What Determines Your Metabolism?
Your metabolism is the process that is involves the conversion of molecules such as sugars into energy and also the rate at which this energy is consumed. In order to understand how food is used to run your metabolism, it is important to know a few things. Your metabolism is a combination of physical and chemical processes called anabolism and catabolism. Anabolism is the constructive or building phase of metabolism in which body cells synthesize muscle and protoplasm for growth and repair. This is a series of articles that will dwell on various aspects of your metabolism. I will cover a few topics that are important in understanding metabolism, your health and ways to help reduce your weight with understanding a little about your metabolic processes.
The Effects of Alcohol On Your Metabolism
When alcoholic drinks are consumed they pass through the stomach into the small intestine where the ethanol (the key ingredient of alcohol) is rapidly absorbed and distributed throughout the body. The ethanol enters body tissues in proportion to their water content. Therefore, more ethanol is found in the blood and the brain than in muscle or fat tissue. Ethanol is greatly diluted by body fluids. A 1-ounce shot of 100-proof whiskey, which contains 0.5 fluid ounces of ethanol (or 15 mL), is diluted 5000-fold and in a 150-pound human, producing a 0.02% blood alcohol concentration.
Ethanol is toxic, and the body begins to dispose of it immediately upon its consumption. The liver processes over 90% of it. In the liver, the alcohol dehydrogenase enzyme converts ethanol into acetaldehyde, which is, toxic.
Studies have shown that in the short term, alcohol stimulates food intake and can also accentuate subjective feelings of hunger. Other studies have shown that the stimulatory effects of alcohol on food intake are controlled by hormonal regulation of satiety and satiation, such as the hormone leptin. Regardless of the cause, the outcome is the same; people consume more food when they have consumed alcohol.
20 Pareidolia and Apparitions: Clouds, Mars and Jesus
Things that look like other things are often referred to as pareidolia. A vague stimulus from an image or sound is being perceived as significant. A slight pattern in an object is perceived in our brain and linked to something we know in real life, such as a face or a religious symbol. A well known example of a pareidolia is the backmasked song Stairway to Heaven. When listening to this song backwards you are supposed to hear a hidden message. These subliminal messages are often merely a creation of our brain and will not be perceived unless someone points out what we should hear. When we know what we should hear or see, our brain will adapt itself to hear the hidden message.
Female beauty: Self-esteem campaign
Since 2005 Dove has a campaign running that’s titled “Campaign for real beauty”. All over the world commercials were broadcasted and initiatives are still being launched to change the stereotype view we have on beauty. Several media channels are used to reach this goal: advertising, interactive billboards, panel discussions, and a Self-Esteem Fund.
This campaign has the right intention to work on something that’s genuinly a problem in our western modern society. Many women do infact suffer from the social pressure of media, which idealizes the concept of beauty over and over again. On the catwalk you see girls so skinny it’s unhealthy, billboards project women enhanced with special technology to look more stunning and soap shows will rarely star girls with body fat percentages over 14%.
Bill Gates “Goodbye Microsoft” video
Two years ago Bill Gates announced retirement from Microsoft. Now, in 2008, this day has come. Having saved up some extra money, Bill figures he can finally do what he always wanted to do: spend some quality time with his family and surf the internet.
For the occasion Bill had a little goodbye video made which has many celebrity appearances in it, such as George Clooney, Barack Obama, Al Gore, Jay-Z, and many more… With so much talent, you would figure the video to be funny. Surprisingly, it nearly is!
Global Warming: Doomsday called off! (Part II)
Earlier I made a post (Global warming: Myth or fact?) where I tried looking up some stuff concerning global warming. Everywhere in the news different things are said about climate change. Some project apocalypse, other say the global warming story is overhyped. I found a 50 minute documentary titled “Doomsday – Global Warming Called off” which talks about this topic, trying to find the answer.
Stand up comedy: Pablo Francisco
Pablo Francisco is an American comedian with roots in Chile. Pablo is widely recognized within the comedy business for his ability to do vocal impressions of famous people including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Count Dracula, Keanu Reeves, Jerry Springer, William Hung and many others.
World’s biggest building: The Crystal Island
When talking about city prestige, big buildings are the way to go. Normally, when thinking about big buildings, we think New York. This might just change when Lord Foster’s (famous architect, also designed NY’s freedom towers) new project , “The Crystal Island”, is finished.
What’s that on the ceiling? (scary)
A disfunction in my subconscious mind puts me through terror about once every 3 months. I wake up to something so horrofying and frightening, it makes me jump out of bed and scream! I’m not even joking! I wake up and see some kind of anomaly in my room, something that definitely should not be there!
I’m not going to find out what freudian theory explains my occasional psychotic visions. What I will do is give you an idea what it’s like waking up to horror...
Reborn: fake babies
Women who want to a baby but don’t want to go through the birth proces no longer have to worry. All you have to do is order a fake baby! These fake babies are infact very realistic looking handcrafted dolls, called “Re-Borns”.
Modern Simpsons: The Simpsonzu
I found this amazing Simpsons artpiece at deviantart.com from the artist spacecoyote . The drawing got him a job at a cartoon company owned by Matt Groening himself! (the creator of “The Simpsons” tv series). The drawing is a rendition from the whole simpsons family, including some additional characters in a modernized version. Looking somewhat rough around the edges – this definitely is worth a look!
Suicidal bear jumps off bridge
It’s that time of the year again: holidays not only bring cheerful christmas trees and presents, but also rates as the time of the year with the most suicides! Apparantly this trend applies to both men AND bears...
Legalized marihuana in California
Eleven years ago the state of California legalized marihuana for medical reasons such as chemotherapy, pain treatment and other ailments. Since then all you need to get marihuana legally is a note from the doctor. However, this State law is not in order with Federal law. The federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) still does not approve what is happening in California.
The 61 Year Old Farmer Who Won the World’s Toughest Race
New year’s eve is the time of the year where we promis ourselves to better our lives. Either we want to quit smoking, find a good lover or start living healthier. If the last, living healthier, is in your New Year’s resolution list, and you decided to start jogging, then this inspirational (and true) story is definitely for you. If not, read it anyway I say.
Global Warming: Myth or fact? (Part I)
Something I wanted to look into was global warming. The past years global warming has become a very hot topic. Just think about the documentary An Inconvenient Truth from Al Gore, the Kyoto-protocol and the dozen new Environment Podcasts taking over my iTunes store. How did this all happen? What’s the deal with this climate change? I really don’t have any coherent theory that explains this hype, but I do have an opinion concerning global warming, namely that it’s extremely overhyped.
Stand up comedy: Dave Chappelle
Stand up comedians try to make us laugh by emphasizing clichés or taboos and saying a lot of fuck or shit while they’re at it. Dave Chapelle is the prime example of this. His favorite topic? Interracial differences. His best known quote? “I’m rich bitch!”. How did he get rich? He’s currently the most popular comedian in the United States, he has/had his own TV show for 3 seasons and earns enough money this way to comfortably decline 50 million dollar contract deals.