Re: Carbs - only part of the picture

[CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]

In a message dated 98-06-24 13:40:33 EDT, suendavid@worldnet.att.net writes:

<< I won't argue with advantages of carbs, but horses do have energy
 pathways that humans don't have.  Horses are halfway between being a
 monogastric-highly-dependent-on-glucose animal like humans, and halfway
 between being a forestomach-fermenter-couldn't-care-less-about-glucose
 animal like a cow or sheep, which are totally dependent on VFAs---you
 can run gallons of straight glucose into a cow and will get  almost zero
 rise in blood glucose, they just take the glucose and turn it all into
 volatile fatty acids.  Horses seem to be in between the two---you don't
 have the reliance on glucose due to other alternate pathways, but you
 can still manipulate blood glucose for enhanced performance. >>

Well put, Susan.  I also think that there is a lot of variation between
individuals as to how much emphasis they place on one source vs. the
other--the classic bell curve for any population for any trait.  We tend to
select individuals whose digestive capabilities allow them to deliver energy
in a steady way over a long period of time, and further enhance their ability
to do so by conditioning them aerobically and encouraging them to do so.
Bones and muscles are not the only systems that "condition"--every system in
the body does its best to adapt over time to what work it is asked to perform,
from skin to GI tract.  Endurance athletes "learn" to enhance the pathways
that are most useful to them.

Heidi