Tag: Avengers

What does Vitamin B6 do? Book Excerpt of the Week

What does Vitamin B6 do? Book Excerpt of the Week

greeneyedguide

For last week’s book excerpt from the Energy Drink Guide, we talked about where we get Vitamin B6 (aside from energy drinks, other sports supplements, and fortified foods like breakfast cereals). This week’s book excerpt is about what vitamin B6 does.

Vitamin B6 helps the body make protein. Ever heard of essential and non-essential amino acids? Vitamin B6 helps our bodies make those non-essential amino acids…(through a process called transamination, for you biochem nerds). B6 also helps us maintain optimal blood sugar levels.

what does b6 do

Gluconeogenesis = creating new glucose.
Glycogenolysis = breaking down the stored form of glucose into its itty-bitty pieces.

Breaking down the stored form of glucose means we can tap into those reserves when we need them. And this isn’t just for emergencies – our bodies go through glycogenolysis all the time. If B-vitamins were all Marvel Avengers, Vitamin B6 would be another star member, like thiamin, riboflavin, and especially (my favorite) niacin.

Vitamin B6 has several more jobs that are important and not boring like other vitamins (*cough, #boringbasicbiotin ) BUT we’ll have to talk about that next week and/or you’ll have to get a copy of my book “Are You a Monster or a Rock Star: A Guide to Energy Drinks – How They Work, Why They Work, How To Use Them Safely” available on Audible, Amazon, and wherever books are sold.

To learn more about riboflavin and the other B-vitamins, stay tuned for next week’s book excerpt as we continue our page-by-page exploration through the Energy Drink Guide.

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Widespread and Pointless? Pantothenic Acid – Book Excerpt of the Week

Widespread and Pointless? Pantothenic Acid – Book Excerpt of the Week

greeneyedguide

Vitamin B5 aka pantothenic acid is everywhere. If you were assembling your dream superhero squad for an energy drink, I would argue that pantothenic acid is the last vitamin worthy of making the team.

Sorry B5, we can’t all be like Niacin, the Captain America of Energy Drink Ingredient Avengers.

Here’s why pantothenic acid is not worthy.

Rich sources of pantothenic acid include mushrooms, peanuts, eggs (especially the yolk), yeast, broccoli, milk, sweet potatoes, legumes, and whole grains.

Milk, meat, vegetables, and carbs are all sources of pantothenic acid so it’s hard to imagine a diet that isn’t getting pantothenic acid from somewhere.

all carb diet

I have yet to discover why anyone needs to supplement with panthothenic acid, yet its included in several energy drink vitamin blends. Of course, pantothenic acid has an important role when it comes to facilitating energy production in the body, but a vitamin B5 deficiency is rare because this vitamin is in so many foods.

STAY TUNED every Monday for more book excerpts and the science behind energy drink ingredients as we continue our page-by-page exploration through the Energy Drink Guide.

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Is Niacin REALLY a Vitamin – Book Excerpt of the Week

Is Niacin REALLY a Vitamin – Book Excerpt of the Week

greeneyedguide

Last week we said NIACIN was the Captain America of the Energy Drink Ingredient Avengers – one of the BEST energy drink ingredients – because it participates in numerous reactions to form ATP (the chemical form of energy) in the human body. But is niacin really a vitamin?

Vitamins are essential to life and, by definition, something we need to get from the diet because we can’t make on our own. Did you know the human body can MAKE niacin? As this book excerpt explains, tryptophan and protein are the key ingredients for this magic.

Niacin is still considered a vitamin because we can make some but we can’t make enough to survive and thrive.

The amount of niacin our bodies can make in a day from the amino acid tryptophan is not the full amount we’d need in a day, but it helps. Moreover, our bodies cannot make tryptophan: it is an ESSENTIAL amino acid, meaning we have to get from the diet.

STAY TUNED every Monday for more book excerpts and the science behind energy drink ingredients.  Stay tuned for next week’s book excerpt as we continue our page-by-page exploration through the Energy Drink Guide.

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What Niacin Does – Book Excerpt of the Week 

What Niacin Does – Book Excerpt of the Week 

greeneyedguide

Niacin is my FAVORITE vitamin! Niacin doesn’t “give you energy” like caffeine, but if caffeine is the Iron Man of Energy Drink Ingredient Avengers then Niacin is Captain America.

Niacin is like that person everyone wants at their party. It participates in hundreds of reactions and thus is welcome all over the body.

The body loves niacin so much it creates a little bit on its own, just in case you don’t get enough from the diet.

Corn loves niacin so much, there’s a protein in corn that has niacin on lockdown.

In previous book excerpt posts, we proposed that if B-vitamins were all superheroes and you were assembling your dream squad for an energy drink, you’d want riboflavin and thiamin in the mix.

Thiamin is a crucial part of how the body turns glucose into energy.

Riboflavin feeds a giant beast of a reaction in the body which leads to the release of huge amounts of energy.

Thiamin and riboflavin are great, but niacin is even better. Here are two strong reasons why:

1.Niacin is even better than thiamin and riboflavin because of the sheer number of reactions in which it participates. Niacin is part of over 200 reactions in the body, most of them involving the production of ENERGY.

2.Niacin helps with the first step of alcohol metabolism. This is the step where ethanol is converted to acetaldehyde via the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase. Niacin is a coenzyme, which means it’s a key part of the enzyme or machine that completes this reaction. This reaction/conversion is partly why booze depletes your B-vitamin stores and thus why energy drinks with caffeine, milk thistle and NIACIN are good HANGOVER REMEDIES! [For more info, see this post I wrote about energy drinks and hangovers on BroBible for more]

To learn more about niacin and the other B-vitamins, stay tuned for next week’s book excerpt as we continue our page-by-page exploration through the Energy Drink Guide.

 

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Riboflavin Steals Sheep – Book Excerpt of the Week

Riboflavin Steals Sheep – Book Excerpt of the Week

greeneyedguide

If you haven’t seen “How To Train Your Dragon”, I’m about to spoil it with riboflavin (vitamin B2). In that movie, wild dragons are stealing the villager’s sheep. One boy discovers the dragons aren’t actually eating the sheep, they’re just dumping them into this giant hole. Turns out, there’s a colossal dragon in the hole, and if we pretend the sheep are hydrogen atoms it’s a great metaphor for the Electron Transport Chain.

The following book excerpt comes from the “What Does It Do” section of the Riboflavin chapter of the Energy Drink Guide:

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In the body, there are all these (“redox”) reactions going on where Hydrogen atoms are passed around like the gravy dish at Thanksgiving dinner. This hydrogen passing occurs in fat metabolism (beta-oxidation) and carbohydrate metabolism (the Krebs cycle). In each case, riboflavin’s job is to collect the hydrogen atoms, carry them to a certain spot, and drop them into the Electronic Transport Chain (or “ETC”). When ETC is fed Hydrogen atoms, the result is heaps of metabolic energy.

In a previous book excerpt, we talked about how thiamin would be a leader if the B-vitamins were all Marvel Avengers. If B-vitamins were all superheroes and you were assembling your dream squad for an energy drink, you’d want riboflavin in the mix too. To learn more about riboflavin and the other B-vitamins, stay tuned for next week’s book excerpt as we continue our page-by-page exploration through the Energy Drink Guide.

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