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Weigh down: isn't broccoli righteous and haagen-dazs a sin? (the scientific explanation)

After earning an undergraduate degree in dietetics and a master's degree in nutrition science, I came to the exact opposite conclusion of what was taught in my university classes. I concluded that you do not have to worry about what you eat if you use your God-given cues to guide you. The body does 99 percent of the worrying (work) for you. This understanding probably resulted from my confidence in a very coordinated, ingenious Heavenly Father.

Dietetics is mostly biochemistry, since everything you eat is a chemical and every cell in your body and your bloodstream is just chemicals—primarily carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. Nutrition and dietetics are the study of the chemicals that your body manufactures for you. For example, you do not have to eat brain cells to have brain cells! Your body manufactures them. (Too bad— I could use some more!)

It is interesting to note that health food stores will sell you food chemicals that your body manufactures, such as lecithin. You do not need to eat lecithin—it is produced by your liver!

Dietetics is also the study of the consumption and digestion of chemicals the body does not manufacture and, therefore, needs to receive by mouth. What I learned from the study of biochemistry is that our bodies are wonderfully made and that most of their workings remain beyond the reach of our intellect. We do know much of what our body systems do, but we still know only a fraction of how they do it or what makes them do it. How we, from just two cells, can reproduce another human being's body to have all the bodily functions and incredible ability to live is so amazing. The study of just the two functions of digestion and absorption is mind-boggling! Spending hours with the books brought me to one major conclusion: there is a Creator who is more intelligent than I. Even if we could finally fathom all systems of the human body, we could not reproduce another human being. Some people are amazed at twins. I am amazed that God has managed to create so much variety in all of us.

From studying chemistry and biochemistry, we can see that our bodies take what we eat and break it down to tiny molecules or units. A portion of these now tiny food units can cross the intestinal wall and go through a separate circulating system that leads breakfast, lunch and supper directly to the liver. The liver is a large (silent, thank goodness) organ that converts Fritos, M&Ms, Doritos and dip, and Twinkies into usable substances that are sent into the regular circulatory system. So how are people alive?

Good question. The food you eat is made of chemicals—primarily molecules of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins—which are made up of carbons, hydrogens, oxygen, and nitrogen. After you swallow the food, it is shredded and broken apart by the acid in the stomach. It moves in small amounts to the small intestine, where digestive juices are used to break down the carbohydrates, fats, and proteins into even smaller units. These units are moved across the intestinal walls and to the liver—a process taking anywhere from five to twenty minutes. Dietary fats (also called triglycerides) do not go directly to the liver. After crossing the intestinal wall, they take a longer trip, slowly moving between the body's cells in a space called the lymphatic system. Triglycerides will drip into the regular bloodstream through the various ducts and then finally circulate to the liver. This route can take up to thirteen hours. The slow entry keeps the blood sugar stabilized. If you eat a meal that is primarily carbohydrates, you will be hungry sooner. If you add fats, it will help you go longer before you feel hungry again.

The liver is amazingly designed to take the broken-down food units—proteins, carbohydrates, and fats—and turn the largest percentage of these into glucose (the body's fuel or energy source). So you are not exactly what you eat. The liver takes what you have eaten and, via chemical reaction, reforms the units into the substances the human body needs. These newly-made substances are moved into the hepatic vein that goes to the heart. Once they reach the heart, they enter the main circulatory system and are pumped all over the body, giving each cell what it needs.

All foods are composed of just water, proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and trace (tiny) amounts of vitamins and minerals. Proteins, carbohydrates (CHO), and fats are made up of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Proteins add nitrogen to their chemical structures.

If organic means chemical-free to you, think again. All foods are chemicals. God made your body (without your having to worry about it!) to detect and rid itself of harmful chemicals that are part of the normal dietary process. Let us say your child just accidentally ate a serving of mud or some dirt. His stomach would be the first place that could detect harmful bacteria or chemicals. The stomach may throw it back up and out of the body. Most harmful bacteria would be destroyed in the very acidic (pH 1.5) stomach fluids. If harmful substances get past the stomach and into the intestines, then the body might trigger diarrhea (increased peristalsis) to rid the body of them. If they make their way through the walls of the small intestine (it is very difficult for most foreign objects or harmful substances to make it past this barrier) and then to the liver, the liver will trap them, break them apart, and render them unavailable and incapable of harming your child or his liver.

Another point: you do not have to count exchanges or food groups to have a balanced meal. For the most part, all the food groups contain the six basic nutrients.

For example, when you eat a piece of bread, you think you are eating just a carbohydrate. No, it is largely a carbohydrate, but it also contains proteins, fats, water (H20), vitamins, and minerals.

What about a potato? It is made of carbohydrates, a trace of proteins and fat, vitamins, minerals, and water.

What about meat? It is proteins, fat and a trace of carbohydrates, vitamins; minerals, and water.

What about milk? Well, it is proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water, too.

What about chocolate, cookies, cake, or candy? They, too, are fats, proteins, carbohydrates, a trace of vitamins, minerals, and water.

Simple carbohydrates are made of short chains of glucose (basically C6H1206). Breads are made of long chains of glucose. Fructose (another arrangement of C6H1206) is a simple carbohydrate that God made to fit exactly in the taste bud, which in turn stimulates a nerve ending to send a signal that the brain interprets as "delightfully sweet." If you were to examine the bloodstream, you would not be able to tell if you had eaten long chains or short chains. Glucose is the sugar form that each of your cells uses for energy. We do not have to eat it—the foods we eat are turned into glucose. Likewise, your body does not know if it ate honey unrefined sugar from the sugar cane plant, refined table sugar, or bread because all the units are converted to glucose in the liver and then dumped into the bloodstream to be used by the body cells. Being overanxious about the source of sugar is part of the bondage of food.

Table sugar comes from the sugarcane plant and is extracted in the form of molasses. Molasses can crystallize, and this is what we call dark brown sugar. If the syrup is washed off the crystals, you will have light brown or table sugar, depending on the level of washing. If table sugar is crushed into smaller pieces, it is then called powdered sugar. All of these are wonderful gifts from the Father.

While we are talking about carbohydrates and breads, I want to point out that it is sad to see that so many professional dieters have gone against the body's need for bread. Much of the non-dieting Third World countries eat 80 percent of their calories from breads. Jesus said, "I am the bread of life." That had meaning in Jesus' day and has meaning to most of the world today. Bread was and still is the staple. Our point is to not be afraid of reintroducing plenty of bread. You are going to feel so great when you let yourself go back to what your body calls for.

All foods have varying combinations of these six units: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, vitamins, minerals and water. Your main need is for energy or fuel to run the body. We have made eating—something intended to be enjoyable—into something complicated and burdensome. The food industry has picked up on our fears and has capitalized on them. If the heart associations have alerted you to be careful of too much whole milk due to heart disease, then the dairy associations alert you to be sure to drink milk because of its possible association with preventing osteoporosis. The chicken industry has soared while the poor beef industry continues to struggle.

Some of the foods you eat are already in the form that your body calls for. The body just needs to break them down to smaller units. Some of what you eat, such as whole wheat fiber and celery fiber, never even get past the small intestine cell wall and so are excreted in feces.

Other nutrients you need, such as vitamins and minerals, are widespread in various foods and are needed only in tiny, tiny amounts. I have worked in the health department in a state which statistics say is one of the poorest in the United States, and I rarely ever documented malnutrition (vitamin deficiency), except in a rare case of parental negligence in feeding a child. But I did, however, document and chart obesity daily.

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