Footnotes & Nutritional Resources

Footnotes

1. Note that the category polysaccharide includes everything we call "carbohydrates" all food fibre (cellulose), and wood, among other things. Many other types of polysaccharides are active participants in cellular metabolism.
2. Note that, in different contexts, the self-same molecule can be referred to as a starch, a complex carbohydrate, and a polysaccharide. "Starch" and "complex carbohydrate" are just more technical and less technical terms for the same thing. Polysaccharide is a bigger category, and includes saccharide polymers of great diversity.
3. A catalyst increases the rate of a chemical reaction without entering into or being changed by the reaction. In reality, though, most enzyme-catalysed biological reactions would not take place at all without the enzyme. In other words, the enzyme does not just increase the rate of the reaction.
4. H2O2 (Hydrogen Peroxide) "wants" to become water, a very stable molecule; so it will drop off the extra oxygen anywhere it can.
5. Betacarotene and vitamin A are an interesting example of a number of concepts in biochemistry. This reaction is irreversible (it only goes one way; vitamin A is not reconverted back to beta carotene). Other reactions are reversible and cyclic. Although these two molecules are very similar in composition and structure (beta carotene is actually two molecules of vitamin A linked together), the seemingly small differences between them result in a very large differences between them in chemistry: one is water-soluble and the other fat-soluble.
6. Recommended Dietary Allowance
7. For those who are interested, this research has been reported and reviewed in mainline medical journals such as the Journal of the American Medical Association and the New England Journal of Medicine, and is easily retrievable on the internet.
8. "Adverse effect" is the technical term used by pharmaceutical companies and regulatory agencies to mean more or less "side-effect." An "adverse event" is one episode for one patient of a symptom attributed to the drug.

1. Hamilton, EMN, et al, Nutrition: Concepts & Controversies, West Publishing Company, 4th Edition, 1988.
2. NHMRC, 1991, Recommended Dietary Intakes for use in Australia.
3. Reavley, N, Vitamins etc, Bookman, 1999.

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