here’s a couple of words you might finduseful in the study of human metabolism. they also happen to be two words that i enjoyin general. brunch. buffet. i’d throw in “all you can eat,†butthat’s kind of implied, and then it would be six words, unless you hyphenate them. butstill, brunch buffet!
crash diets good for you, you’ve got eggs and bacon and french toastand biscuits and fruit and some kind of weird sort of jello thing in there. and once you’vepaid your twelve-ninety-nine, you know there’s a pretty good chance that it’s all gonnaget eaten. but here’s the thing.
not everything that you fit into your faceduring brunch-time is going to be handled the same way by your body. after you’re done digesting, some nutrientswill go straight to your body’s pile of stuff to burn right away. but others willhave to be converted into something else. for example, the carbs and fats in your butteredtoast can be directly oxidized into useable energy, but the amino acids in the bacon haveto converted to molecules that get broken down like carbs, if you want to get energyout of them. and while excess carbs and fat can be storedin larger, polymer versions of their original forms, any extra amino acids can’t be -- they have tobe converted and then stored as fat or glycogen.
so, as i’ve mentioned before, the moleculesin your body are constantly changing shape, and renewing and rearranging themselves toeither build things or to use energy. and eating food replenishes these nutrients-- especially glucose. then, depending on what your body needs, and when you last ate,certain hormones like insulin will help decide what to burn, and what to store for later. this, of course, is an important function.which is why things can go badly if this process doesn’t work properly because of a metabolicdisorder, like diabetes. in that case, your body can’t properly useand store nutritional energy, which makes the very acts of eating and metabolizing moredifficult, and possibly dangerous.
exactly how glucose levels can spike or plummet,how we convert nutrients into energy, and how all of that that relates to eating, andhunger, and weight, metabolism, and your health in general is -- guess what? -- complicated. but as you are a living thing that must eatin order to stay alive, i’d say it’s worth learning how it works. and brunch is as good a place to start asany. waiting in line for the all-you-can-eat brunchbuffet is a good time to recall the law of conservation of energy. the law simply states that energy can neverbe created or destroyed; it can only change forms.
and the processes of metabolism involves conversionsof energy -- either through catabolizing reactions that release the energy stored in your food,or anabolizing ones that use or store that energy. so, you can enjoy your short-stack of flapjacksand biscuits and gravy, but remember: that energy has to either get released, or stored,somewhere inside you. now, the conversion of food energy is partof the great balancing act that is maintaining homeostasis, and one of its greatest tricksis cellular respiration. cellular respiration is how we derive energyfrom the food we eat, specifically glucose, which is where most of our food ends up. in order for glucose to become energy we canuse, we have to to give it some oxygen, and
convert each sugar molecule into six moleculesof co2, and six molecules of water, which usually produces about 32 molecules of atp. cellular respiration occurs in three simultaneousphases, where glucose is broken down by glycolysis and other catabolic reactions; and then turnedinto pyruvic acid and acetyl coa; and finally ushered into the kreb’s cycle. it’s all pretty complicated, but we coveredit extensively in crash course biology, so rather than getting into the blow-by-blow here, irecommend you check out that video for a refresher. for now, just remember that cellular respirationbreaks down nutrient molecules to generate atp. and in doing so, it captures some ofthe chemical energy that was in those bonds
for use in your body. now, when it comes to how that energy is convertedand where, that depends largely on when you ate your last meal. we all switch back and forth between two nutritionalstates -- the absorptive, or fed state -- which is during or after eating -- and the postabsorptive,or fasting state, when the gi tract is empty and the body is running off of stored supplies. so, say you’re just post brunch-buffet,and you’re still in the absorptive state, unbuckling your belt as your digestive systembreaks up the eggs and bacon and french toast and syrup into a bunch of mostly-glucose moleculesthat pass into your bloodstream.
the first bit of glucose gets delivered throughoutthe body and is tapped to generate atp on the spot, through cellular respiration. but since the meal was big and rich, there’smore glucose floating around than your cells need at the moment. and remember, atp is too unstable to be usedfor storage, which means all the extra glucose is gonna get stored as fat or glycogen. and that storage is part of how you can endup gaining weight!. because: how much energy gets stored dependspartly on your basal metabolic rate -- that’s the number of daily calories your body needsto do business as usual.
and that rate can be influenced by your age,your sex, and body size or composition. a young bodybuilder is gonna burn way more caloriesthan that tiny grandma, but generally, if you’re absorbing more nutrients than you’reburning, you will gain weight. so yeah, for that you can blame the law ofconservation of energy. now, of course all nutrients are important.i mean, your body is basically made of protein, so that’s kinda key. but in terms of immediate fuel, glucose isthe easiest source of food for cells like your neurons. and it is always good policyto keep your brain well-fed, so it doesn’t get hangry, or dead.
so, your body likes to maintain a blood glucoselevel of 70 to 100 milligrams per deciliter. but let’s say that, thanks to the buffet,you’ve now got 140 milligrams per deciliter. this means too much sugar is swimming aroundin your blood, and your body isn’t happy about it. if your blood sugar levels get too high, itcan damage blood vessels, especially those in the nervous system, heart, kidneys, eyes,and extremities. that’s why diabetes is often associatedwith a higher risk of heart and kidney disease, loss of vision, and foot amputation. but typically, rising blood sugar levels setsoff a series of events that trim them back down. specifically, they trigger special beta cellsin the pancreas to start secreting more of
the hormone that regulates everything thathappens when you’re in the absorptive state. and this hormone is the all-powerful insulin. insulin’s job in this instance is to moveglucose out of the blood and into storage. and to do that, it triggers a shift from catabolicreactions to anabolic ones. for example, it puts a stop to glycogenolysis,or breaking down glycogen in your liver and muscles to release glucose for energy, andinstead ramps up the process of glycogenesis, where extra glucose is linked together toform glycogen. it also activates lipogenesis, where verycool chemical reactions in the liver convert glucose to triglycerides and then ship themoff to your adipose tissue for storage.
a similar thing happens with the extra fattyacids that you got from the eggs and bacon that aren’t immediately needed for energy. they get processed through lipogenesis, too,and are rebuilt back into triglycerides, and then tucked away for a rainy day. the thing is, if you’re thinking about this, all theselipids hate water, right? fat and water don’t mix. so you should be asking yourself, how can they betransported in the blood, when they’re so hydrophobic? the answer is lipoproteins, four specializedproteins made by the liver that surround fats and allow them to move in the bloodstreamas an emulsion. you’ve probably heard of some of these.one is low density lipoprotein -- also known as
ldl cholesterol. it’s what delivers some of the glucoseand fat that you just ate to your body’s fat deposits. another is high density lipoprotein -- orhdl cholesterol, which is the “good†cholesterol. it starts out as an empty protein packet sentout by the liver to gather up other cholesterols from the blood, and artery walls, and othercells. hdl then delivers the cholesterol back tothe liver, or to places like the ovaries, testes, and adrenal glands, which use it tomake steroid hormones. alright, so now your body has put all theglucose and lipids and proteins where they need to go, and you can just coast into thepostabsorptive state. but several hours later, even though yoursmall intestine is still working on what’s
left of the buffet, your cells have been helpingthemselves to the remaining glucose in theblood, and eventually your blood sugar level willstart to drop. remember, your neurons are on an exclusiveglucose meal plan, so they need sugar at the ready. and if your body senses an imbalancein blood sugar levels, it sounds the alarm. a decrease in glucose stimulates alpha cellsin the pancreas to release insulin’s nemesis, the hormone glucagon. it starts raising the blood sugar level, bytriggering the liver and adipose tissues to metabolize their fat and glycogen stores,thereby releasing fatty acids, glycerol, and glucose back into the blood.
but if it’s been a day or two since you’ve eaten --for some reason -- and you’ve burned through both your blood glucose and your glycogen stores,and you don’t have any sugars left to feed your brain? in that case, your body will launch into gluconeogenesis,and convert fats and amino acids into glucose, so atp synthesis can continue in your braincells. this process is a sort of last-ditch effortby the body to protect the nervous system from the damaging effects of low blood sugar. now, of course, this whole system has flaws.and one of them is that the whole setup is almost entirely dependent on the proper releaseand reception of insulin. people with diabetes either don’t produceenough insulin, or have abnormal receptors
for it, which is why they often have to inject apharmaceutical version of the chemical after eating. otherwise, their blood sugar levels will remaintoo high after eating, and they’ll start peeing out large amounts of glucose to tryand balance the levels in their blood. the problem is, because glucose is being excretedand not stored, it’s not available when the blood sugar starts to drop, so the bodyhas to draw on fat and protein tissues for energy -- which is one reason why sudden weightloss can be an early sign of diabetes. whether you’re diabetic or not, i thinkwe can all agree it is important to respect your blood sugar levels, and remember to continuefeeding the beast. but, at brunch, just -- you know -- use smallplates, and try to keep the trips to the buffet
to under five or so. today, you learned how your body uses energyfrom food -- including through cellular respiration, which converts glucose into atp; glycogenesis,which converts it to glycogen; and lipogenesis, which converts it to triglycerides. and youalso learned how insulin regulates your sugar levels. thank you to our headmaster of learning, linneaboyev, and thanks to all of our patreon patrons whose monthly contributions help make crashcourse possible, not only for themselves, but for everyone, everywhere. if you likecrash course and want to help us keep making videos like this one, you can go to patreon.com/crashcourse.
this episode was filmed in the doctor cherylc. kinney crash course studio, it was written by kathleen yale, edited by blake de pastino,and our consultant is dr. brandon jackson. it was directed by nicholas jenkins, editedby nicole sweeney; our sound designer is michael aranda, and the graphics team is thought cafe.
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