There're Giants in Our Body, Who Are They?

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After knowing what food is and its components, let's go to the next step!

The next step is to know what are major components inside of foods that have huge role in our body, either.

Those major components found in foods are Carbohydrate, Protein, and Fats. So are they in our body. Let me introduce you all of them one by one, please pay me an attention.

CARBOHYDRATES

Carbohydrates are molecules consist of carbon atoms along with hydrogen and oxygen in the same ratio as they occur in water. Carbohydrates itself are classified into 3 groups, which are Monosaccharides, Oligosaccharides, and Polysaccharides.

1. Monosaccharides : are simple carbohydrates consisting of three to eight carbon atoms, but the most common are those with five or six carbon atoms. The well-known monosaccharides are Glucose and Fructose, which have general formula C6H12O6.

2. Oligosaccharides : are connected monosaccharides to longer chain from 2 to 10 monosaccharides molecules. The reducing groups of one monosaccharide connect to one of the hydroxyl groups on another through glycosidic bond, to form disaccharides. More connections of glycosidic bond will give rise till 10 monosaccharides connected.

3. Polysaccharides : are oligosaccharides that have more than 10 monosaccharides joined each others. Polysaccharides may have linear structure, called amylose, or branched structure, called amylopectin.

As carbohydrates can be hydrolized into single chain of sugar (monosaccharide), it can react with other components due to heat treatment. Those reactions may be Maillard reaction or Caramelization. In Maillard reaction (named after Louis Camille Maillard in 1912), the reducing sugar like glucose can react with amin group of amino acid and result in forming hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) from amadori reaction. Then, last product of Maillard reaction will be forming a compound called Melanoidins, which have brown in color. Second, in Caramelization, a simple sugar is decomposed at high temperature and produces brown color. This brown color doesn't involve amino acid like in Maillard reaction.

PROTEINS

Proteins are present in all living things and have a key rol in many biological processes. Proteins are composed of amino acids. Source of proteins may be from milk, meat, grain, legumes, bacteria (single-cell proteins).

There are 20 amino acids forming the building blocks of most proteins. Each amino acid has amine and carboxylic acid group, which can be linked to other amino acids by peptide bond forming a polypeptide. Also, each amino acid has various side chains that are involved in inter- and intramolecular interactions in proteins.

Proteins have primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary structure. Primary structure is the simplest one just by sequencing of amino acids linked by peptide bonds. Secondary structure reveals the arrangement of the chain in space, it may form helical or extended structure. Tertiary structure occurs when linear protein chain and secondary structure protein fold together into a compact three-dimensional form. This formation involves many reaction among different side chains of each amino acid residues. The folding step into tertiary structure defines the size and shape of that protein. Quaternary structure is an arrangement of protein when it contains more than one polypeptide chain.

Proteins may change due to heat treatment and pH changing, called denaturation. Protein denaturation refers to change in the secondary and tertiary structure of protein. Denaturation can be reversible or irreversible according to with/without cleavage of covalent bond in the protein.

LIPIDS / FATS

Lipids itself include the triglycerides, phospholipids, and sterols.

Triglycerides are composed of one molecule of glycerol and three molecules of fatty acids. The arrangement and specific type of fatty acids that are attached will determine the chemical and physical properties of a fat/lipid.

Fatty acids are long hydrocarbon chains with a methyl group at one end and a carboxylic acid group at the other end. Most natural fatty acids contain from 4 to 24 carbon atoms and an even number of carbon atoms in the chain. Fatty acids can be saturated or unsaturated. Saturated fatty acid means it only has single carbon-to-carbon bonds, and unsaturated fatty acid means it has one or more double carbon-to-carbon bonds.

As the fat/lipid doesn't dissolve in water, yet when it contacts to each other the water may breakdown the chain in tryglicerides. It's called hydrolytic reaction. The water will cut the esther bond among one or more fatty acids to tryglycerides, and result in formation of free fatty acids. Free fatty acids affect the quality of fat, which may lower the pH, decrease its stability and smoke point, and produces off-flavors.

Another bad reaction can happen to fat is oxidative rancidity. It occurs mostly when unsaturated fatty acids get in touch with oxygen molecules. The more double bonds there are, the greater the opportunity for addition of oxygen to double bonds, increasing the risk that the fat or oil will become rancid. This rancidity may be promoted by the presence of heat, light, certain metals, and enzymes known an lipoxygenases. Nevertheless, no need to worry because this oxidative rancidity can be prevented by avoiding fat from oxygen, addition of antioxidant, storing in low temperature, and addition of metal chellator.

Here is a suggestion how you may arrange your Carbohydrates, Proteins, and Fats on your plate :

That's what I can share for you at this time.

Hope it's gonna be fruitful for you, guys!

Thankyou.

Reference : 

Wijaya, Christofora Hanny. 2015. "General Properties of Major Food Components". Handbook of Food Chemistry. Berlin : Springer.