Sweet Fruit

We all know that the sugar in fruit are fructose; the most sweet natural sugar. Fructose is also had the highest relative sweetness (around 178?) in all sugar. (excluding the artificial sugar) But did you know, where these sugar in the fruit came from? Well, before that, let's get back to basic. The monomer of sugar, (the most basic) is Glucose. There are also other monomer of sugar, such as Galactose and Fructose. When any of these combine, it could make a dissacharide (Saccharide=sugar in latin). These trend continues, when 3-10 sugar combine, it is called oligosaccahride and when there are more than 10, it is polyssacharide.

Some example of Polysaccharide are Cellulose, Pectin, Lignin, and many other else. Note that the skin of the fruit is consist of Cellulose. This is a clue to where the fructose come from. So, as the fruit ripen, the skin thinning, and so it fall to the ground. Another clue.

Let's review the basic of fruits. The fruit is basically made of plant cell. Whereas plant cell had a special outer layer called the cell wall (Animal cell only had cell membrane). The cell wall is made of a polysaccharide; Cellulose. So at the time fruit developed, the cell wall thickens. But however, as the fruit ripe, the fruit skin is thinning. You could see this is some asian fruits such as Oranges; where the skin will be thin by the time you will be able to pluck it. How did this happen?

As we all know, enzymes are everywhere in the world. Even in fruits. So as to the answer where the sweet flavour of fruit came from, it came from the skin of the fruit. As the fruit ripen, the enzyme cellulase digest the celullose of the fruit into fructose and other monomer of sugar. This process actually increase the sugar contents in fruits. But however, the fruits will be more susceptible to damage from microbe or physical contact. Some example of fruits like this are the Oranges as mentioned before.  So, once something good is in, remember that bad thing are also around the corner.

That's Mother Nature for you.

Cheers

                                                                                                                                                                    

Fun Fact that is not so Fun.

Did you know about the common notion, that says that eat less fat, and you don't get fat. (haha, a lame rhyme) Well, there are certain truth in that statement, but really, everything you eat will make you fat. Seriously!

Why?

This because most food that ever exist is to give you energy for your body (usually). If you eat rice, it become Glycogen, a store of energy under your skin. If Glycogen is not used, it become Fat. It's simple as that. There's more than that actually, go read some biochemistry book. (I'll put some here later)

So, the notion that eat less fat need to be changed! It should be "do more work"! haha, as if it work...
(oh, another rhyme!)

For your information, the world is actually is under attack by an epidemic; GLOBESITY!

Seriously, I didn't make it up. The word Globesity really exist. (Global+Obesity)
Why this occur?

Well, it's easy. See, you, yes YOU, the-one-reading-this-passage, what are you doing?

Ok, let see..

You're sitting in front of a computer                                                        (CHECK!)

You didn't move one bit                                                                          (CHECK!)
(except if you always move your leg as if you are excited, (this always occur to fat people))

Only your hand is moving.                                                                       (CHECK!)

So...

When is the last time you see sunshine?

 
well, if you say, "just a few minutes ago" I'll say "Congratulation!"
If you silent, I'll say "You're in deep trouble"
If you say, "It's night already" I'll say "Don't forget to go out tommorow ya?"

Go out and have some fun ( for even better; do some work)

adieu!

SHORT BLOG

The FAT and the LIPID: Triglyceride that thickens your hide.

Le Intro,

Lipids are one of the major constituents of foods, and are important in our diet, especially the cholesterol. Yes, cholesterol is the one who actually make the hormones inside our body. (they the main components that make them, sort of) Well, that is some of the function of lipids. Other and Main Function of the lipid is to provide energy, give essential nutrients and prevent cold temperature's by becoming body's heat insulator. (feel that flabby in your tummy? that's lipid)

Most people actually use the term fat for lipid. They are actually the same thing, but in academic world, we prefer to call lipid, since the word fat can become derogatory for some.... (don't quote on me for this)

Most people also tend to think that cholesterol is the lipid, but in actuality, cholesterol is just a subset of lipid. Yeah, there's more than cholesterol in lipid. There's Triglyceride a.k.a trigacylglyceride (TAG @ TCG), phospholipids and sterols. I'll cover most of them later, but in the mean time, I'll talk about TAG.

Triglyceride structure. Notice the colour? the red is fatty acid, and the green is a glycerol.

TAG, is consists of Fatty acid and Glycerol. The number of Fatty acid in Glycerol may varied, according to the type of Glycerol, but as for basics, usually the glycerol can chain 3 fatty acid.

AS according to the picture, the red is a fatty acid and the green is a glycerol.

 

The fatty acid is a carbon chain skeleton that contain the element Carbon (C), Hydrogen (H), and Oxygen (O) and it is arranged with a carbonyl group at 1 end (-COOH). As in the picture, the carbonyl group is not to be seen as it was used to link the fatty acid with the glycerol. But that's not all, the bond that "stick" it all together is also important. There's Saturated Fatty Acids (SFA's) where the carbon can hold all the hydrogen; consists of only single bond and no double bond. Thus, the term saturated used. Monounsaturated Fatty Acids (MUFA's) have only one double bond in it and Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid's (PUFA's) have several double bond. As a refresher for all those who take organic chemistry, SFA's are Alkanes (Cn H2n+2), MUFA's and PUFA's are alkenes (Cn H2n). There are A LOT of Fatty acid in the world, some that is well known is Palmitic Acid (C16 H34), Oleic Acid (C18 H36) and Linoleic Acid (C18 H34). Try to know why these fatty acid is famous in your free time, ok?

So, what's this story gotta do with the Triglyceride? So here it is, the one that bind the fatty acids together is a Glycerol. But first, what is this Glycerol?

Well, Glycerol is a Tryhidric Alcohol (3 -OH Hydroxyl Group); where each hydroxyl Group were able to bind with a carbonyl Group, hence the fatty-acid chain formed. Diverse type of fatty acid combination attached to the glycerol leading to various type of TAG. And sometimes, not all hydroxyl group of the glycerol managed to bond with something, so there are Diglyceride and Monoglyceride. Not to mention, the glycerol can bond to any fatty acid; meaning, the fatty acid in the TAG doesn't necessary bond to the same fatty acid for all 3 hydroxyl group. The TAG, may bind with a palmitic acid in 1 chain, Oleic acid in 1 chain and Linoleic acid n the other. (Well, there are several conditions on that for it to happened, such as the hydrogen bonding effect and all that's other bonding stuff, but this is no textbook, it's only a blog).

So, there you have it, Some lipid it was, and this was just the Triglyceride! There's still phospholipid, Sterol and Cholesterol! Oh, this is not done yet.

But for today, it is done.

Thank you for reading, hope this shed some light.

                                                                                                                                                                   

   

 

How to read Nutritional Labelling

First thing first, there several type of Food labeling in the world. But most of the country around the globe adopt the Food & Drug Administration (FDA). Some of the example that didn't adopt the FDA food label was Malaysia (My country). We had our own food label system. 

This was a Food Label for an Oatmeal in packs for drinking  

The Serving Size shows that if you eat this much, you will get this amount of nutrient. In this case, if you drink a 1/2 cup of oatmeal, you will receive the nutrient listed below. 

So, for this small amount of oatmeal, you will get 150 kJ of Calories, and 25 kJ of it came from fat.
For healthy reason, try to find food that calories from fat are 1/3 less than the overall calories. 

The % daily value shows the amount of the nutrient you need daily. 

For example, look at the Total Fat, which is 4%.
In this case, the Total Fat consume with this small portion of oatmeal is equivalent to 4% of fat needed daily by your body.

As for those 0% nutrient, this doesn't mean that there's none of the nutrient (if it does, why bother put it?) The nutrient is actually there but it is in small amount. REALY SMALL AMOUNT.

One more thing, the % daily value was based on people with total energy expenditure (TEF) around 2000 calories daily. It's based on Adult Women energy requirement, who's not physically active. As for guys, our body requires around 2500 calories daily MINIMUM. so, it's ok to eat more.



There's actually more than this, but this is the most basic knowledge on understanding Food Label.
I hope this helps

                                                                                                                                                                  

Welcome!

Hey there! Welcome to Food Analysis & Chemistry Blog.
I'm a Food Science Major and I'll gladly share my knowledge with all of you.
This time, I'll promise I will update this blog (experienced in failing several blog)

I'll promise or my name will not be Hadi akbar!

I'll post the basic of food Analysis later.
For now, stay tuned!