Metabolism Nutrition Part 1 Crash Course AP 36

I weigh about 80 kilograms.
Most of that, let’s say 64 percent, is water

-- though you can’t tell by looking.
I mean, as organisms go, I like to think that

I look fairly solid.
After water, the next largest proportion of

me is protein, about 16% -- not just in my
muscles, but also in things like the tiny

sodium-potassium pumps in my neurons, and
the hemoglobin in my blood, and the enzymes

driving the chemical reactions in every one
of my 37 trillion cells.
Then another 16% of me is fat, which I’m

totally OK with;
Four percent of me is minerals, like the calcium

and phosphorus in my bones, and the iron in my blood;
and 1 percent is carbohydrates, most of which

is either being consumed as I talk to you,
or is sitting around as glycogen waiting to

be used.
But here’s the thing: It’s not like I just ate 80

kilograms of food and then all this happened.
Instead, my body, like yours, is constantly

acquiring stuff, extracting some of it to
keep, burning some of it for energy, and getting

rid of the rest.
But even the stuff that my body does hold

onto doesn’t last forever. Some of the chemicals
that I absorb in my food eventually become

a part of me. But enzymes wear out, and membranes
break down, and DNA gets oxidized. So, they

get discarded.
And then I need more of those chemicals to

reconstruct the material that I’ve lost.
As a result, over the course of my lifetime,

my cells will synthesize somewhere between
225 and 450 kilograms of protein …
That’s like 3, or 4, or 5 separate me’s

-- just made of protein.
And all of the protein and fat and
carbohydrates nucleic acids that
make up me, of course, come from food.
Every organism has to keep taking in and breaking

down food, to keep resupplying itself with
the raw materials it needs to survive.
And all that activity requires energy, which

we also gain from food.
So, how do our bodies actually convert what

we eat into energy and raw materials?
The answer is a neverending series of reactions

that are dedicated to doing two vital, and
totally contradictory, things:
One set of chemical reactions destroys the

reactants that you give them, reducing big,
complex substances into molecular rubble.
And the other set reassembles that rubble

into new and bigger products that are put
together again to make you.
So our bodies are constantly reinventing themselves --

in a perpetual state of loss, but also always rebuilding.
And even though all of this is happening at the

cellular level, its consequences could hardly be larger.
These two sets of reactions are where everything

that we’ve learned so far -- about the digestive,
endocrine, circulatory, and respiratory systems

-- really starts to come together.
Together, these processes make up your metabolism.
Now the sciencey word metabolism has

come to have a meaning in popular speech,
but metabolism isn’t just one thing.
People talk about metabolism as meaning, like,

how fast your body burns the fuel in your
food, or how high your personal energy level

is.
And that’s fine for use by personal trainers

and fitness magazines.
But physiologically, metabolism really describes every
single biochemical reaction that goes on in your body.
And maybe more importantly, it reconciles

two conflicting chemical processes that are
always, simultaneously underway inside of

you.
One of those chemical forces is anabolism.
Anabolic reactions construct things and consume

energy.
These are the processes that take the small

monomer building blocks in your food -- like
monosaccharides and fatty and amino acids

-- and build them into bigger, more complex
polymers like carbs, and fats, and proteins

that are used in your cells.
Then, when you need new building blocks, or

you need to release some energy, those polymers
in your body, or new ones in your food, get

broken up -- by catabolic reactions.
The processes of catabolism break down bigger

molecules, and in breaking their bonds, release
the energy you need to stay warm, and move

around, and provide your cells with fuel … to
build the polymers back up again.
To be honest, your metabolism is a lot like

Sisyphus. It works really hard. But it is never finished.
And the boulder that your inner Sisyphus is

always pushing uphill and watching fall back
down? That’s nutrients -- the molecules

that your body is forever breaking up, and
then rebuilding, only to have them break apart

again.
And these nutrients -- the materials your

body needs to build, maintain and repair itself
-- come in six major groups.
By volume, the majority of what we consume

-- and what makes up our bodies -- is water,
so that’s maybe the most vital nutrient.

Then there are vitamins, compounds that come
in either fat-soluble or water soluble forms.
They aren’t used as building blocks or for

energy, but they’re essential in helping
the body make use of other nutrients that

do do those things.
Vitamin C, for example, helps improve iron

absorption, while vitamin K is crucial to
blood clotting, and some B vitamins are important

in the production of ATP from glucose.
Minerals, like vitamins, they don’t provide

fuel, but they have all sorts of other functions.
Calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus harden

bones and teeth, while iron is, of course,
crucial in hemoglobin. Plus, potassium, sodium,

and chlorine help maintain your body’s pH
balance and are used in action potentials.
So water, vitamins, and minerals are all … necessary.
But the three major nutrients that everyone

always talks about -- the ones you find on
food labels, from oatmeal to Pop-Tarts -- are

carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins.
Most of the carbohydrates you’ve ever eaten
-- with the exception of lactose in milk --

originally came from plants.
Mono- and disaccharides come from fruits, honey,

sugar beets and sugar cane, while polysaccharide
starches come from veggies and grains.
The main thing you need to know is that the

monosaccharide glucose is the be-all-end-all
molecular fuel that your cells need to make

ATP.
ATP being the molecule that your cells use

to drive anabolic reactions, when they need
to make new polymers or get anything else

done -- whether that’s operating a sodium-potassium
pump, or detaching the head of a myosin filament

to contract a muscle.
But ATP is too unstable to store, so cells
often store energy in the form of glucose,
which they can then catabolize and convert

to ATP when they need it.
Now, some of your cells can get their energy

from fats. But many of the most important
ones, like your neurons and red blood cells,

feed exclusively on glucose. So most of the
carbs that your intestines absorb are converted

to glucose for that reason.
But, if it’s not needed right away, that

energy can also get stored as glycogen in
your liver and muscles, or converted to glycerol

and fatty acids to make triglyceride fats.
And even though there seems to be a marketing

war going on against dietary fats,
we most definitely need them.
The fats in your adipose tissue store energy,

of course, but they also store fat-soluble
vitamins, and cushion your organs.
Lipids also form the myelin that insulates

the neurons in your brain and throughout your
body, as well as the oil in your skin, and they

provide the vital calorie content found in breast milk.
But there are other important lipids, like

cholesterol, which is the precursor to things
like testosterone and estrogen...
...and, of course, phospholipids, which form

the cell membrane in every single one of the
three-dozen-or-so-trillion cells you have.
Now, if you’re into eating meat, a lot of

the fat that you ingest might come from that.
But guess what: Plants have fat too.
Plants use lipids for energy storage just

like we do, except they do it in fruits, and
nuts, and seeds. Which, when you think of

it, are kind of like plant breast milk -- it’s
food for their growing babies.
Either way, though, when you eat lipids, your

body breaks down triglycerides into glycerol
and fatty acids.
Those molecules can then be processed and

used in the making of ATP. Or they might be
converted into other kinds of fatty acids,

which your cells can then re-assemble into
your very own triglycerides or phospholipids.
And your liver happens to be great at converting

one fatty acid into another, but there are
some it just can’t synthesize.
For example, omega 6 and 3 fatty acids are

called essential fatty acids, because your
body can’t make them, so they have to be

ingested.
They get turned into all kinds of useful molecules,

like the ones used for synapse formation in
the brain, and for signalling inflammation

during the healing process.
But -- if carbohydrates provide energy, and

fats insulate and store energy, then just
about everything else is done with proteins.
They form the bulk of your muscle and connective

tissue, but they’re also what the ion channels
and pumps are made of in your neurons and

muscle cells, and they make up your enzymes,
which are responsible for pretty much every

chemical reaction in your body.
In other words, your body runs on protein,

and pretty much is protein.
Nutritionally speaking, meats, dairy products,

eggs, legumes, nuts, cereals are particularly
high in protein. But because everything we

eat was once alive, and every cell of every
living thing contains protein, as long as

you’re eating whole foods, you’re at least
partially re-stocking your protein supplies.

Now it might seem like you’d have eat muscle
to make muscle, or eat enzymes to make enzymes,
but that’s not how it works.
Since all of your proteins are made up of

just 20 amino acids, the differences between
the thousands of unique proteins are simply

in the sequence of those amino acids.
And, of course, you have a specialized molecule

that knows just which amino acids to put together
in what order to make a certain protein.
It’s called DNA.
When you consume some hamburger, for example,

the protein actin in the meat gets catabolized
into its component amino acids, which gets

mixed up with all the amino acids from the
other proteins in the meat -- like the collagen

and elastin and titin and myosin -- as well
as all the protein from the bun and the tomato

and the mayonnaise.
Those amino acids then get reassembled using

anabolic reactions into your very own, but
somewhat different, proteins, as defined by

your DNA.
Each cell is like a picky little Gordon Ramsay

and it has to have every amino acid needed
-- every ingredient present -- before it will

even think about starting to make a protein.
And just like with your lipids, your cells

can improvise, and convert some amino acids
to others if they’re missing an ingredient.
However, there are nine essential amino acids

that you cannot make from others, and have to eat.
Now lots of foods don’t provide every essential

amino acid, but when you combine foods, like
beans and rice, or pasta and cheese, you do

get all of the essential amino acids. Which
is important because, remember: after water,

you are mostly made of protein. On the order of 16%
But what about the one percent of you? The
carbohydrates?
How that tiniest fraction of you ends up creating

all of the energy, is what we’ll discover next time.
But for now, you’ve learned all about the

vital nutrients -- including water, vitamins,
minerals, carbs, fats, and proteins -- as

well as how anabolic reactions build structures
and require energy, while catabolic reactions

tear things apart and release energy. And
together, these competing forces form the

wonderfully conflicted process known as metabolism.
Thank you to our Headmaster of Learning, Linnea

Boyev, and thanks to all of our Patreon patrons
whose monthly contributions help make Crash

Course possible, not only for themselves,
but for everyone, everywhere. If you like

Crash Course and want to help us keep making
videos like this, you can go to patreon.com/crashcourse
This episode was filmed in the Doctor Cheryl

C. Kinney Crash Course Studio, it was written
by Kathleen Yale, edited by Blake de Pastino,

and our consultant is Dr. Brandon Jackson.
It was directed by Nicholas Jenkins, edited

by Nicole Sweeney; our sound designer is Michael
Aranda, and the Graphics team is Thought Cafe.

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I weigh about 80 kilograms.

Most of that, let’s say 64 percent, is water

I mean, as organisms go, I like to think that

After water, the next largest proportion of

muscles, but also in things like the tiny

the hemoglobin in my blood, and the enzymes

Then another 16% of me is fat, which I’m

Four percent of me is minerals, like the calcium

and 1 percent is carbohydrates, most of which

or is sitting around as glycogen waiting to

But here’s the thing: It’s not like I just ate 80

Instead, my body, like yours, is constantly

keep, burning some of it for energy, and getting

But even the stuff that my body does hold

that I absorb in my food eventually become

break down, and DNA gets oxidized. So, they

And then I need more of those chemicals to

As a result, over the course of my lifetime,

225 and 450 kilograms of protein …

That’s like 3, or 4, or 5 separate me’s

make up me, of course, come from food.

Every organism has to keep taking in and breaking

the raw materials it needs to survive.

And all that activity requires energy, which

So, how do our bodies actually convert what

The answer is a neverending series of reactions

totally contradictory, things:

One set of chemical reactions destroys the

complex substances into molecular rubble.

And the other set reassembles that rubble

together again to make you.

So our bodies are constantly reinventing themselves --

And even though all of this is happening at the

These two sets of reactions are where everything

endocrine, circulatory, and respiratory systems

Together, these processes make up your metabolism.

Now the sciencey word metabolism has

but metabolism isn’t just one thing.

People talk about metabolism as meaning, like,

food, or how high your personal energy level

And that’s fine for use by personal trainers

And maybe more importantly, it reconciles

always, simultaneously underway inside of

One of those chemical forces is anabolism.

Anabolic reactions construct things and consume

These are the processes that take the small

monosaccharides and fatty and amino acids

polymers like carbs, and fats, and proteins

Then, when you need new building blocks, or

in your body, or new ones in your food, get

The processes of catabolism break down bigger

the energy you need to stay warm, and move

build the polymers back up again.

To be honest, your metabolism is a lot like

And the boulder that your inner Sisyphus is

down? That’s nutrients -- the molecules

then rebuilding, only to have them break apart

And these nutrients -- the materials your