Spring Break
Students and Nutrition: The mystery of metabolism
Peter Curcio
Issue date: 2/19/09 Section: Forum
There has been a lot of attention on metabolism lately in the health and fitness community, specifically in how to manipulate it as a means to lose weight. There are many supplements on the market trying to take advantage of the consumer by claiming to boost metabolism in order to stimulate weight loss, and even common substances such as green tea have been getting attention for its so-called "thermogenic" effects.
But hold on a minute. Is it really possible to change our metabolism? Let's explore this question by providing a brief overview of metabolism, discussing what kinds of things affect it and whether or not it's really worth the trouble.
Basically, metabolism is the way your body converts food into fuel. It supplies the energy you need to move, think, drive a car, study, have sex, live and breathe. It's an amazingly intricate system that takes in food at one end and converts it to energy that we can use.
Remember the car analogy when we discussed breakfast? Well, we put gas into the car to make it go (food) and oil into the engine (water), but does that guarantee that the car will still run smoothly? What if other parts of the engine are out of adjustment? We can think of metabolism as the way the engine runs, and how well it does so depends on several things.
A large degree of metabolism is hardwired at birth through genes inherited from our parents. In that sense, the body's so-called gas mileage - how efficiently it burns through food - does depend on inborn genetic potential. However, it is also affected by age, gender, body composition (how much muscle we have compared to fat), hormones and, to a lesser degree, diet.
But remember, even though food may not be the biggest thing affecting metabolism, it does maintain the supply of nutrients that allows all of the other processes in our bodies to function. Without food, the body will eventually starve, just like a car without gas. The good news is that filling up the tank is a no-brainer.
But hold on a minute. Is it really possible to change our metabolism? Let's explore this question by providing a brief overview of metabolism, discussing what kinds of things affect it and whether or not it's really worth the trouble.
Basically, metabolism is the way your body converts food into fuel. It supplies the energy you need to move, think, drive a car, study, have sex, live and breathe. It's an amazingly intricate system that takes in food at one end and converts it to energy that we can use.
Remember the car analogy when we discussed breakfast? Well, we put gas into the car to make it go (food) and oil into the engine (water), but does that guarantee that the car will still run smoothly? What if other parts of the engine are out of adjustment? We can think of metabolism as the way the engine runs, and how well it does so depends on several things.
A large degree of metabolism is hardwired at birth through genes inherited from our parents. In that sense, the body's so-called gas mileage - how efficiently it burns through food - does depend on inborn genetic potential. However, it is also affected by age, gender, body composition (how much muscle we have compared to fat), hormones and, to a lesser degree, diet.
But remember, even though food may not be the biggest thing affecting metabolism, it does maintain the supply of nutrients that allows all of the other processes in our bodies to function. Without food, the body will eventually starve, just like a car without gas. The good news is that filling up the tank is a no-brainer.
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Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
haeveingridseyn
posted 8/28/09 @ 12:15 AM PST
hi I am a diet lover.
And I am very conscious about health.
I really like to appreciates that person who encourage people to maintain their body and I am a student, Like to know about the health tips and i really want to do so I can aware people toward their paths to live long life. (Continued…)
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