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HOW
PLANTS MAKE CARBOHYDRATES
Skip this part if you don't like dry science.
Plants manufacture carbohydrate molecules in their factories of green
leaves. By a process of photosynthesis (that is, synthesis using light
energy or photons) inside the chloroplasts (organelles in every green leaf)
they make one glucose molecule for every six carbon dioxide molecules they
breathe in.
The process in plants is:
CO2 + 2H20 + photon energy = CH2O with
trapped energy + H2O + O2
This formula states: the plant organelle (chloroplast) uses photons
of light energy (the sun) to combine carbon from the air (C in the CO2)
with two molecules of water from its roots (2H20) to make a
sugar (CH2O) with energy trapped inside it, and left over are
water (H2O) and oxygen (O2). As we know, plants are
a high water-content food, and they breathe out oxygen in the day.
Plants then combine six CH2O's into the glucose molecule
of C6H12O6. No animal can convert glucose
into a smaller molecule, so it's called a monosaccharide or single sugar.
Other mono-sugars are fructose–the sugar in fruits, ribose–the sugar
in RNA (which ribose we make ourselves in a metabolic pathway called the
pentose phosphate pathway) and galactose–from the sugar in animal milk,
lactose.
Incidentally, when it's dark, plants stop making sugars. At night they
use their sugar as fuel to perform their metabolic reactions, the same
as we humans. That's why they breathe out carbon dioxide at night, and
it's not good to keep plants in your bedroom.
If you're growing baby greens in a dark room, you should never leave
the light switched on for 24 hours. Plants need a break from making sugars,
to work on their own growth.
HOW
WE GET ENERGY FROM CARBOHYDRATES
When we eat plants, the process is reversed. Now it's:
CH2O + O2 + trapped energy = CO2 +
H2O + original energy from the sun
This formula states: the human organelle (actually, the mitochondria
in every cell, animal or plant) burns carbohydrate (CH2O) with
oxygen (O2) to release energy (I call it sun-energy).
Left over are carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O)
– we breathe out the carbon dioxide.
We use this sun-energy to tack a phosphate onto the tail of an ADP molecule
(adenosine DIphosphate) to make a molecule of ATP (adenosine TRIphosphate).
The ATP molecule then moves away, carrying its stored energy.
When an enzyme needs energy for a chemical reaction, it snips off that
last phosphate from ATP's tail. This releases energy which "pushes" the
reaction. Meanwhile, ATP is now ADP again, and returns to the mitochondrion
to line up for a new phosphate, or energy charge.
Hooking and unhooking that last phosphate is what keeps the whole living
world operating. In an average cell, there are about two million ATP molecules
in use every minute, providing energy for the cell's chemical reactions.
Deepak Chopra reports there are six trillion reactions a second in an
average cell, so two million ATP's doesn't sound like enough to me! Every
book has different estimates because it's impossible to estimate.
LIVING
GOD'S DREAM
We must get plenty of GLUCOSE and OXYGEN every day to make ATP. Or we'll
feel tired all the time.
Are you getting your glucose from:
-
junk sweet foods?
-
or cooked whole grains?
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or from raw fruits and starchy vegetables?
Where are you on the path? Make the decision that you want to be free.
You want to know yourself, and to know God. You're tired of running away.
All it leaves is a bad taste in your mouth.
With raw food, you'll find your fullest potential liberated beyond your
highest dreams. You'll mature into the unique person you were born to be,
the one you love. Grains will help you get to raw and stay raw. They helped me.
Oprah Winfrey said: "I'm living God's dream for me." So can we all.
Call me crazy, but I believe every person on earth can evolve into happiness.
When everyone's happy, that's it!
Joy is waiting for us in the step we take today.
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