Understanding Carbohydrates: The Science Behind Pre-Meet Pasta Dinners

574 Words2 Pages

Greetings Track Team,
The coach has asked me to speak to about why we host a spaghetti dinner the night before our meet. Pasta is a carbohydrate, and vital in our bodies. A carbohydrate, as many of you know, comes from a plant, which comes from when the Autotroph receives sunlight, it releases carbohydrates and oxygen. This is process is known as Dehydration Synthesis, an anabolic reaction, where the bonds are being built. This reaction is necessary, as animals rely on it to survive.
Let’s begin when we take our first bite of spaghetti, what is happening inside our mouth? The molecule of starch is quickly broken down by salivary analyzes. These molecules are designed to break down starch, otherwise they could break us down. The salivary analyzes are made of a special molecule, an amylase enzyme, which aids in a process. In this case, the enzyme aided in the catabolic process, where the molecule is being broken down and energy is released. When the salivary analyzes breaks down the starch through hydrolysis, where water is needed in this process, energy is lost and the product of …show more content…

The day of our meet, our bodies will be working hard, and will soon need more energy. Our breakfast will have some glucose, but eventually our bodies will need more. The glycogen that is stored in our bodies will go through hydrolysis and turn into glucose. The muscles and cells will use this to perform cellular respiration occurs, and we get the energy that we need. The extra glucose will turn back into glycogen. This process helps our overall performance in the meet. Without it, we would have no energy and our bodies would shut down when we were running. Our coach knows how important it is to consume carbohydrates before the meet, so that is why it is necessary to have our spaghetti dinner the night before the

More about Understanding Carbohydrates: The Science Behind Pre-Meet Pasta Dinners

Open Document