KFCs $5 Fill-Up meal is being heavily (pun intended) marketed. The TV spot features two not-yet obese young men diving into a box containing a breaded chicken breast, mashed potatoes smothered with gravy, a biscuit and chocolate chip cookie, washing it al down with a soft drink. In case youre wondering about the metabolic disaster that this represents, here are the numbers: Total calories: 1,260 Sodium: 2,460 mg total carbs: 160 grams protein: 36 grams Unless you just ran a marathon or climbed Mount Everest, there is simply no way that the body can successfully handle 1,260 calories and 160 grams of carbohydrate, the vast majority of which is sugar and refined starch. When this flood of glucose hits the bloodstream, alarms go off in the liver and pancreas. At the genome level a metabolic switchboard lights up. The biodialog™ goes like this: Liver to pancreas: Glucose levels are skyrocketing! What’s your plan? Pancreas, I’m exhausted from handling the Sugar Frosted Flakes from breakfast. And that super sweet latte and muffin at 9:00. You’ve got to take this load. Liver: I’ve got no room. [hits panic button. Sirens going off] Genome: Come on liver, convert the glucose to glycogen Liver: I’m bursting with glycogen. Let me call the muscles. See if they need any energy. Muscles: zzzzzzz wha? Energy? No we have no need for energy. We haven’t moved much in weeks. Genome: Well, Liver. What’s your plan? Liver: I’ll convert the glucose to triglycerides and stash it in the bloodstream. Bloodstream: No howlin way! Blood is so thick already, circulation through capillary beds is down to critical levels. We’ve got billions of starving and suffocating cells in the toes, eyes, brain and kidneys. Genome: That can only mean one thing, Liver, you know what to do. Liver. O.K. it’ll take a few hours, but I can send these triglycerides to adipose tissue. Let me see…. belly, butt, thighs… back of the arms. A little under the chin. That’ll have to do. And so it goes.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 19:56:38 +0000
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