Knowing how the food you eat becomes energy can help you make better food and meal choices. The food you eat is generally from one of three categories: protein, fats or lipids and polysaccharides, also called complex carbohydrates. There are three...
When carbohydrates are ingested, they must be broken down into glucose so the body can use them. The primary function of glucose in the body is to synthesize adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to provide energy for the cells of the body. ATP is the...
Creatine aids the body in both cell protection and energy stabilization through its natural chemical processes and is produced in the liver, kidneys and pancreas. Creatine is obtained from dietary protein, but 95 percent of the body's creatine is...
When your cells metabolize sugar to get energy, they start by using glycolysis, a pathway that breaks glucose molecules down into pyruvate. As long as oxygen is available, they follow up with cellular respiration, which oxidizes the pyruvate to...
Aerobic respiration is a biological process that takes energy from glucose and other organic compounds to create a molecule called Adenosine TriPhosphate (ATP). ATP is then used as energy by nearly every cell in the body--the largest user being...
During exercise, fat stored in adipose tissues and muscle fibers is broken down into fatty acids and glycerol, the basic compounds of fatty acids. Then they are released into the bloodstream to be taken up by muscle cells where the fatty acids are...
The macronutrients carbohydrate and protein are metabolized differently once you ingest them. Although both these nutrients have an energy value of 4 kilocalories per gram, the route that each take varies greatly. These nutrients provide you with...
Just as the human body has individual organs the carry out specific functions and work together, the body's cells have parts dedicated to specific functions. These parts are called organelles, which means "little organs." Many of the organelles...
Glutathione is a peptide polymer composed of the amino acids glutamate, cysteine and glycine. A peptide is similar to a protein in that it is composed of amino acids linked by bonds, but peptides are shorter molecules. Although all cells in the...
Pyruvic acid is defined as an alpha keto-acid because it contains a ketone bond -- a carbon molecule double bonded to an oxygen molecule, along with a carbon atom bonded to an acid group. The chemical formula CH3COCOOH represents pyruvic acid....
Enzymes are proteins that function to break down other molecules and speed up chemical reactions in the body. Each type of enzyme is highly specific, functioning in a particular way or acting on a certain molecule. Liver and muscle enzymes are...
Inositol is a water-soluble carbohydrate that is classified as a tangential member of the B-vitamin family. It is structurally similar to sugar; however, it is only slightly sweet and has a different physiological role. It is widely found in your...
Vitamin E may help improve or maintain healthy circulation by affecting cholesterol and blood clotting activity in your blood vessels. Vitamin E also has antioxidant properties that may inhibit the onset of atherosclerosis, a condition that occurs...
Diabetes is becoming more common globally, with some experts predicting a doubling of worldwide diabetes cases in the three decades between 2000 and 2030. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projects a similar trend for the United...
The health enhancing micronutrients in fish and krill oil are omega-3 fatty acids, which are a type of essential fatty acid that are a type of vitamin. Technically, a vitamin is any organic substance the human body needs for proper functioning and...
Many health experts are adding blueberries to their list of super foods, including a team of USDA nutritionists reporting in the "Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry," who placed both wild and cultivated blueberries as two of their top five...
