Carbohydrates —The carbohydrates are the starches and sugars. The starches become sugars in the process of digestion. The carbohydrates are the most economical energy foods, but they are not all handled in the human body with the same facility. Starch is the form in which plants store the largest part of their carbohydrate material. It represents from one-half to three-fourths of the solid matter of the common cereal grains, and at least three-fourths of the solid matter of mature potatoes. Unripe apples and bananas contain much starch which is converted largely into sugar as they ripen, and young corn and peas contain sugar which is converted largely into starch as they ripen. Starch is a polysaccharide, and some sugars are disaccharides, and in the process of digestion these must be converted into glucose which is a monosaccharide. Glucose, or blood sugar, is the form in which the carbohydrates commonly are carried in the blood stream. Fructose, which is contained in the juices of many plants and fruits and in honey, and galactose which is produced in the digestion of milk, are other monosaccharides which are readily converted into glucose. Also they are handled to some extent in the blood stream after the manner of glucose. And glucose itself is widely distributed, being abundantly present in plant and fruit juices, usually in association with fructose and sucrose. It may constitute 20% by weight of grapes; and unripe potatoes, onions and sweet corn are rich in it. Mention of chemical technicalities would be unpardonable in a work of this kind were it not so important to point out that sucrose, commonly called cane sugar, which is obtained commercially from sugar beets, sorghum canes, sugar maple, the sugar palm and sugar cane is a disaccharide which neither the saliva or gastric juice is capable of converting into glucose. Sucrose to be handled must be acted upon by the hydrochloric acid of the stomach, or split by the sucrose of the intestinal juice into glucose and fructose which are then readily absorbed into the blood. People with a prominent Venus crave sweets. But they may not be able completely to digest cane sugar and some forms of starch if Venus is also afflicted. Furthermore, if Jupiter is prominent and afflicted, too much of the sweets, and particularly those made from cane sugar, may lead to an impure blood stream and blemishes, such as pimples, which mar the complexion, or to the development of diabetes. This because of inadequate insulin supply to handle the great demands made upon it. In the process of digestion both the starches and sugars must be converted into monosaccharides so the blood stream can handle them. These monosaccharides are all soluble, crystallizable, diffusible substances not acted upon by the digestive enzymes. They thus quickly find their way into the blood to be burned for fuel or stored. As they are soluble, if left in this state they would be washed out of the body in the urine. Instead they are converted into a form of animal starch called glycogen, which is colloidal and not soluble. Thus the sugar in the blood remains constant at about I part in 1000 and the glycogen formed from some of the excess is stored in small amounts in the muscles and other active tissues, and specifically in the liver, which is the emergency fuel bin of the body. Yet as the amount of glycogen the body can thus store for emergency use is limited, the sugar of the blood also combines with fatty acids to produce fat which enters into tissue formation as a reserve fuel supply. Proteins —For years a vigorous controversy has raged among the dietetic experts as to the amount of protein that should be consumed. The Battle Creek health experts show that for tissue repair there is required about 1.3 calories of protein per pound of body weight per day. Thus a man of 150 pounds should eat 200 calories, or about 1 ½ ounces of protein per day. And they hold he should eat little more than this because protein, unlike the carbohydrates which are stored as fat, are not stored, but that any excess must be eliminated. Eliminating such excesses overworks the kidneys and liver and clogs the tissues. They believe that the system should get from some source an adequate amount, and little more, of protein. If 1 ½ ounces of protein is all that is required each day for a man of 150 pounds it may be obtained from any of the following: 9½ oz. walnuts, 8½ oz. almonds, 4½ oz. soy beans, 7 oz. peanuts, 8 oz. beans or peas, 3½ pints of milk, or an 8 oz. porterhouse steak. In one way at least, the vegetable and dairy proteins are superior to those derived from meat. Meat proteins are accompanied by putrefactive bacteria which in time tend to injure the colon. On the other hand some people who handle the meat proteins readily have digestive systems that find trouble in handling beans, peas, nuts and peanuts and some are even allergic to milk. At the opposite extreme of the protein controversy are the dietetic standards of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They hold that the optimum of protein intake for a man is about 3 ½ ounces per day. The man they consider may be larger, and they specify that he is in full vigor and engaged in moderate muscular work. They estimate that of the food consumed about 95% is digested, and that such a man should develop 3,200 calories. A man leading a sedentary life uses some 2,500 calories, mostly derived from fats and carbohydrates. At hard work he burns about 4,000 calories, and at excessively hard labor, such as a stevedore sometimes performs, he may use 7,000 calories per day, and in all day racing contests possibly 10,000 calories or more. Based on the high protein intake advocated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a man doing light work requiring a little less than 2,800 calories needs 3½ oz. proteins, yielding 406 calories, 3½ oz. fats, yielding 920 calories, and 12½ oz. carbohydrates, yielding 1,140 calories. However, this takes no account of individual differences in ability to use protein not merely for tissue building, but also as a fuel which stimulates the burning of fat and sugar at a higher rate than when protein is not present. People vary in marked degree in the amount of stimulation which is thus caused by the protein foods. The proteins themselves are ruled by Mars, but those with strong thyroid and front pituitary glands (Sun) increase their ability to burn sugar and fat conspicuously after eating proteins. Those with weak thyroid and front pituitary secretions show almost no increase in the ability to handle the other fuels as a result of protein stimulation. Certain people remain thin, even when unemployed, no matter how much they eat, because the added protein stimulates them to greater burning of sugar and fat. The stimulating effect of protein in the diet ordinarily raises the fuel consumption three times a day by twenty to forty percent above normal But in these constitutionally thin people, Plaut found, by his experiments, that the fuel consumption thus increased from forty-eight to sixty-three percent. That is, the increase in the combustion of fuel due to protein stimulation was from one-hundred to two-hundred percent above that of the average person. On the other hand, the people who remain fat, even when doing the hardest physical work, do not react to the proteins by extra burning of fuel. The proteins do not have any pronounced stimulating effect upon them. Fats —Fat from a calorie point of view is the most economical food, one pound being the equivalent in fuel value of 21/2 pounds either of the proteins or the carbohydrates. But fat, when eaten, must be subjected to a treatment in the process of digestion which splits it up into fatty acids and glycerol, even though these shortly recombine into neutral fat which is carried by the blood in tiny particles to the tissues. Some digestive systems, such as those of the Eskimos, are able to digest large quantities of fat; and others, such as some of the lean people we know, are unable to assimilate fat in any quantity, while still others find even a little extra fat in the food overworks their digestive powers. Nevertheless, in one pat of butter there is energy enough that if used will enable a man to walk more than a mile. And this one pat of butter a day, in excess of what a man actually burns, if assimilated as it commonly is in those people with a tendency to become fat, in the course of some years will double his weight. Now to burn sugar in the body requires a relatively small amount of oxygen. That is, it will burn in a small draft. But fat requires more oxygen, and is slow burning. It is a reserve fuel, and only burns when there is sufficient sugar present to burn with it. The sugar acts like kindling, and the fat burns as long as there is adequate sugar, yet when the sugar gets low the fat does not burn completely, but just smolders. Diacetic and other fatty acids thus incompletely burned are added to the blood stream, and these narcotic and poisonous fatty acids accumulate throughout the body, producing ketosis, which is one form of acidosis. Ketosis is not brought on through lack of minerals, although in this instance as well as in the mineral-poor acidosis, the acid-alkali balance of the system is upset. It is due to a diet too high in fat in relation to sugar, or to inability to burn enough sugar effectively to take care of the fat combustion. This condition is promoted by the thought-cell activity mapped by an afflicted Jupiter, which encourages the use of too much of certain rich foods in proportion to the basic body chemistry. This state of affairs, often observed in overly-fat people, causes them to be chronically tired even when doing nothing. In fact, they often feel greater fatigue when they do nothing than when they work hard, because the exercise brings about better combustion and helps to remove the excess acids through better elimination. Elbert Benjamine
Posted on: Sat, 23 Nov 2013 21:02:59 +0000
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