Nutrition Guide

Catabolism

Catabolism is the metabolic reaction cells undergo in order to extract energy. There are two major metabolic pathways of monosaccharide catabolism:
Glycolysis
Citric acid cycle

Oligo/polysaccharides are cleaved first to smaller monosaccharides by enzymes called Glycoside hydrolases. The monosaccharide units can then enter into monosaccharide catabolism. In some cases, as with humans, not all carbohydrate types are usable as the digestive and metabolic enzymes necessary are not present. For instance, neither horses nor humans nor cats can digest and use cellulose, but ruminants and termites can.

Dietitians and other certified food scientists commonly classify carbohydrates as simple (monosaccharides and disaccharides) or complex (oligosaccharides and polysaccharides). The term complex carbohydrate was first used in the Senate Select Committee publication Dietary Goals for the United States (1977), where it denoted “fruit, vegetables and whole-grains”.[8] Dietary guidelines generally recommend that complex carbohydrates, and such nutrient-rich simple carbohydrate sources such as fruit (glucose or fructose) and dairy products (lactose) make up the bulk of carbohydrate consumption. This excludes such sources of simple sugars as candy and sugary drinks. The USDA’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005 dispensed with the simple/complex distinction, instead recommending fiber-rich foods and whole grains.[9]

The glycemic index and glycemic load concepts have been developed to characterize food behavior during human digestion. They rank carbohydrate-rich foods based on the rapidity of their effect on blood glucose levels. The insulin index is a similar, more recent classification method which ranks foods based on their effects on blood insulin levels, which are caused by glucose (or starch) and some amino acids in food. Glycemic index is a measure of how quickly food glucose is absorbed, while glycemic load is a measure of the total absorbable glucose in foods.

Antioxidant supplements with varying amounts of carotene(s) for (pro) vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E and Selenium are known by the acronym, ACES. The commercial ACES formulas are a first generation, high potency, combined antioxidant that vary in component concentrations, specific components or source, and their ratio according to manufacturer and are available as both tablet and capsule.

Beta-carotene, one of over 600 carotenoids, has been the most common ingredient for vitamin A activity in ACES formulas. Ascorbic acid and ascorbates are the common ingredients to deliver vitamin C activity. Vitamin E content has commonly varied among d,l-alpha-tocopheryl acetate (all-rac alpha-tocopheryl acetate), d-alpha-tocopheryl acetate, d-alpha-tocopheryl succinate, and d-alpha-tocopherol. Selenium content has been delivered as selenate, selenium containing nutritional yeast and selenium containing organic forms such as L-Selenomethionine and L-selenium-methylselenocysteine, again varying with manufacturer. More recent ACES formulas may use mixed natural carotene sources that include other carotenes such as zeaxanthin, alpha carotene, cryptoxanthin, lutein and lycopene. Mixed tocopherols with varied proportions of R,R,R-alpha-tocopherol, R,R,R-beta-tocopherol, R,R,R-gamma-tocopherol and R,R,R-delta-tocopherol are other suitable sources of vitamin E content in ACES formulas.

Popularly known as “ACES” in the 1980s during a period of rapid commercial growth and public awareness, these formulas have frequently expanded and differentiated by adding minor amounts other antioxidants such as lipoic acid, pycnogenol, coenzyme Q-10, N-acetyl cysteine, as well as other nutrients that again vary with manufacturer, and are often simply referred to as super antioxidants or a branded, proprietary trade name.

Various ACES formulations will typically contain 10,000-25,000 IU carotenes, 250 mg - 1000 mg vitamin C, 200-400 IU alpha-tocopherol, and 50 mcg- 200 mcg selenium content per serving of one to three units (tablet or capsule), as well as other nutrients in more recent antioxidant formulations.

At the beginning of 2006 a new ginger-flavored[1] Battery was introduced and in the end of year 2006 a sugarfree version, so called Stripped[2] Battery, was introduced. At the end of 2007 Battery Heat was introduced. It has a new cranberry and chili mixed flavour. In late 2008 a bottled version of Battery was released, although with the original flavor.

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Oligosaccharides and polysaccharides are composed of longer chains of monosaccharide units bound together by glycosidic bonds. The distinction between the two is based upon the number of monosaccharide units present in the chain. Oligosaccharides typically contain between two and nine monosaccharide units, and polysaccharides contain greater than ten monosaccharide units. Definitions of how large a carbohydrate must be to fall into each category vary according to personal opinion. Examples of oligosaccharides include the disaccharides mentioned above, the trisaccharide raffinose and the tetrasaccharide stachyose.

Oligosaccharides are found as a common form of protein posttranslational modification. Such posttranslational modifications include the Lewis and ABO oligosaccharides responsible for blood group classifications and so of tissue incompatibilities, the alpha-Gal epitope responsible for hyperacute rejection in xenotransplanation, and O-GlcNAc modifications.

Polysaccharides represent an important class of biological polymers. Their function in living organisms is usually either structure or storage related. Starch (a polymer of glucose) is used as a storage polysaccharide in plants, being found in the form of both amylose and the branched amylopectin. In animals, the structurally similar glucose polymer is the more densely branched glycogen, sometimes called ‘animal starch’. Glycogen’s properties allow it to be metabolized more quickly, which suits the active lives of moving animals.

Cellulose and chitin are examples of structural polysaccharides. Cellulose is used in the cell walls of plants and other organisms, and is claimed to be the most abundant organic molecule on earth.[3] It has many uses such as a significant role in the paper and textile industries, and is used as a feedstock for the production of rayon (via the viscose process), cellulose acetate, celluloid, and nitrocellulose. Chitin’s structure has a similar structure, but has nitrogen containing side branches, increasing its strength. It is found in arthropod exoskeletons and in the cell walls of some fungi. It also has multiple uses, including surgical threads.

Other polysaccharides include callose or laminarin, xylan, mannan, fucoidan, and galactomannan.

Two joined monosaccharides are called a disaccharides and these are the simplest polysaccharides. Examples include sucrose and lactose. They are composed of two monosaccharide units bound together by a covalent bond known as a glycosidic linkage formed via a dehydration reaction, resulting in the loss of a hydrogen atom from one monosaccharide and a hydroxyl group from the other. The formula of unmodified disaccharides is C12H22O11. Although there are numerous kinds of disaccharides, a handful of disaccharides are particularly notable.

Sucrose, pictured to the right, is the most abundant disaccharide, and the main form in which carbohydrates are transported in plants. It is composed of one D-glucose molecule and one D-fructose molecule. The systematic name for sucrose, O-?-D-glucopyranosyl-(1?2)-D-fructofuranoside, indicates four things:
Its monosaccharides: glucose and fructose
Their ring types: glucose is a pyranose, and fructose is a furanose
How they are linked together: the oxygen on carbon number 1 (C1) of ?-D-glucose is linked to the C2 of D-fructose.
The -oside suffix indicates that the anomeric carbon of both monosaccharides participates in the glycosidic bond.

Lactose, a disaccharide composed of one D-galactose molecule and one D-glucose molecule, occurs naturally in mammalian milk. The systematic name for lactose is O-?-D-galactopyranosyl-(1?4)-D-glucopyranose. Other notable disaccharides include maltose (two D-glucoses linked ?-1,4) and cellulobiose (two D-glucoses linked ?-1,4).

The energy drink contains water, sugar maltodextrin, taurine, citric acid, caffeine and guarana seed extract, B vitamins, aromas, coloring agents and preservatives. In terms of caffeine content, due to normal practice in Finland, the official website announces it contains “320 milligrams per each 100 centilitres”, which is to say: 320 mg/l, making 105.6 mg the content for a 330 ml can, about the same amount as found on a cup of espresso coffee.

Russian legislation, Ministry of Health’s order number 117 dated as of 15 April 1997, under the title “Concerning the procedure for the examination and health certification of Biologically Active Dietary Supplements”, provides the usage of the following terminology:
As a rule, BADSs are foodstuffs with clinically proven effectiveness. BADSs are recommended not only for prophylactics, but can be included into a complex therapy for the prevention of pharmaceutical therapy’s side effects and for the achievement of complete remission.

The development of BADSs and their applications has been very fast moving. They were originally considered as dietary supplements for people who had heightened requirements for some normal dietary components (for example, sportsmen). Later, they were employed as preventive medicines against chronic diseases.

Monosaccharides are the simplest carbohydrates in that they cannot be hydrolyzed to smaller carbohydrates. The general chemical formula of an unmodified monosaccharide is (C•H2O)n, where n is any number of three or greater.

Classification of monosaccharides

Monosaccharides are classified according to three different characteristics: the placement of its carbonyl group, the number of carbon atoms it contains, and its chiral handedness. If the carbonyl group is an aldehyde, the monosaccharide is an aldose; if the carbonyl group is a ketone, the monosaccharide is a ketose. Monosaccharides with three carbon atoms are called trioses, those with four are called tetroses, five are called pentoses, six are hexoses, and so on. These two systems of classification are often combined. For example, glucose is an aldohexose (a six-carbon aldehyde), ribose is an aldopentose (a five-carbon aldehyde), and fructose is a ketohexose (a six-carbon ketone).

Each carbon atom bearing a hydroxyl group (-OH), with the exception of the first and last carbons, are asymmetric, making them stereocenters with two possible configurations each (R or S). Because of this asymmetry, a number of isomers may exist for any given monosaccharide formula. The aldohexose D-glucose, for example, has the formula (C·H2O)6, of which all but two of its six carbons atoms are stereogenic, making D-glucose one of 24 = 16 possible stereoisomers. In the case of glyceraldehyde, an aldotriose, there is one pair of possible stereoisomers, which are enantiomers and epimers. 1,3-dihydroxyacetone, the ketose corresponding to the aldose glyceraldehyde, is a symmetric molecule with no stereocenters). The assignment of D or L is made according to the orientation of the asymmetric carbon furthest from the carbonyl group: in a standard Fischer projection if the hydroxyl group is on the right the molecule is a D sugar, otherwise it is an L sugar. Because D sugars are biologically far more common, the D is often omitted
Conformation

The aldehyde or ketone group of a straight-chain monosaccharide will react reversibly with a hydroxyl group on a different carbon atom to form a hemiacetal or hemiketal, forming a heterocyclic ring with an oxygen bridge between two carbon atoms. Rings with five and six atoms are called furanose and pyranose forms, respectively, and exist in equilibrium with the straight-chain form.

During the conversion from straight-chain form to cyclic form, the carbon atom containing the carbonyl oxygen, called the anomeric carbon, becomes a chiral center with two possible configurations: the oxygen atom may take a position either above or below the plane of the ring. The resulting possible pair of stereoisomers are called anomers. In the ? anomer, the -OH substituent on the anomeric carbon rests on the opposite side (trans) of the ring from the CH2OH side branch. The alternative form, in which the CH2OH substituent and the anomeric hydroxyl are on the same side (cis) of the plane of the ring, is called the ? anomer. You can remember that the ? anomer is cis by the mnemonic, “It’s always better to ?e up”. Because the ring and straight-chain forms readily interconvert, both anomers exist in equilibrium.

Use in living organisms

Monosaccharides are the major source of fuel for metabolism, being used both as an energy source (glucose being the most important in nature) and in biosynthesis. When monosaccharides are not immediately needed by many cells they are often converted to more space efficient forms, often polysaccharides. In many animals, including humans, this storage form is glycogen, especially in liver and muscle cells. In plants, starch is used for the same purpose.