biological molecules - you are what you eat: crash course

Which biological molecule is found in the foods we eat?

What makes food? All organic (naturally occurring) molecules are classified into 4 general categories: carbohydrate, lipid, protein, and nucleic acid. Foods you consume consist of these 4 molecules.

What are the 3 main molecules in the food you eat?

These molecules are major determinants of food texture and flavor; they are also essential for an array of physiological functions in plants and animals that we eat. In particular, proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids are major determinants of the physical and mechanical properties of cells and nuclei.

What are the four biological molecules and briefly explain each?

There are four major classes of biological macromolecules (carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids), and each is an important component of the cell and performs a wide array of functions. Combined, these molecules make up the majority of a cell's mass.

What are biological molecules?

Definition: A biomolecule is a chemical compound found in living organisms. These include chemicals that are composed of mainly carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus. Biomolecules are the building blocks of life and perform important functions in living organisms.

What molecule is food?

The food we eat – our diet – is made up of different biological molecules which give us energy and contain chemicals we need to grow and repair ourselves and help our cells function in our body. Carbohydrates and fats are made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Proteins contain carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen.

What molecules make up foods?

Food is made up of many different chemical components or parts, including vitamins, minerals, sugars, fibres, water, lipids, proteins and starches. In addition to these main nutrient components, many foods contain smaller amounts of biologically active chemicals. In plants, these are referred to as phytochemicals.

What are the biological molecules of life?

All life on Earth is built from four different types of molecules. These four types of molecules are often referred to as the molecules of life. The four molecules of life are proteins, carbohydrates, lipids and nucleic acids. Each of the four groups is vital for every single organism on Earth.

Why are biological molecules important?

Conclusion. Biomolecules are vital for life as it aids organisms to grow, sustain, and reproduce. They are involved in building organisms from single cells to complex living beings like humans, by interacting with each other. The diversity in their shape and structure provides diversity in their functions.

What is the importance of biomolecules in our daily life?

Significance of Biomolecules Biomolecules are required to transport fats, fatty acids and cholesterol. Biomolecules play a vital role in the production of vitamins and sex hormones. These organic compounds are a major source of energy, which are required to produce new cells, tissues, bones, muscles, etc.

What are molecules in the human body?

A molecule is a group of atoms bound together to perform a function. There are thousands of different molecules in the human body, all serving critical tasks. Some are compounds you can't live without (at least not for very long). Take a look at some of the most important molecules in the body.

Which of the following best describes the biological molecule?

Which of the following best describes the biological molecule? The molecule is a complex carbohydrate. Carbohydrates contain carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, but not nitrogen, phosphorus, or sulfur.

Which biomolecule is most important?

Proteins. Proteins are the primary building materials of the body. Your hair, skin, muscles, and organs are composed mostly of proteins. Proteins are strong yet flexible, and they have a complex 3-D structure.

What are macronutrients?

Direct link to Paul Vinell's post “Macronutrients are nutrie...”. more. Macronutrients are nutrients that provide energy; proteins, fat and carbohydrates. Fat does not just provide us with energy, it's used in vitamin absorption, your brain, your cells, hormones, hair, skin, etc.

What enzyme breaks down cellulose?

So throw that on some cellulose in an ionic solution, and cellulose will break down into its components, i.e. D-glucose.

What are lipids made of?

Lipids are made up of the same elements as carbohydrates: carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. However, lipids tend to contain many more hydrogen atoms than oxygen atoms.

Why is fat important?

They are important for your body to function. Fat does not make you fat by itself. An excess amount of anything that provides you with energy, will be stored as fat, so you can use the energy later. Fat can be stored as fat, just like carbohydrates and protein can.

Can cellulose be converted to starch?

There is no way to directly convert cellulose to starch (like simple mutarotation). However, there are a few multi-step chemical processes that could be utilized to turn cellulose into starch, and, of course, enzymes that catalyze each reaction step.

What are the ingredients of life?

They are the ingredients for life, and we call them the carbohydrates, the lipids, the proteins, and the nucleic acids.

What are carbohydrates made of?

Carbohydrates are made up of sugars, and the simplest of them are called monosaccharides. "Mono" for one, "saccharides" for the actual root of the word sugar. The star of the show here is glucose, because it’s truly fundamental, by which I mean, like, number one on the global food chain, because it comes from the sun.

What are triglycerides and phospholipids?

So remember that triglycerides are three fatty acids connected to a glycerol. Swap one of those fatty acids out for a phosphate group, and you have a phospholipid. These make up cell membrane walls. Since that phosphate group gives that end a polarity, it’s attracted to water.

How are amino acids formed?

Amino acids form long chains called polypeptides. Proteins are formed when these polypeptides not only connect but elaborate and, frankly, really elegant structures. They fold. They coil. They twist. If they were sculptures, I would go the museum every day just to look at them, and I'd walk straight past the nudes without even looking.#N#But protein synthesis is only possible if you have all of the amino acids necessary, and there are nine of them that we can't make ourselves: histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine. By eating foods that are high in protein, we can digest them down into their base particles, and then use these essential amino acids in building up our own proteins. Some foods, especially ones that contain animal protein, have all of the essential amino acids, including this egg.

What is the process of getting energy from glucose?

And every cell that needs energy uses glucose to get that energy through a process called respiration. In addition to glucose, there are other monosaccharides like fructose, which has the same molecular formula (C 6 H 12 O 6) but arranged differently. These subtle chemical differences do matter.

What are the two main ingredients in fat?

Fats ( 07:47) Fats are made up mainly of two chemical ingredients: glycerol, which is a kind of alcohol; and fatty acids, which are long carbon-hydrogen chains that end in a carboxyl group. When you get three fatty acid molecules together and connect them to a glycerol, that’s a triglyceride.

Why are fats and lipids grouped together?

All of our mom’s worst enemies, the fat, which turn out to be, actually, really important, and are the most familiar sort of a very important biological molecule, the lipid.#N#Lipids are smaller and simpler than complex carbohydrates, and they’re grouped together because they share an inability to dissolve in water. This is because their chemical bonds are mostly non-polar. And since water, as we learned in the previous episode, despises non-polar molecules, the two do not mix. It's like oil and water. In fact, it's exactly like oil and water. And if you’ve ever read a nutrition label, or seen this thing called the television, you're probably pretty conversant in the way that we classify fats. But then, you know, 99% of us have no idea what those classifications actually mean.