Biology of Food - Personal Statement Example

C105 Biology of Food The main purpose of eating food is to supply constant energy to our body and cells to work in proper manner. Every type of food contains some or all the basic nutrients that are converted by our digestive system to be utilized for producing energy. Carbohydrates, proteins and fats are the most basic macro nutrients that are converted to energy by our body. Each macro nutrient is converted to energy. Starch in the bread, Sugar from sugar cane and glycogens are all converted to glucose that is transformed into energy through a chemical reaction in the respiration system. Starch, sugar and glucose are types of carbohydrates. Starch has a longer chain as compared to that of the glucose and sugar. Starch is first converted to shorted chains by the saliva in our mouth. The sugar that is converted to starch is then converted to simple glucose by our digestive system. Small intestine absorbs the glucose and directly mixes it with the blood. Blood provides a transportation path for the nutrients to reach the desired cell location. The glucose is transported by the blood to the brain cells, where brain cells take the oxygen and glucose from the blood and exchange wastes with the blood through cell walls. The glucose actively produces energy to perform the daily tasks and to maintain the life of cell. Blood circulation system has two paths. One is for transporting food and oxygen and the other is for take away the wastes from the cells. Bread is derived from wheat. Nearly all plants store the access food to be utilized when there is short of food supply. Plants store food in the seeds to provide the baby plants with proper nourishment. Other than potatoes, carrots, radish and other plants that produce food inside the earth, all fruit and seed producing plants produce food. The plant is attainting and uses this tactic to reproduce their kind. In the similar case, wheat stores food in the seeds that are crushed down to attain flour. Flour is mixed with some water and yeast and baked to attain bread. The most basic ingredient of the flour is the moderate amount of complex carbohydrates and proteins. A cup of about 192 gram wheat contains about 4.7 grams of fats, 137 grams of carbohydrates and 26 grams of proteins. In contrast to bread, a chicken egg of about 50 gram egg has about 0.6 gram carbohydrates, 6 gram proteins, 5 gram of fats. The presence of such kind of nutrients is not to provide nutrients to humans but to provide proper nourishment to the growing chick in the egg. The presence of protein ensures that the chick will have a proper and healthy physique. It is normally experimented that oil and water does not homogeneously mix at all but in case of mayonnaise, it is generally found that oil and water and egg yolks are mixed evenly. The reason of this proper mixing of the oil and water is the presence of emulsifiers in the egg yolks. The Lecithin in the egg yolks act as the emulsifiers and emulsify the oil and water together. In order to emulsify the mixture, it is constantly beaten with little addition of oil at small intervals. In some recipes whole eggs (egg yolks and egg whites) are used instead of only egg yolks. Instead of direct water vinegar is mostly used which is about 90% water. Lecithin is a natural compound that is naturally found in egg yolk, fish, soya bean and peanuts. It shows a restricted solubility when dissolved in water but acts as a perfect emulsifier. Choline is the key factor of lecithin that makes the fats digestible, maintains the transfer of fats, nutrients, ions and wastes from and to the cell membrane and makes to cell membranes semi permeable. When oil and water are mixed the oil molecules are forced together by water molecules. Water molecules do not allow oil molecules to come in between. However, in case of mayonnaise, the emulsifiers in the egg yolk cover each oil molecule and do not allow the oil molecules to come together. Water molecules mix with the emulsifier that covered the oil molecules. Hydrogen bonds are present in the proteins, where hydrogen is covalently bonded to the oxygen, nitrogen, and lone pairs. The potential atoms that are capable of forming the H-bond require energy to do so. The molecular structure remains destabilized due to presence of such atoms in the structure. It is a common fact that most of the proteins are water soluble and it is impossible for the water to penetrate inside the cell membranes are fat based. Thus proteins are packed in protective covers that cover the proteins and proteins can easily pass the membrane. When the egg is boiled, the heat attained from the boiling water unfolds the protein chains and let then to join the other chains. On the other hand, during this process the water molecules surrounding the proteins chains are forced out and thus the egg become hard on applying heat. The current status of the world fisheries depict that world fisheries are in bad situation. If is found that the fisheries are generating less revenue as compared to the investments. About 6% of the fish depleted, 16% over exploited, 44% heavily exploited and 9% under exploited. The fact is we burdened the oceans more than it can hold. Importing local fish verities to other locations makes the fisheries to catch more than required fish to earn more money. Unsustainable methods of fishing made the scenario the worst. In olden days, fisheries catch fish according to the local demand but today the fishing industry catches 2 times the fish as required. Atlantic Cod is endangered by massive fishing. Newfoundlands northern cod fishery recorded a Atlantic cod catch of about 300,000 tons in 1960’s. However, in 1968, the fish catch of the similar species was risen up to 800,000 tones. But, in 2006, the fishery only managed to catch about 2700 tones. Current political situation does not think of the conservation of fish at all. Political view about the fish conservation is different as it amounts for the growth of the country’s resources. The sustainable methods utilized to minimize the wild fish catch proved to be less efficient due to the utilization of the conventional methods. However, in order to meet the demand, the conventional methods to achieve sustainability are not enough. There is a need to used highly efficient methods to produce higher yield of farm based fish.  Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and Greenland politically debated the issue to depletion of Atlantic cod in the ocean but none have the political method to solve the issue. Each country contributed much in making the money neglecting the laws of nature. The discussed Ham contains about 46% macronutrients in the 113 grams serving that is about 52 grams. The most part of the food product that Rhonda is eating is contains chemicals. Except for the tiny amount of BHT, all of it is from natural food sources. The modified starch was isolated from seeds (probably corn) and then treated chemically, so its not natural after the treatment, but it was derived from a natural source. The chemical based food products actually devalue the goodness in the food and I feel that the good or macronutrients in these chemical based food products increased the problems of obesity and people are dying from complications of diabetes, but thats caused by fully natural sugar (or a slight variation of it in the form of corn syrup). The whole digestive system is made to absorb the natural occurring nutrients not for the chemical that have low or no relation with the food nutrients I recommend the consumers to prefer the food products that are fresh, hygienic and organic. If it is required to buy the factory based food product try to look for the ingredients list first. If the food product has less or chemical based products, the food is good as compared to the food products that are nothing but chemicals. Works Cited "Chapter 2: Cells 101: Business Basics: Inside the Cell - National Institute of General Medical Sciences."Publications.nigms.nih.gov, 2013. Web. 28 Sep 2013. . Read More