Have you ever wondered why our body stores fats? Here is a pretty simple and basic explanation for the same. Human body needs energy consistently for carrying out hundreds of chemical and biological reactions that take place in the body. The energy so needed is supplied by the food that we eat. The anatomy of humans has not changed much since the Stone Age when the most prevalent danger for human’s survival was ever-present food scarcity. Obesity and over consumption of food were unheard of. Human body was designed to store food in adipose tissue when the food was available and during hunting season. The stored fat was utilized to draw energy at the time of food scarcity. This simple logic explains the body’s built in capability to store fat adequately in the natures most amazing creation i.e. humans.
The next most important question that comes to our mind is what kind of food is absorbed by the body and when are these stored to the adipose tissue? Food that we eat contains mostly of water and nutrients like – carbohydrates, proteins and dietary fats. Our gastrointestinal tract system is designed to separate, digest and absorb these nutrients according to their ability to convert into glucose. The excess of these nutrients in stored in the adipose tissue.
Usage and Storage of Carbohydrates:
Carbohydrates are most readily convertible to glucose and are major source of energy for the body. Most of the carbohydrates are converted to glucose in the in the digestive tract itself. The liver then supplies the glucose so formed as energy to various body cells. On the usage of the most immediate energy requirement, the residual glucose formed by carbohydrates is either converted to glycogen or into fatty acids. While Glycogen is stored in the liver or muscles to be used as a temporary source of energy, fatty acids are stored in the adipose cells or the fat cells.
Usage and Storage of Protein:
Proteins are essentials for the cell repair and formation activity to take place in the body. Small intestine breaks the proteins into amino acids that are supplied by the liver to the body cells. Over produced amino acid either gets converted to sugar and is used for immediate energy requirements or keep circulating in the body through the bloodstream. Some part of the surplus amino acids are converted into fatty acids and get deposited in the adipose cells.
Usage and Storage of Dietary Fats:
Small intestine divides dietary fats into fatty acids and glycerol in the stomach. The lymphatic system then distributes these to the cells for various uses including usage as energy in case of absence of enough carbohydrates. However only a little dietary fat (about 5%) is converted to glucose and the body does not prefer them as the energy source, most of it is stored in the adipose cells as fats.
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