Carbohydrates and Happiness

We’re all drug addicts. You may not be stealing cars to buy meth, but you rely on some sort of stimuli to make you “happy”…”happier”…”happiest”.

What is happy? This may sound like a stupid question, but seriously? What makes you happy? If you lost all your possessions, would you still be happy? If you lost your job, your career, if you had no professional accomplishments, would you still be happy? What if you lost the person you cherish the most?

Scientifically speaking, our body makes chemicals that make us feel happy. The lack of these chemicals makes us feel sad. Or angry. Or guilty. At any point in time, you are feeding your body multiple inputs. Maybe you got a promotion at work, argued with your spouse, skipped lunch, almost got hit by a cab, and then saw an ex-boyfriend on the train. You feel as though you should be happier about the promotion – it must be your spouse’s fault! What do you do? Grab the wine, watch television, intensify that negative emotion? Distract yourself by thinking about the ex-boyfriend?

I don’t mean to go on a tangent – the point of food addiction is coming up, I promise. My point here is that nothing is ever going to be perfect. Ever. If you’re not satisfied with not being satisfied, you look for outside stimuli to make you feel “happier”. One of these stimuli is food – specifically, carbohydrates. Because they are necessary for survival, carbohydrates naturally produce a hormone which makes us feel happy. Relying on this stimulus is what can cause food addictions.

LESSON 1: SEROTONIN

Serotonin was discovered in 1948 as a substance in blood serum responsible for vasoconstriction (serum that gives tone). The majority of serotonin in the body is found in the gastrointestinal tract, where it regulates intestinal movements. Serotonergic neurons synthesize the rest of serotonin in the central nervous system where it is used by the brain to send signals through the central nervous system.

Serotonin’s affects on the body are INHIBITORY. It reduces appetite, sexual behavior, and suppresses pain perception.

LESSON 2: IMPACT ON CARBOHYDRATES WITH SEROTONIN

Serotonin-releasing brain neurons are unique in that the amount of neurotransmitter they release is controlled by food intake. The two main processes by which food impacts the formation of serotonin in the brain are insulin secretion and the plasma to tryptophan ratio.  

INSULIN: YOUR TICKET INTO THE PARTY

Imagine your cell as a huge party, and glucose as a girl. Your cell wants to keep the ratio of dudes to girls in equilibrium. If you have a party full of dudes, you have two options: either you’re going to eat carbs (your body sends signals that make you want carbohydrates, which we’ll discuss later), or you break down previously eaten substances to release glucose into the bloodstream. Once the party senses girls outside (cell senses glucose in the bloodstream), signals are sent to the pancreas to release a hormone called insulin. Insulin “unlocks” the cell and allows the glucose to get inside.

In doing so, it also kicks out amino acids (dudes). These dudes travel to other party sites such as the heart and liver….except tryptophan! We’ll abbreviate this amino acid as TRYPTO. TRYPTO prefers the bloodstream and is a bit of a loner amino acid.

The serotonin in your gut cannot pass the blood-brain barrier, but TRYPTO can. The release of TRYPTO, stimulated first by the consumption of carbohydrates and secondly by the uptake of other amino acids by primary organs of the body, can pass through the blood-brain barrier. The receptors for creating or not creating serotonin are not amino acid specific.

This is important, so let’s take a second to think about this. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. We eat protein. If you eat a steak, you eat a bunch of amino acids. Valine, leucine, isoleucine…these are just a few. They all have very specific roles in the body. Tryptophan is another amino acid that you would ingest by eating a steak. Its function (among others) is creating serotonin.

So when we eat a steak, we eat a bunch of these amino acids, which all pass through the blood brain barrier. The chances of TRYPTO binding are much smaller with a larger pool of incoming amino acids. However, if you flood the brain with tryptophan – as is what happens when you eat carbs- you have a much higher chance of creating serotonin.

I know I said that carbohydrates stimulate this cascade. Fructose, the disaccharide (sugar) found at highest concentrations in fruit, has a slightly different effect on the body and does not cause this same reaction. We’ll talk about that another time, but for now, know that I am referring to carbohydrates that break down into glucose in the body (the majority of complex carbohydrates that we eat such as grains, pasta, bread, cereal, etc).

LESSON 3: IMPLICATIONS

You may have read lesson 2 and been surprised to learn those things. The beautiful (and somewhat terrifying) thing, though, is that our bodies already knew all of that. We are programmed to desire carbohydrates because our brain and red blood cells NEED them to survive. We are given a positive response to eating them so that we keep eating them. This is a natural control mechanism put in place by our bodies for our survival as a species. Think about it. If sex was terrible, would we reproduce as much? If drugs weren’t effective, would we have drug addicts?

Much as people can have drug addictions, we can also get addicted to the “high” that comes with eating carbohydrates. We get a burst of serotonin from them, so we feel happy. It’s actually meant as n appetite suppressant. Serotonin makes you feel satisfied even if your stomach is not full. It makes you feel emotionally stable, less anxious, more tranquil, and more focused and energetic.

LESSON 4: USE CARBS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE

Use carbohydrates and the resulting serotonin effects to your advantage. As a dietitian, I don’t recommend that the general population looking to maintain or lose weight consume more than 50% of diet from carbohydrates. You’re basically giving your body a drug, the best thing you can do is keep your doses low. The more carbohydrates you give your body, the more serotonin you’ll be creating and then a resulting lack of that serotonin will cause a dip in your mood and make you crave that high amount.

Have I thought about putting together meal plans for something like this? Certainly. There is a part of me, though, that wants you to really truly live and understand the concept of living in a flux. Following a diet isn’t going to make you happy if you aren’t happy with your life. Losing weight isn’t going to make you happy if you aren’t happy with your life.  Get my drift? The real key to avoid food , or any, addiction is to not feel the need to cope.  Being happy with yourself and how you interact with the world is the most powerful way to create serotonin. 

If you don't make changes, nothing changes

I wrote this blog post 2 years ago today. While re-reading in bed this morning, I was reminiscing on just how much has changed since then (hopefully my writing style has improved a tad).

"Resisting change is the reverse of evolution. Getting what you want requires change. No one said getting what you want is easy. If you truly want something, emotions are involved -strong emotions. Making changes also inherently comes with risk. You're leaving your comfort zone....enter in more emotions. The bottom line is you have to know what you want and be fully committed to getting it. This means accepting that the burden is on you. There is no "well I tried everything, I'm done, I failed." If you want it, you'll get it. Stop making excuses because it's harder than anything you've ever done before. Duh, if it were easy, you would have done it by now.

These are questions that I ask clients during a consultation. Take the time to thoughtfully answer them on your own.

1. What do you want?
2. Why do you want it?
3. What are you going to do to get it?
4. What has been holding you back from getting it?

It's important to realize that you don't know how you'll feel when you reach this goal. Imagine if you were born and raised in a place where there was only Winter. You had no experience of Summer, you only knew of it. How will you feel once you leave your home and move to a warm climate? You have no idea, but you won't know until you try.

What are your goals? What motivates you, what holds you back?"

To give you some insight into my life, I was about six months fresh from a divorce and in the process of finding "independent me". I woke up everyday trying to piece things together, cope with immense guilt, and get a handle on what would turn out to be an extremely rewarding but tumultuous relationship that I had just jumped into.

Sometimes you read random quotes people post on Facebook and, as much as internally you're thinking
"god, what a dumbass for posting a quote" you secretly identify with it and carry it with you the rest of the day, if not longer. I can't remember word for word what I read today, but it said something to the effect of "learning something everyday is knowledge; letting go of something everyday is wisdom".

The impact that relationships have on our health is highly underrated. Fifty years from now, you won't remember all the phones you cracked. You may remember a car, but not for the car, for the memories that were made in it. The relationship you have with yourself and those around you plays the biggest role in determining how, when, and if you make a change to get what you want. I've been doing nutritional counseling for about 4 years now, and personal training for almost 10. The one commonality that has surprised me the most is how pertinent  personal relationships directly affect behavior. It's not your job that prevents you from exercise, it's not your kids, it's somewhere ingrained in a past or current relationship with others and/or yourself that tells you those have to be your priorities.

What does this have to do with achieving a sense of wellness? Be aware that it's you that is in control of your behavior. Always. I sense this feeling of helplessness in a lot of clients and I can empathize because I've been there. I've stayed in toxic relationships because I've thought I could help, they would change, it would get better. But, nothing gets better until you do. Stagnancy breeds nothing, and before you know it you're in a codependent rabbit hole heading the wrong direction.

I tend to ramble and get off subject, so let me be concise. You can make all the superficial changes in the world to lose weight. You can buy all the right food, eat the perfect portion size, do the correct exercises with the correct weights the correct amounts of time per day and week. You may end up with the body you want. You will not be happy and, to that effect, are you indeed well?

I felt my best when I exited those tumultuous relationships. When I (sadly) cut out friends that made me feel inadequate, that made me feel like I wasn't worth their time. Sometimes it takes putting yourself before your emotions for someone to make the best outcome for the both of you. To me, that's strength.

(Rant/
Over)

Don't Count Calories...Learn what they are.

Did you know that there roughly 30 calories in 10 baby carrots? 120 calories in a 3 oz portion of grilled chicken breast with no additional oils or flavorings -- the same amount that is present in a regular can of pop?

What is the nutritional difference between these items? How many calories do I need per day? If I’m supposed to have 1200 calories, why can’t I just have 10 Pepsi’s?

We need varying amounts of macronutrients because we have different hormonal balances and physical activity patterns. Gender, type, duration, and intensity of workout can play a very large role in your diet.

My goal for this discussion is to present energy to you in terms of biochemical processes instead of calories. I’m going to warn you that there may be words or concepts that you’ve never heard of our can’t pronounce. Don’t let this discourage you! You are smart and capable. Take the time to research things you don’t understand or, better yet, leave your comments and questions.  

WHAT IS A CALORIE?

A calorie is simply a measure of heat. The word stem calor- comes from Latin and means “heat”. The calorie that we know is actually a kilocalorie. A true “calorie” is the amount of energy needed to raise 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius. Thus, a kilocalorie is the amount of energy needed to raise 1 kilogram of water by 1 degree Celsius. 

Heat is the byproduct of a release of energy. The food we take in, along with the energy that our body is able to synthesize and reuse, goes through a series of catabolic reactions (breaking these molecules down) in order to optimize potential energy and use this energy to carry out physiological processes that keep us alive. Heat (and carbon dioxide) are then released as byproducts of macronutrient metabolism. This is what it means to take in and then burn off calories through diet and exercise.

WHAT IS ATP?

ATP stands for “adenosine triphosphate”. The structure of ATP has an ordered carbon compound as a backbone (adenosine is a nucleoside), which is essential because it is able to be hold up in the cytosol of the cell – an aqueous solution. The triphosphate part of the molecule is the key player for creating energy but cannot stand alone in an aqueous solution because its bonds cannot hold up against those of water. Tri = three, so ATP has three phosphate groups. These phosphate groups are connected by oxygens to eachother and to the adenosine part. The oxygens carry a negative charge and want to be near a positive charge, so they are constantly repelling one another. That means there is a LOT of potential energy stored in these bonds. 

Removing just one phosphate group from the end makes ATP very happy. It changes ATP to ADP, adenosine diphosphate (two phosphate groups). The reaction from ATP to ADP is extremely crucial for supplying energy for life processes and impacts the amount of free energy available to DO WORK (see side section below!). Just cutting one bond provides about 7.3 kilocalories (calories as we know them) per molecule, or 30 kilojoules. This is about the same as the energy supplied in a single peanut!!!

 

Our body creates ATP from the food we eat and it relies on a host of catabolic reactions – triggered and carried out by hormones and neurotransmitters – to effectively “sense” and keep ATP levels steady in all cells.  Here is a quick side note, and then we will start our journey from mouth to energy to see how the food we eat becomes ATP. This discussion will focus on carbohydrates.

THINK IT, SHARE IT: GIBBS FREE ENERGY AND HOW YOU CAN BE AS SMART AS YOUR BODY.

Gibbs Free Energy is a really complex concept, however, the idea is simple. Basically, it is the energy that is applied to do work. In our cells, we keep ATP in a concentration that is NOT at equilibrium. The phosphate bonds, although high in energy, are not as strong as hydrogen bonds. When ATP is present in unbuffered water (normally charged water), the bonds in ATP will break down to ADP plus a free P (phosphate group). [Can you guess what ADP stands for….??] Thus, the system does not strive for equilibrium between ATP and ADP, rather, the charge of the system must keep ATP to ADP at a 10:1 ratio in an aqueous solution. This means that there is always some “undone” work in the system, this allows for the input of more energy. Too much undone work causes an imbalance, and too little causes the finished product to be degraded.

How does this affect your life? Have their been times in your life when you’ve strived for equilibrium rather than excellence? It’s easy to get lost in the mess of wanting to be great at a host of things or to a host of people. The flux of free energy that is gained by keeping things out of equilibrium allows for greater improvements in a constant system.

Ok. So we know that food gives us energy. Energy in the body is known as ATP. Now comes the nutritional aspect as we discuss how CARBOHYDRATES, FATS, and PROTEINS are used to make ATP. We will also discuss the difference between AEROBIC and ANAEROBIC metabolism because, believe it or not, there was a time when organisms had to (and some still do) survive in an environment lacking oxygen. 

CARBOHYDRATES: THE “C” WORD OF DIETERS 

Damn you bread and pasta for being so delicious!! But wait…there is a reason why our body craves carbohydrates. They give us the fastest, most readily available source of energy. Back in times when we didn’t sit all day, we needed this energy to catch our food. Besides the occasional street fight outside of your local Whole Foods, we don’t typically put that much work into food nowadays. 

Carbs are broken down by enzymes in your body to their most bare form – monosaccharides. A di-saccharide is something like sucrose, which is table sugar (glucose and fructose), and a polysaccharide is a long chain of carbohydrate molecules (typically glucose) . The bonds between these molecules must be broken before the enzymes that help us create energy can come into play. Because disaccharides such as table sugar have less bonds to break, they are able to release energy faster than polysaccharides. This is why a piece of candy is called a simple sugar and a piece of bread is called a complex carbohydrate. The addition of fiber and protein in complex carbohydrates also slows the digestion and has a more gradual impact on blood sugar and hunger levels. 

Once the bonds between individual monosaccharides are broken, the monosaccharide – glucose, in most cases – enters the energy releasing pathways. That’s right, pathways. This shit is going to get a bit tricky, so take a breather here if you need to and come back. This is the exciting part.

GLYCOLYSIS 

The glycolytic pathway is one of the most ancient pathways for creating energy that we know of. Why? It is ANAEROBIC – it takes place in the absence of oxygen. It is highly conserved in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. It is what was essential in the oxygen-poor atmosphere of pre-eukaryotic Earth. 

Glycolysis literally means “breaking apart” glycogen. Glycogen is a storage form of glucose, and in this sense, it is glucose. We will talk about glycogen at another time when we talk about weight management and why you gain weight when you eat too much. 

In glycolysis, an enzyme breaks glucose down into 2, 3-carbon molecules called pyruvate.  Remember that glycolysis is anaerobic, but it is the first step of celluar respiration regardless of whether there is oxygen or not.

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WITHOUT OXYGEN…pyruvate is broken down into lactic acid. 

You know when you work out super hard and your muscles burn? Skeletal muscle requires ATP. If you don’t have enough oxygen in your body to support how much ATP you need, its broken down into lactic acid and you get that “burn”. Lactic acid CAN be converted back to glucose through a process in the liver known as the Cori Cycle. Google it, it’s pretty cool. 

You get 2 ATP (not taking into account Gibbs Free Energy*) with glycolysis alone. 

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WITH OXYGEN…pyruvate enters the citric acid cycle and oxidative phosphorylation.

Here is the quick and dirty. Oxygen is an electron acceptor. When you cleave (break) bonds of glucose, you end up with these differently charged molecules called NADH, NAD +, and others like it. Oxygen takes these charges and makes energy. It’s pretty amazing, and highly detailed.  Comment if you have questions or want to learn more. This is also the time when those phosphate bonds which carry all the energy are created in the ATP molecule. 

You get 30 ATP *with glycolysis and the citric acid cycle/oxidative phosphorylation. 

As you can see, the presence of oxygen makes for a much more efficient system. However, glycolysis is able to produce ATP as well. 

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When all is said and done and ATP is synthesized, it is then used to do things such as breathe, poop, run, think, and create red blood cells (among a million other things). Using ATP means that ATP becomes ADP and heat and carbon dioxide are released. This heat is what a calorie essentially is. ADP is kept in the cell, and our body uses the food we eat to continuously recycle ADP back to ATP. 

You may be asking yourself “what the hell does this have to do with my diet”, and I can understand that. Trust me, the discussions to come will tie everything  together. I want your questions, your feedback, and I want you to research some on your own.  

Here are some take-away points that I want you to keep in mind for further learning and discussion:

• The amount of calories in a food are a measure of energy that your body can create from eating that food.
• All macronutrients – proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids (fats) are able to be formed into ATP in the body
• Carbohydrates create ATP the fastest and are able to create ATP in an anaerobic system

Introduction

This blog is designed to deal with real issues that I see on a daily basis as a Registered Dietitian and Personal Trainer in Chicago. Moreover, these are issues that I have also dealt with and will continue to deal with.

I got the idea to do this one day as I was running on the treadmill at the gym. There is a row of televisions ahead of the treadmills, and I split my gaze over the two nearest sets. The TV on the right had on the local news channel, which happened to be airing a "Healthy Habits" special. The TV on the left was plastered with Dr. Oz. While he was boasting about how some supplement was going to change the world and rid the country of obesity, the "Healthy Habits" was blowing my mind with information on how fruits and vegetables can lower your risk of heart disease. (sarcasm)

Come on. You aren't stupid. I refuse to believe that you don't know that fruits and vegetables aren't good for you. You know that imported beeswax from Polynesia is NOT going to cure obesity (don't quote me on that, I don't remember what supplement he was selling...). It takes something much harder, much more personal and much much much more intimidating to actually get what you want.You have to change, and you have to want to do it on your own.

My goal is to provide encouragement, motivation, and a personal element to push you toward wanting to make this change to better YOUR health. I'm not here to sell anything, I'm not here to preach, I just want to share the nutrition and fitness facts which I know and my story which I've lived in a hope that you will do the same.

We are a community of people all looking to live the best lives that we can. Instead of constantly competing to be the best, let this be a forum in which we can help eachother. I'll be posting topics, but mostly, I want to hear from you.

I look forward to our journey together :)