Food is Fuel

...and you're body is a power plant. Think of it a lot like a steam engine when you fuel the fire in a steam engine there is more heat to create more steam and thus more power from the engine. The engine doesn't work unless there is fuel to burn. (for those of you who need a refresher on steam engines check out How Stuff Works)

The difference is that our bodies also have batteries. The problem being that the batteries for our body tend to come in the form of love-handles rather than the nice copper tops. That's right, fat is the human battery. It's the primary way that we store energy for using later and it's pretty stinking good at storing a lot of energy (we can talk more later about how fat really isn't a bad thing unless you have too much of it).

Food is fuel. Sounds great, but what does it really mean. It means that what you eat lets your body do what it needs to do. There are three main nutrients that give energy to your body, protein, fat and carbohydrate. There is potential energy stored up in all of the chemical bonds that exist in the foods you eat. When you eat, your body breaks those bonds and transfers the energy in them to make other molecules your body can use, primarily ATP. Don't worry that's about the end of the sciencey discussion for now. The bottom line being that if you don't eat, you don't get the energy you need to do the things you like to do like running, biking, swimming etc.

There are three main plans that your body has for the fuel you put into it: 1) turn it into glucose right away to maintain your blood sugar levels and feed your brain, 2) store some energy in small energy stores for muscles called glycogen so that your muscles have the immediate energy they need to do things like walk, jump, sit, stand, etc. and 3) store whatever is left as fat.

Your body's goal is always to use the fuel you give it, even if you give it too much. Now the trick is finding out how much fuel you need and to give yourself the right amount. A good place to start is by doing a simple calculation of a basal metabolic rate. There are lots of calculators on the internet that you can find which will help you do this. The basal metabolic rate really is just a starting point though, because this is the absolute minimum number of calories you need in a day. Which means that even someone who has a sedentary job will burn more calories than their BMR...albeit not a lot more. The more active you are the more calories you burn because your muscles are using more fuel. Makes enough sense, right? If you drove your car 100 miles a day it would need more gas than if you drove it 10 miles a day. It's the same idea. Some calculators will try to compensate for this by giving you an opportunity to estimate activity level, like this one I found or the Livestrong.com calorie calculator. These are only estimates, but they work fairly well.

Not all fuels are created equally, either because you are never getting just one nutrient from what you eat. This is a good thing too. Interestingly enough it is often found that natural whole foods frequently have a combination of nutrients and vitamins that complement each other in such a way to benefit your body. For instance, eating an orange or a bell pepper is a more efficient way for your body to obtain vitamin C than taking supplements...but now we're getting into vitamins and other add ons. They aren't really fuel, but they help your body do what it needs to do with the fuel. We'll leave that for later.

Ultimately you need to choose your fuel carefully. Most people would be quick to agree that eating all fat is no good, but eating all protein is also no good. Foods need to be balanced between nutrients (fat, protein and carbohydrate) and they need to be enough to meet your needs. A caloric deficit--which is what you usually aim for whenever you go on a diet--will make your body lose weight, but it will also stress your body. Remembering that food is fuel will help you realize that when you eat you should be considering the amount of energy you have used or will need to use. The key being balance and establishing a beneficial average quantity.

Until next time, fuel up!

Halloween is a little less scary now...

yeah, that's right. That's a real human skull for my homework.

I named him Fred the Head. No big deal.

An exercise in discipline

I recently gave a presentation at Wauwatosa East High School to a 10th grade health class about obesity in America and about childhood obesity in particular. The presentation ended with a challenge to the class to make a change in their lifestyle for 30 days that will help to keep them fit and healthy. Some of the options included: Eating smaller portions, walking/bike riding to school, doubling your water intake, sleeping 8-9 hours per night, not drinking soda etc.

I left thinking it was funny to challenge them and then not accept a similar challenge on my part. Studies have shown the impact that a community or social network have on the health of individuals in that network. It means that if two people in a group of 10 friends decide to quit smoking, the other 8 are more likely to quit smoking. Likewise if you are in a high school and 30 people in a class decide to stop drinking soda at lunch, the rest of the class is more likely to stop drinking soda. The opposite is true as well. It means that our community has profound effects on our health.

I decided that it would be silly to challenge them to improve their health and community's health without contributing to my own. So I chose two changes to make as well. The first is to drink 2 L of water a day. After the first couple days, during which I am sure I took at least 10 different trips to the bathroom, my body has gotten a little more used to it and it's going well. I actually noticed that I get less hungry during the day when I manage to reasonably space my portions out through the day. Additionally--and this may be pure coincidence--I am two pounds lighter than when I started this a week and a half ago or so. I've heard that staying hydrated actually keeps your body from storing excess water weight. It makes sense, but I didn't know if I actually believed it. So far, that seems to be true.

The other challenge I decided to accept was keeping a food journal. Talk about a Challenge with a capital 'C.' I did this for two months at the beginning of the year and counted calories in order to try and drop 5 pounds before starting the cycling season. And having done it once, I can honestly say that it is a very rewarding exercise no matter how demanding. You have the opportunity to go back and shine a light on your habits which can be a little embarrassing, but helpful regardless. For instance, I am learning right now that I have started eating dessert a bit more often than I used to (I wonder why...). However, I haven't been riding or exercising as much. Hmmm.... In my first journal I discovered that I don't eat veggies nearly as much as I should. It didn't have as much to do with my eating preferences as much as it did with when and where I would eat. Working in the evenings left me with fewer opportunities to cook dinner and in turn I ate fewer vegetables. Oops.

All this to say that we talk a lot about being healthy without ever taking the steps to become more healthy. As an amateur athlete and a future physician I would hate to be one talking about all the great strategies to be healthy without ever trying or employing them. So for now, I'm on the 30 day challenge along with several Milwaukee County high schoolers. Here's to making a positive change!

What you eat and what your body does with it...

Just a few weeks in a medical biochemistry class and it's hard not to think about what's going on inside of me and with my metabolism every time I sit down to eat. Better yet, though, it's hard not to think about how to better fuel myself when I ride/race/exercise.

With that said, I think that you will be in for some Biochemistry lessons over the course of the next several posts. I'll try to address carb metabolism, lipids (fats), a bit about protein and any other golden nuggets that I come along...and if you thought of McDonald's chicken nuggets when I said that, you might just want to tune in for more.

Nutrition science is pretty cool and I'll be sharing as I learn. Hopefully it's as cool to anyone who feels like reading as it is to me.

The coolest social network application ever!

One of my recent diversions from hard core science studying is to study Chinese. I know that doesn't sound like a break, but it's a good way to switch gears for a little while without completely shutting down my brain. My biggest challenge is finding people who speak Chinese that can help me learn. Do you find you have the same problem? I thought so...

Search no further! My favorite new website can help you out. It's called LiveMocha. It's genius. The idea is that you sign up to learn a language (there are tons of languages with 30-40 lessons to learn from) and at the same time designate any languages that you speak. Someone like me for instance signs up to learn Chinese and tells everyone else that I am a native English speaker.

Now here's the REALLY cool part. As I do my lessons I have two assignments to submit, a speaking and a writing exercise. After I submit them they go out to the native/fluent Mandarin Chinese speakers to correct. Within a couple hours I can have anywhere from 2-5 different reviews from other users. The same works in reverse. Members learning English submit their lessons and I have the opportunity to grade them. It's way cool! As you go and contribute to the community, you earn points that give you further access to more learning tools.

Check it out. You never know, maybe you'll be speaking Bangladeshi by the end of the week.