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From: nemo@rochester.UUCP (Wolfe)
Newsgroups: net.veg,net.med
Subject: Re: Nutrition Puzzle Solved
Message-ID: <2263@rochester.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 17-Oct-84 08:52:33 EDT
Article-I.D.: rocheste.2263
Posted: Wed Oct 17 08:52:33 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 18-Oct-84 19:04:08 EDT
References: <70@azure.UUCP>
Organization: U. of Rochester, CS Dept.
Lines: 32

> Both  foods  supply  24 Calories per  ounce, but  if you  ate a
> lot of the  food with  protein and  worked out, you  would gain
> muscle  mass, whereas  if you  ate a lot of the  food with FAT,
> unless you really  burned  off all the calories, you would gain  
> FAT  mass.   This is  a  crude  example,  but  the  point  here
> is that  Calories does not tell you what form your Calories are
> in.  If the major  contribution to the total  Caloric intake is
> FAT, you will  have a hard time  losing weight (if that is your
> goal).  You get the point.
> 
> After all, isn't protein really
> meant to build and maintain the body?  
Teleology?
> 
> That is, when the  amino acids  pass into the  circulation they
> are  used to  reconstruct  more than  1,600 different  kinds of
> protein  that make up  muscle tissues,  hormones, enzymes, etc.
> Why would the body use  amino acids as fuel?   Except if forced
> to?
> 
> 						ECZ
The body requires only a small amount of protein to fulfill its amino
acid needs.  The remainder is routinely burned as fuel.  Amino acids are
not stored by the body.  As long as your diet is not strictly fat and
carbohydrates, which would require some amount of planning to pull off,
you are very likely to be obtaining sufficient amounts of protien for
normal bodily needs.  
You are correct in questioning the model of the body as a calorimeter,
since not all of the energy in the food is used up before it is egested.
Fiber in the diet helps keep food moving on through, as well as cleaning
up the intestinal walls, and fewer calories are absorbed.
Nemo