Food Chemistry

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Food Chemistry: A Pedagogic Science

Food chemistry is a pedagogic science that looks into the chemical reactions, processes, and interactions of all biological (organic) and non-biological (inorganic) components of food. Essentially, to have an understanding of food chemistry, one must understand the basic concepts of food chemistry and metabolism interaction.  In order to understand how they interact, we must first understand what the metabolism is.

T The metabolism is a combination of multiple chemical reactions (also known as ‘pathways’) that serves to provide the living organism with a variety of functions.  During daily metabolic processes, substances (usually food, drugs, or water) are broken down to provide energy yields for vital processes (i.e. growth, reproduction, maintaining cellular structures, muscle contraction, etc.).  This is known as catabolism (or the breaking down of organic matter), which results in cellular respiration.  On the other hand, the metabolism is also capable of building molecules (i.e. non-essential amino acids, enzymes, etc.), which is known as anabolism.  These are the basic functions and processes of the metabolism when it comes down to food chemistry and its breakdown by the metabolism.

I It is important to understand that metabolism and food chemistry are two different broad-view concepts that interact with each other.  Further, it is important to recognize the scale of the metabolism and the chemistry of food.  Food chemistry and metabolic processes can be broken down to the smallest level possible.  Typically, for a biochemist or a pharmaceutical engineer, the molecular level is the most advantageous.  However, to understand the “big picture” of the metabolism and food chemistry, it is more important to understand the macroscopic scale.  The bigger the scale the more the emergent properties of the metabolism and food chemistry interaction become apparent.  For example, it is unneccessary to know each and every chemical step to fatty acid oxidation (fat-burning), but if you do then you know exactly how your food is broken down chemically.  However on the molecular scale (such as the biochemist would do) they miss out on the emergent properties.  Once more pathways and larger broadview chemical understanding is attained, the more emergent properties become apparent.  Fatty acid oxidation is a perfect example.

C Chemically, foods that are high in fat (lipids) are generally thought of as “bad” for ones health.  This is due to a variety of reasons, but mainly due to the food chemistry of lipids.  Lipids hold 9 kCalories/gram, which is substantially more than carbohydrates (~4-5kCal/gram).  Therefore most people have the ideology that foods that have more calories cause one to gain weight.  While this is true on some  levels, it is not true on every level.  This is why food chemistry is important.  There are three basic kinds of fat in food chemistry:  Saturated, Unsaturated (mono- and poly-), and Trans.  In general, saturated and trans fats cause immediate weight gain for those consuming them in high numbers.  On the other hand, unsaturated fats (unsaturated fats are oils at room temperature while saturated and trans are solid at room temperature) have a different chemical makeup then saturated and trans fats.  It has been found that they have very different emergent properties.  Biochemists have shown that consuming unsaturated fats causes a genetic activation of PPAR’s (peroxisomal proliferation activation receptors) which latch onto the unsaturated fat molecules.  Once these attach the PPAR’s signal the cell to start BURNING fat (fatty acid oxidation).  This does not occur with saturated or trans fats, in fact the opposite is typically true.

W While going on a low fat diet may cause one to lose weight, going on a no fat diet is a sure way to hold on a few extra pounds of flab.  To be fit, healthy, and energetic it is quite important to understand food chemistry and what you are putting into your body.