Diet: The Biochemistry of foods

Few facts about the major types of food:

Protein: requirement-5%-9% of daily calories, it's broken into amino acids.

• Lectin: proteins that bind to carbohydrates. The same features that lectins use to defend plants in nature may cause problems during human digestion, lectins break by pressure cooking. Common sources-tomato, potato, legumes

Hormones: In stress/long fasting (high cortisol+ adrenalin level+ maybe ghrelin which is hunger hormone)= Increases the intake of food high in fat & sugar. 

• Leptin- satiety hormone (should be high), hormone sensitive lipase (should be activated)
• tyrosine/dopamine-helps in motivation, risk taking

Fats: 

• Visceral (bad) & Subcutaneous (good), muscle burnt first then fat generally, Trans fat (synthetic) increases visceral. Liver exports some excess fat into free fatty acids which cause muscle insulin resistance, also some fat can't get out of liver & results in fatty liver disease. Fats & fibers don't trigger insulin.
• Gluconeogenesis occurs principally in the liver and kidneys; e.g., the synthesis of blood glucose from lactate in the liver is a particularly active process during recovery from intense muscular exertion.
• Saturated v Unsaturated: It means saturated with Hydrogen, in unsaturated there are double bonds and unsaturated/poly-unsaturated is usually good for us & has less shelf life. Fish oil has 5-6 double bond, omega-6 has 2 double bonds. 
• Nuts: Walnut has omega-3 & omega-6, all other nuts only has omega-6 only, soaking neutralizes phytates & enzyme inhibitors.

• Cooking oils: Olive oil is mono-unsaturated, Palm oil has saturated fatty acid, vegetable oil is guaranteed to be highly processed & processed oils have been pushed past their heat tolerance and have become rancid in the processing, cold pressed oils are good like avocado or walnut.

Alcohol:10% of it is metabolized in brain, 80% in liver, acetaldehyde> ROS (reactive Oxygen species)-damages protein+ acetate which eventually converts to VLDL. Fructose also has similar effects-video

Carbs/Insulin: 3 main types of carbohydrates are sugars, starches, and fiber. White sugar is 1:1 glucose-fructose, Fiber in fruit makes it easier to digest. Every calorie is not the same specially from sugar- Robert Lustig

• Glucose: They are simple carbs. Insulin escorts glucose into muscle cell, if fat in muscle cell increase then difficulty in glucose entering muscle cell. Most glucose stored as glycogen rest goes to pyruvate, converts into citrate & it enters mitocondria & after burning results in ATP, novo lipogenesis (new fat genesis) process-storing it as fat then it converts into VLDL. 20% of total made it to liver, 50% glycogen, ~2-3% VLDL fat. 
• Fructose: They are simple carbs. 100% fructose processed in liver, it forms xylulose 5-phosphate & that accelerates novo lipogenesis+ uric acid.
• Fiber: It's a complex carb. Fiber helps slow down the digestion process which allows food to slowly break down and not become sugar as quick. They help the body maintain blood sugars levels, so they will not spike.
• Starch: It's a complex carb, there are resistance & regular starch.  Unlike fiber, starch is slowly digested by the body and becomes blood glucose that is absorbed into the bloodstream
  
• Insulin resistance: cells start rejecting insulin to enter from carbs
• Glycemic index is a system of assigning a number to carbs containing foods according to how much each food increases blood sugar, <55 is good
• Avg blood glucose level (HbA1c/A1c)-should be below 5.7%, it tells if you're pre-diabetic/diabetic
• No more than 50gm sugar in a day for avg male, an ice-cream has ~21-22gm sugar/100 gm, carb: fiber ratio in food should be <5
• Sugar is as addictive as cocaine

Muscle: it has mitochondria, exercise means more mito so more energy burn

Cholesterol: fat-like substance made in the liver, and found in the blood and in all cells of the body. Cholesterol is important for good health and is needed for making cell walls, tissues, hormones, vitamin D, and bile acid

Vitamin D: it's actually a harmone because our body can produce it

Milk: Metabolic acidosis due to milk so we should drink fat-free milk, soy & oat milk might be more healthy & for sure more environment friendly than cow milk

Eggs: pasture raised is best

Glucosinolates: found in cabbage family, it detoxifies liver 

Ergothioneine: found only in mushrooms, anti-aging properties

Exercise: boosts brain activity

Endothelial cells: They're pivotal to applications related to wound healing, angiogenesis, inflammatory processes, blood brain barriers, diabetes and other cardiovascular diseases. Since the circulatory system lines the entire body, endothelial research is tied to many diseases, which are top-funded research areas. For this reason, dysfunction of endothelial cells has implications in diabetes, pulmonary diseases, inflammatory diseases, cardiovascular diseases

Intermittent fasting: Insulin retains sodium/salt, glucagon functions opposite to insulin which is secreted after few hours then ketone bodies. Fasting boosts mitochondria activity

Grains: whole grain means fibre+ bran+ germ

Nutrient partitioning

Evolutionary instincts: In nature poisonous things are not sweet so our brain started liking sweet.

Stem cells: the body's raw materials- cells from which all other cells with specialized functions are generated, organs can be developed with stem cells. The process of stopping cell division-cell senescent

• Epigenetics- mechanism which modify DNA or proteins around which DNA is wrapped. epigenetic mechanism inactivate genes (this is called Acetylation) which  makes cell age.
• Sirtuins are proteins in cell which modify epigenetic landscape-molecule NMN boosts sirtuin activity and reverses age 

Telomeres (2009 Nobel): protect the end of chromosomes (which is made of DNA) & DNA is inside cell nucleus, mitochondria doesn't work properly in old age, quality check in body which ensures the same also doesn't work 

Telomerase (enzyme): An enzyme in cells that helps keep them alive by adding DNA to telomeres (the ends of chromosomes). Each time a cell divides, the telomeres lose a small amount of DNA and become shorter. Over time, the chromosomes become damaged and the cells die.

Brain cells: glial cells cleans plaque in brain during deep sleep. brain plasticity- more tasks create more connections between brain cells

 
References:

Percent of GDP spent on food: US is lowest at 7%, India 35%-https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/12/this-map-shows-how-much-each-country-spends-on-food/

Intermittent fasting, hopkins article, snacking article, hepatic insulin resistence, gylcemic index

Chris Gardner-Stanford

Cancer study in China in 70's-Junshi chen and in 2005 another china study-Dr. Colin Campbell.

Mark Mattson (John hopkins): studied IF 25 years 

Fork over knives: Matt laderman/ Alona Pulde

Foods That Cure Disease: good carbs v bad, nitrates/nitric oxide (opens arteries)-ORAC foods-beet, vegetables, Predimed study

That sugar film

Fed Up

Lentils: Miracle of nutrition

Prescription: Nutrition 

Eating Our Way To Extinction

The Fantastical World of Hormones (with John Wass): Frederick Banting (founder of Insulin)

Bien nourrir son cerveau (french): It's about mind-food connection