Lecture 4A page 2

The Video Clip says that glycogen is important to provide fuel when you don't eat. Could you add to your notes that glycogen is important to provide fuel as glucose (for the brain & nervous system) when you don't eat

The body can make glycogen from eating foods rich in starch and sugar. As mentioned before, WHOLE foods are the best ones to eat to get this sugar and starch because they also provide fiber, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals.

Read through the remainder of the Glycogen part of page 46 in your packet. An important point is that although glycogen is in BOTH the muscles & the liver, the glycogen in only ONE of those places can get into the blood and travel. Therefore only one of those places can provide glucose to the brain.

From looking at the Video Clip above, you should be able to describe how glycogen is different than starch in structure, which is one of the questions on page 46 in your packet.

The Video Clip below should help complete page 46 in your packet, although some of the answers come in the text after the Video Clip.

In your Lecture Outline under 3(a) near the bottom of page 46 it asks what the purpose in a plant is of cellulose. That purpose in a plant is structure. Since all plants need structure, cellulose (the main kind of insoluble fiber) can be found in ALL whole plant foods.

Something like white flour is made by many siftings that separate the fiber-rich bran and germ. White flour is the low-fiber endosperm of the plant.

In your Lecture Outline under 3(b) at the bottom of page 46 it says that pectin & gums are examples of soluble fibers. Another example to write there is inulin (Notice there's no"s" in that word. It is not the same thing as what diabetics lack.) More later about inulin.

3(b) also asks if anything happens to pectin & gums so something can get into our blood. The answer is "no". Pectin and gums are fibers and are therefore not broken apart by human enzymes.

The chart on page 65 of your packet lists why it's good for us to eat foods with cellulose and you can write that in your Lecture Outline under 3(a) on page 46 when it asks why it's good for us to eat foods with insoluble fiber. On page 65 it's called "HEALTH BENEFITS".

Take a look again at page 65 in your packet and write these HEALTH BENEFITS of soluble fiber on your lecture outline on the bottom of page 46 of your packet under 3(b) where it asks why it's good for us to eat foods with soluble fiber.


The primary type of fiber in wheat bran is insoluble/nonviscous fiber. That type of fiber can decrease risk of CONSTIPATION.	Oat bran has a lot of soluble/viscous fiber. That type of fiber can decrease risk of HEART DISEASE.

At the very bottom of page 46, your lecture outline asks, "What are the most nutritious foods to eat to get fiber?".

In my opinion, the answer is a variety of WHOLE foods, such as whole grains, dried beans and peas, nuts, fruits, and vegetables.

Another important reason to enjoy foods with soluble fiber pertains to the role of some of them as having probiotics, something there has been a growing interest in.

Controversy 2 of Nutrition Concepts and Controversies defines probiotics as "consumable products containing live microorganisms in sufficient numbers to alter the bacterial colonies of the body in ways believed to benefit health". The vast majority of probiotics are bacteria and many of the health benefits are due to their effects on intestinal health.

A prebiotic (as opposed to a probiotic) is a substance that may not be digestible by the host, such as soluble fiber, but serves as food for probiotic bacteria and thus promotes their growth.

Wheat, chicory, bananas, onions, leeks, Jerusalem artichokes, asparagus, and garlic contain prebiotics that can be extracted from them.

Prebiotics have become popular food additives. The most commonly used prebiotic additives are inulin and oligofructose, which can both be classified as fibers.

At the top of page 47 in your packet it says a possible third type of fiber is emerging and that is resistant starch, which resists digestion, like fiber. It is discussed on page 114 in the 10th edition and page 119 in the 11th edition.

It is thought to deliver some of the benefits of insoluble fiber and some of the benefits of soluble fiber.

Above is a 10-grain hot cereal from Bob's Red Mill, a Portland company. Notice its high fiber content. You can click on it (or the pear image) to see the larger image.

One pear (above) has the same amount of dietary fiber as the serving of the 10-grain hot cereal.

These saltines are made from wheat flour, but it's not WHOLE wheat. Notice the fiber content.

ONE FINAL NOTE ABOUT FIBER

This is an interesting controversy some of you may be interested in:

"Energy independence must start at local level", Guest Viewpoint by Martin Jack Desmond, The Register-Guard, April 20, 2008. This column mentions the technology that now exists to convert the energy in cellulose (one of the types of insoluble fiber mentioned above) into ethanol to fuel cars.

some excerpts:

"Cellulosic ethanol facilities using woody biomass are now being built in Georgia, Louisiana, New York and Michigan."

"More than half of Oregon’s 29.7 million acres of forest lands are at moderate to high risk of wildfire danger. There are approximately 436 million bone-dry tons of excess forest biomass in Oregon’s forests".

"...what is important for us in Lane County and Oregon is to encourage local entrepreneurial development and ownership of facilities to convert both woody and agricultural biomass to biofuels."

"Here’s a bad idea: Gas from trees", Guest Viewpoint by Josh Schlossberg, The Register-Guard, April 27, 2008.

some excerpts:

... "thinning (or any form of logging, really) can worsen the risk of fire by increasing sunlight, which dries fuels, and by allowing more wind to enter a stand, which hastens the spread of fire."

... "belongs in the forest as a source of future soil nutrients"

instead of trying for a 'green gasoline', "let’s increase corporate average fuel economy standards to 50 miles per gallon or lower the speed limit to 55 and save more gas than we could ever squeeze from the Northwest’s forests."

let's "commit to fundamental changes, such as designing greener, more livable cities so fewer people will need to commute to and from suburbs, and cut back on the shipping of food and other products by localizing production."

"Biomass group working to find local solutions to global problems", Guest Viewpoint by Eric Bowman, The Register-Guard, May 7, 2008.

some excerpts:

"The study group has been interviewing community stakeholders such as local environmental organizations, financiers and small woodlands owners to find out what’s on people’s minds. We’ll continue to conduct a series of outreach events. Additionally, we recently began working with the Oregon Seed Council to explore technologies that offer alternatives to field burning."

"As an alliance, we found a lot of common ground with each other and seek to do the same with communities and groups in the southern Willamette Valley. Let’s start there and build, as opposed to focusing on old, tired conflicts. We can fight and fight until everybody loses, or we can engage one another to explore solutions."

Georgia Plant Is First for Making Ethanol from Waste by Kathleen Schalch, All Things Considered, National Public Radio, November 5, 2007. "Not all ethanol is created equal. Scientists say the real hope for curbing greenhouse gas emissions and pursuing energy independence lies in cellulosic ethanol. That's ethanol that could be brewed from things like corn stalks, straw, wood chips — things we normally throw away."

END OF LECTURE 4A. (If you skipped ahead while waiting for a Video Clip to download, remember to return to it.)
Now you're ready for LECTURE 4B.


	This is a 1984 label. You can click see on this to see a larger image.
	I find it interesting that in 1984, they did mention the starch content on this label.