Thursday, September 1, 2011

Monomers and Food Fads

One of the myriad misconceptions that drive the bogus nutrition industry and food faddism concerns how food is utilized by the body. Most of these people seem to think that food is absorbed directly from the mouth into the cells. WRONG!!
The intestine has evolved such that only monomers or VERY small molecules can be absorbed into the bloodstream, and these undergo further change before they can pass through the cell membrane. Some require special transport mechanisms. Therefore, the myth that the DNA from genetically modified (GM) foods passes into our own DNA space (the nucleus) is totally false. Even small nucleotides (look it up) which contain NO genetic information are broken down before they enter the cell, and they NEVER enter the nucleus. Therefore, the probability that GM foods could affect our DNA is precisely ZERO.
In college biochemistry we were assigned to find "at least one mistake in basic molecular physiology on every page" of a current fad diet book (in this case it was Atkins). Slam dunk--then and especially now.
When I was being oriented to teach in middle school we were subjected to a "nutrition" lecture by the health educators in which 90% of the information they communicated was wrong.
Most nutritional "information" on the web and even from supposed experts isn't even based on a knowledge of basic human physiology. Beware the quacks and charlatans--there are more of them than ever, Seek scientific literacy!

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