1. ribose- so we can form nucleic acids , DNA... and
2. So we can make NADPH2.

NADPH2 is involved in this cute little process that lets us get rid of a free radical.. h2 O2 ..hydrgoen peroxide. If we do not get rid of it, it will cause our red blood cells to burst- Not GOOD !!

So, NADPH2 interacts with Glutathione ( 2 GSH)... which requires an enzyme ( of course!) Glutathione Peroxidase - this turns H2O2 ( the bad guy) into H2O.. water!

The PP Pathway starts with 3 molecules of glucose

glucose-6-P glucose 6-P glucose 6-P

--with the help of glucose-6-p-dehydrogenase----key enzyme (again with the enzymes)

-6phosphogluconate -6phosphogluconate-6 phosphogluconate


these each break-off Carbons as CO2 ... and Turns NADP into NADPH2 ( horrary!)
making

5-Carbon Compound - Ribose ( yah!) - 5 carbon Compound

These all can easily convert to...

glucose -6- P -glucose-6-P and -glyceraldehyde

All of which can go back to glycolysis or the g-6-p's can go to glycogenesis


Lactate Metabolism!

I know you all are dying to know this!

So glucose---> pyruvate ---> Acetyl CoA ( in high oxygen situations)
Well in low oxygen situations, or say high demand exercise
pyruvate---> lactate
this conversion also gives us the ultra-important taxi: NAD+

NAD+ is a taxi that goes back to the glucose stage to convert glucose--> pyruvate (aka glycolysis)

This is important in keeping us alive- without oxygen, lactate gets sent into the blood, then into the liver, then gets conerted there back to pyruvate and back to glucose- then back to the beginning of glucose.


I am done! I took my test and feel VERY good about it- keep your fingers crossed!
Thanks for reading about Nutrient Metabolism!

Advanced Nutrient Metabolism: Glycogenesis-- Glycogenolysis---Glycolysis----

Glycogenesis
The formation of glycogen. After you eat, your body will store glycogen in muscle tissue and in liver cells. Your liver & muscle will use this for when you place a demand on your body such as exercise. Your liver also regulates/maintains blood glucose levels as needed so glycogen storage is also important for liver functioning.

It only uses 1 ATP (energy molecule) to branch 1 glucose onto/to form glycogen..BUT its such a good deal because when we break apart glycogen we ultimately get 36-38 ATP's worth of energy! Talk about bang for your buck!

The liver also acts as a vacuum ( :-(.. i wish I could afford a i-Roomba!)... it collects all this other "crap" laying around ( i.e lactate) to form glycogen. This is called gluconeogenesis and a significant amount of glycogen formation depends on this process ( about 1/3).

Pathway:
Glucose ( from our food) interacts with either these two enzymes
--- hexokinase in the muscle cells and liver
---glucokinase in the liver only

Then glucokinase stimulates glucose to use up 1 ATP and forms glucose-6-phosphate
Glucose-6-phosphate----> glucose 1-phosphate
glucose-1-phosphate----helped by Uridine Triphophate UTP---> UDP-glucose
UDP glucose----helped by glycogenin primer---> Unbranched Glycogen
Unbranched glycogen--- helped by Glycogen Synthase ( branching enzyme)--> Branched, Glycogen

Hooray! So Now that we have stored glucose into a better branched form- What happens when we need the energy?

Glycogenolysis!

Liver glycogen gets exported to blood
Muscle Glycogen gets exported to muscle cells

This is stimulated/turned on ( ooh la la) by glucagon and epinephrine ( thus these are called allosteric modifiers because they influence the enymes- glycogen synthase ( forming glycogen) AND glycogen phosphorylase

Glycogen phosphorylase is a big enzyme in glycogenolysis and is also turned on/off + / - (modified) by cyclic AMP

Pathway

Fasting/Starving + -> glucagon in liver + with the help of Protein Complex + Adenylate Cyclase

Flight or fight Ahh!!! + epinephrine + with the help of Protein Complex + Adenylate Cyclase

+ Adenylate Cyclase ---- +

is all excited, uses up a molecule of energy ATP...... > forming Cyclic AMP (cAMP)

cAMP is interacts with protein kinases that inhibit the branching enzyme glycogen synthase I mentioned above by turning it into the inactive form (B)
cAMP is thus modified by Protein dependent kinases... first the inactive forms then turn to active... which then turns phosphorylase kinase B inactive to active...

Phosphorylase A --- > breaks down Glycogen---> Glucose-1-phosphate ---> glucose ! and lactate


So now we have lots of free glucose to use up
Glycolysis!
glucose---> pyruvate
yeilds total of 2 ATP but in the future we will know that we end up with more b/c of krebs cycle

Red Blood Cells depend on glycolysis because they have no mitochondria, as do Eye cells as well as they have limited blood supply.
Our Kidneys, Testis, leukocytes and White Muscle Fibers all have no mitochondria so we need this process as well.

If we have high levels of ATP , high levels of alanine, hexokinase and Citrate- these all inhibit glycolysis

High levels of fructose "turn on" glucokinase which turns on glycolysis
The main control point is PFK .. phophofructokinase which can turn on or off the production of fructose and hence the glycolysis process.

Pathway (this is a doozy)

Glucose--- gets into the cell as glucose and is phosphorylated using up 1 ATP to make-->
Glucose-6-Phosphate---isomerase turns this into---> Fructose -6-Phosphate
Fructose -6-Phosphate---uses another ATP---> Fructose 1-6-Phosphate

Fructose 1-6-P is then broken down into Glyceraldehyde 3-P and dihydroxyacetone-3-P (DHAP)

DHAP--- runs into NADH-- froms NADH2 ( which will give us 3 ATP x 2 for krebbs later) and then can turn into Glyceraldehyde 3-P like the other molecule formed

Glyceraldehyde-3-P makes a 3 Carbon Intermediate #1 (3CI #1)

3C I #1 MAKES 1 ATP (x 2 because 1 glucose moledule yeilds 2 carbons so this process is doubled) --- forming 3 C I #2 --- which changes to 3C I #3

3cI#3 turns into PEP ( phosphoenolpyruvate)

PEP MAKES 1 ATP (x 2) by changing into Pyruvate !

Pyruvate is then turned into Acetyl CoA ( high oxygen conditions, which also forms NADH2 ( future yeild of 6 ATP) or Pyruvate forms Lactate ( no oxygen, which takes NADH2 and forms NAD + which then acts as a taxi to keep the cycle going).

The pyruvate---> lactate is the process that keeps us alive say when we are drowning and have no Oxygen- ( it only lasts for about 400 kcal worth of energy) .. The taxi NAD+ goes back up to help convert glucose to pyruvate so we can continue to have energy!

And I didn't even look at my notes for any of this!! Phew!!!

Confidence~ Thank You!

I am feeling confident about this exam today! Wooohooo!

I studied this morning on campus, met with the professor to go over questions and just had lunch with April my project buddy ( I totally brought my camera and It DIDNT WORK! i think the battery is dead... darn! I had a yummy salad with a tiny slice of roast beef, glob of cottage cheese, kidney beans, carrots, cucumber, broccoli, celery, tomato, cauliflower, and two pieces of honeydew.... :-( sad face b/c i tried to take a pic! ) and... we scored an interviewee for our project!( interviewing a college freshman about their diet choices)

So... I wish I could take the exam right now and get it over with. I don't want to study much more because I feel like it would only jumble things up! I figured I could blog a little in my "spare time" and get my mind off the exam ( de-stressify!) I also brought gym clothes with me so I could de-stressify at the gym after this crazy week!

My next post I will type up info on :
glycogenesis ( the formation of glucose to glycogen)....
glycogenolysis ( the subsequent breakdown of glycogen back to glucose)..
glycolysis ( the breakdown of glucose to pyruvate),
the breakdown of pyruvate to Acetly CoA OR lactate ( which then get further broken down) and

.... PPP pentose phosphate pathway- which breaks down glucose into compounds that are then rebuilt back into glucose for the pathways above ( I know weird right? why break it down only to build it back up?)


And just a side note, THANK YOU , THANK YOU , THANK YOU! For all the wonderful comments, supportive feedback, etc. to my post last night. I was quite nervous about posting it because I would hate for people to be turned away by reading and knowing more about my history. I ultimately feel great about posting it, because it felt like I was finally letting my guard down. I love every single comment that I get, it makes me feel so fantastic to know other people pay attention to what I'm writing and it feels phenomenal.

Thank you everyone!

Nutrient Metabolism: Lipids!

Lipids!

We are finally on to lipids! Exam 2 will be on Glycolysis and the full break down of glucose up to the Krebb's Cycle, then we finished electron transport chain tonight and started Lipids!


So..
There are three major types of lipids:
1. Trigylcerides ( fatty acids)
2. Phospholipids
3. Sterols ( cholesterol, )

What the heck is a triglyceride? and What is a Fatty Acid?
Triglycerids are made of a glycerol "backbone" with three fatty acid chains attached to it.
(Glycerol II) ( fatty acid---)
II--------1
II--------2
II--------3

Fatty Acids are long chains of carbon, with hydrogen and oxygen attached to all the carbons.

-Saturated Fat is a long straight chain of carbons with NO double bonds between carbons

so C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C ( all the carbons are fully saturated with hydrogens)

-Unsaturated Fat is a long chain of carbons WITH double bonds between carbons...

so
(Methyl Group)- C-C-C=C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-(Carboxyl)

(attached bookend groups, the double bond prevents saturation of carbons)

The bookends: A carboxyl group on one end, and a methyl group on the other, are helpful in the naming the fatty acid.

So the above example has 11 Carbons, with 1 double bond, on the 3rd carbon from the left (methyl side) or if you count from the right (carboxyl side) the double bond is on the 8th carbon.

So the omega system name would be 11:1 omega-3 ( ring a bell... omega-3 fatty acids)
since you start from the methyl side

The Carboxyl side naming would be 11:1 delta 8
( the 11 carbon chain has 1 double bond on its 8th carbon)

So this gets a little trickier ... What is all the hype on Saturated Fats and Trans Fat?

Well.... unsaturated fats are bent because of the heavy double bonds... so if it has lots of double bonds it bends at each one, creating a compact curly-Q.... This polyunsaturated (many double bonds) is healthier for you because of this structure ( we haven't gotten to this yet..)

Trans Fat
Trans fat is actually an unsaturated fat from a vegetable source, so it has a double bond. So its supposed to be healthy, but good old USDA/conventional food production decides to use hydrogenation to increase shelf life of foods. So the process of hydrogenation un-bends this molecule so that it is in a straight, long chain like saturated fats ( so that it can have a longer shelf life like most saturated fats) . This is BAD news because not only is it recognized by your body as a "saturated fat".. it also causes your LDL the bad) cholesterol levels to increase and your good cholesterol (HDL) to decrease... not good!

Saturated Fats
Includes Palm Oil, Animal and Dairy sources
Like Trans fat, your body does not like this creature because of its structure , it tends to "block arteries" because its long straight chains..

Super Healthy Unsaturated Fats
DHA and EPA are fatty acids from fish oils but can also be found in eggs, flax oil, and seaweed... These are the healthiest unsaturated fats and have benefits including anti-inflamation, heart and brain functioning, and lowering cholesterol levels.

Thats just a wrap up from what I remembered without my notes. I am studying for my test so I will be posting more of my notes on glucose---> glucose-6-phosphate... then glucose-6-phosphate breakdown to pyruvate, then pyruvate breakdown to Acetyl CoA. I will also be posting on lactic acid and fructose breakdown!