22nd August 2006, 10:44 PM
You're wrong on some things but otherwise you got the idea. I just dont understand how people equate starvation to being healthy or looking better. I guess it comes from seeing starved people from pictures; they got no food so they shrunk. But the idea is that your body first eats the muscle tissues, then once it's eaten everything it can, THEN it dips in to fat reserves. But it will absorb water retention in the fat cells first and foremost, maybe its this sudden drop in water weight that people see as 'losing weight'. Though because it's water, something your body desperately needs in large quantities, you gain it all back within days. Unless you stop drinking water altogether which means you'll live for about 2 to 4 days.
As far as the purpose of fat, it has dozens of qualities needed for survival. Specifically, (from wiki)
Vitamins A, D, E, and K are fat-soluble, meaning they can only be digested, absorbed, and transported in conjunction with fats. Fats are sources of essential fatty acids, an important dietary requirement.
Fats play a vital role in maintaining healthy skin and hair, insulating body organs against shock, maintaining body temperature, and promoting healthy cell function. They are also known as lipids. They also serve as energy stores for the body. Fats are broken down in the body to release glycerol and free fatty acids. The glycerol can be converted to glucose by the liver and thus used as a source of energy. The fatty acids are a good source of energy for many tissues, especially heart and skeletal muscle.
Fat also serves as a useful buffer towards a host of diseases. When a particular substance, whether chemical or biotic -- reaches unsafe levels in the bloodstream, the body can effectively dilute -- or at least maintain equilibrium of -- the offending substances by storing it in new fat tissue. This helps to protect vital organs, until such time as the offending substances can be metabolized and/or removed from the body by such means as excretion, urination, accidental or intentional bloodletting, sebum excretion, and hair growth.
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Adipose tissue
Main article: Adipose tissue
Adipose, or fatty tissue is the human body's means of storing metabolic energy over extended periods of time. Depending on current physiological conditions, adipocytes store fat derived from the diet and liver metabolism or degrades stored fat to supply fatty acids and glycerol to the circulation. These metabolic activities are regulated by several hormones (i.e., insulin, glucagon and epinephrine). The location of the tissue determines its metabolic profile: "Visceral fat" is located within the abdominal wall (i.e., beneath the wall of abdominal muscle) whereas "subcutaneous fat" is located beneath the skin (and includes fat that is located in the abdominal area beneath the skin but above the abdominal muscle wall). It was briefly thought that visceral fat produced a hormone involved in insulin resistance, but this has been disproven by clinical tests (see, resistin, a hormone, ultimately misnamed, which is produced by adipose tissue and does cause insulin resistence in mice but not in humans).
Basically, if you have low fat in your body, you have major problems, including oddly enough everything from bad hair to sleep deprivation. The funny thing is, you can be 200 pounds over weight, but if you get 20 minutes a day of cardio you're healthier (and will live longer) than an average weight person who gets no excercize.
As far as the purpose of fat, it has dozens of qualities needed for survival. Specifically, (from wiki)
Vitamins A, D, E, and K are fat-soluble, meaning they can only be digested, absorbed, and transported in conjunction with fats. Fats are sources of essential fatty acids, an important dietary requirement.
Fats play a vital role in maintaining healthy skin and hair, insulating body organs against shock, maintaining body temperature, and promoting healthy cell function. They are also known as lipids. They also serve as energy stores for the body. Fats are broken down in the body to release glycerol and free fatty acids. The glycerol can be converted to glucose by the liver and thus used as a source of energy. The fatty acids are a good source of energy for many tissues, especially heart and skeletal muscle.
Fat also serves as a useful buffer towards a host of diseases. When a particular substance, whether chemical or biotic -- reaches unsafe levels in the bloodstream, the body can effectively dilute -- or at least maintain equilibrium of -- the offending substances by storing it in new fat tissue. This helps to protect vital organs, until such time as the offending substances can be metabolized and/or removed from the body by such means as excretion, urination, accidental or intentional bloodletting, sebum excretion, and hair growth.
[edit]
Adipose tissue
Main article: Adipose tissue
Adipose, or fatty tissue is the human body's means of storing metabolic energy over extended periods of time. Depending on current physiological conditions, adipocytes store fat derived from the diet and liver metabolism or degrades stored fat to supply fatty acids and glycerol to the circulation. These metabolic activities are regulated by several hormones (i.e., insulin, glucagon and epinephrine). The location of the tissue determines its metabolic profile: "Visceral fat" is located within the abdominal wall (i.e., beneath the wall of abdominal muscle) whereas "subcutaneous fat" is located beneath the skin (and includes fat that is located in the abdominal area beneath the skin but above the abdominal muscle wall). It was briefly thought that visceral fat produced a hormone involved in insulin resistance, but this has been disproven by clinical tests (see, resistin, a hormone, ultimately misnamed, which is produced by adipose tissue and does cause insulin resistence in mice but not in humans).
Basically, if you have low fat in your body, you have major problems, including oddly enough everything from bad hair to sleep deprivation. The funny thing is, you can be 200 pounds over weight, but if you get 20 minutes a day of cardio you're healthier (and will live longer) than an average weight person who gets no excercize.