When you eat a meal, your body has a general sequence in which it metabolizes the incoming macro-nutrients. Understanding this oxidative priority order can help you to manage how your body responds to different foods and can provide guidance as to what foods to eat to meet your health goals.
From the contents of your blood, the first item to be processed is alcohol. Regardless of whatever else is available, the alcohol is processed first because it is a toxin. Your body must get rid of it. This means that any good fats, proteins, carbohydrates, ketones etc. are ignored until the alcohol has been dealt with. If you are targeting a different macro then the alcohol will derail the process temporarily which highlights the folly of including alcohol in a healthy diet.
The next item dealt with is any exogenous ketones, which cannot be stored anywhere so are used immediately.
Next come amino acids from any protein which exceeds your body’s ability to use it. We have no storage capability for protein, so you need some at every meal. Start every meal plan by considering the protein first, about 25 grams minimum. You need about 1 to 2 grams per kilogram of lean mass per day to build and maintain muscles, nails, eyes, hair, body cell replacement and also to ensure you are maintaining your bone mass. Loss of muscle also known as sarcopenia can eventually cause death when the body cannot actually operate any longer because the muscles have atrophied away to nothing. Not just skeletal muscle but also the muscles that move blood, that operate your digestive tract, operate your lungs, that manage your temperature through your skin, everything.
The next item is all the carbohydrates which are metabolized into glucose, beginning with the glucose in your blood and when this is depleted, your liver glycogen which is a stored form of glucose for restoring glucose to the blood. Glucose that has been converted into glycogen and stored in muscles is held by those muscles for their use and it does not become available for general use anywhere else in the body.
Finally! we come to fatty acids (fat) starting with those which are in your blood, and only when these have been depleted and your insulin level is low, does your body begin to use stored body fat. First to go is liver fat and visceral fat which is stored around your organs and this is the fat which gives you a fat belly or spare tire around your middle. The next target is your subcutaneous fat stored all over your body.
It should be clear from this, that to reduce stored body fat, it is necessary to get to the last step. Alcohol, excess protein, carbohydrates can all prevent you reaching this goal.
Go to www.takebackyrhealth.com for free nutrition guidance or my book. Seek professional medical advice before making dietary changes, particularly if on medication. Questions are welcome. Good health, George Elder, Diet Research Reviewer, Diploma in Nutrition.
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