WELL WOMEN OF COLOR | Rosalind Brooks

Drop by Drop: How fat enters your body

When you eat food that contains fat, it goes through your stomach and intestines. Large fat droplets get broken down into even smaller droplets, increasing the fat’s surface area. The fat, thru a series of chemical reactions in the gall bladder, pancreas and intestinal lining, is released into the lymphatic system.

From there, they do not go directly into the bloodstream because they’re too big to pass through. The lymphatic system eventually merges with the veins, at which point the fat passes into the bloodstream. The fat is then absorbed from the blood into the fat, muscle and liver cells. Insulin directs fatty acids turning them into fat molecules and stored as fat droplets. One droplet per one fat cell.

As your body breaks down fat, the number of fat cells remain the same; each fat cell simply gets smaller. Your weight is determined by the rate at which you store energy (fat) from the food that you eat, and the rate at which you use that energy.

All sugars with an -ose — fructose, sucrose, lactose — are called “simple sugars,” and can be found on labels under the carbohydrate section labeled “sugar.”

Complex carbs are known as “starches.” Most grains (wheat, corn, oats, rice) and things like potatoes and plantains are high in starch.

It takes a lot longer to break down a starch. Example: in a can of soda, glucose enters the bloodstream at a rate of 30 calories a minute, but a complex carb is digested more slowly, so glucose enters the bloodstream at a rate of only 2 calories a minute.

These are the basics of how fat and sugar is used by the body. Bottom line — eat more whole foods, not packaged foods.

Got questions? Send an e-mail to roz@wellwomenofcolor.com