Carbohydrates Vs Lipids

Yesterday we got through most of our discussion on Carbohydrates and that is why I based today's daily questions on that.

Wednesday September 19^th

Carbohydrates are made up of what three elements in what ratio? Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen in a 1:2:1 Ratio (Remember, Carbohydrate literally means "Water" of Carbon, for every Carbon atom there is 2Hydrogen and 1Oxygen (H2O) )

What could you infer about a carbohydrate that has 12 Carbons (such as sucrose)'s chemical Formula?

That it would be C12H24O12 (1:2:1 ratio)  We see that in fact sucrose's chemical formula is ACTUALLY C12H22O11 due to how it all bonds together, which is CLOSE to the 1:2:1 ratio but that will not always be exact)

Other than a source of energy – what other function do carbohydrates have?

It acts as structural support to plants (in the form of cellulose) and certain insect's shells.

It also acts as a "name tag" attached to the cell membrane of EACH of our cells identifying which cell's in our body they are AND WHOSE they are (which is why organ transplants are so complicated!!!)

Which can store more energy Carbohydrates or lipids?

LIPIDS!!! Why?!?!  Take a look at the following two molecules

Lipid

Glucose

You can see there lipid molecules are made up of MANY more Carbon-Hydrogen bonds and energy is released when bonds are broken.  Because of this, lipids have the ability to STORE more energy - than carbohydrates but the problem is, it is harder to GET to that energy and our bodies will work through our glucose stores FIRST.

To put this in "real" terms I mentioned to you guys today about my upcoming marathon and how generally I hit the "wall" around mile 21 or so (it STARTS around mile 18 and progressively gets worse)  The BIOLOGICAL reason behind the "wall" is, at that point I have pretty much used up ALL my glucose stores and my body is breaking WHATEVER biological molecules it can apart in order to release energy.  Which means PROTEINS (like in my MUSCLES) are getting tore apart to get energy. THIS is kind of what mile 21 sometimes looks like (this was my FIRST marathon - they have got much better since then ;)  Here is a link that describes it in even more detail. http://www.marathonandbeyond.com/choices/latta.htm 

Mile 21 in my FIRST marathon

Mile 23 in the last marathon I ran (yep - sporting
my Ellwood Gear!!)

After this we continued through the notes on lipids and started into the differences between saturated and unsaturated fats.  We will hopefully be starting a activity on this stuff by friday.

Great Job today guys!!