I remember growing up, I was a church boy. Not too fast. Still a church boy.It pays to serve God if you must know. Don't get it twisted. Back to my story.I loved music and so when the opportunity came to serve in God's house, My first choice was in the choir. We all wanted to have this flawless voice and peradventure sing like angels. Some older folks gave some weird advice that raw eggs might help to have a smooth voice. I also tried Okra. Hehehehehe! It never helped though as I was just one average tenor singer with a croaky voice.
I got to understand the dangers of what I did back years back when I got an admission to study Biochemistry. I guess Biochemist and Medical students would understand me better. I would try not to bore you with Biochemistry jargons. It rather looks abstract but true.
In home economics, we were taught that eating Food high in carbohydrate content gives energy.
How?
My Home Economics teacher my Mum never told me. She wasn't a Biochemist. Just maybe peradventure I was too young to digest that information.
In Biochemistry there is what is known as the Citric Acid Cycle(Kreb's Cycle). We all need energy to perform work. To break down a Carbohydrate moiety completely it goes through a sequence of reactions.
The first ten steps being the conversion of glucose to pyruvate(glycolysis). At this stage, only two ATP (Adenosine triphosphate) must have being formed. There is the need for a further conversion of pyruvate to yield more ATPs. ATP is regarded as the energy currency of life.That is exactly what provides you the energy for work. Don't ask me to go through the mechanism of reaction. I promise it is very boring. Just know that ATP is the currency of life.
Permit me to bore you with some mechanism of reaction here. It would help me in explaining the subject of this article.
For most eukaryotic cells, glycolysisis is but the first stage in the complete oxidation of glucose. It needs to pass through the rate limiting step by an oxidizing process to Acetyl CoA - a decarboxylation reaction (removal of CO2). Stage 2 of the breakdown process for the total yield of about 38ATPs from one molecule of glucose involves the the process by which acetyl-CoA undergoes further oxidation process. This chemical transformation is carried out by the Citric acid cycle.
The role of the citric acid cycle is not confined to the oxidation of acetate.This pathway is the hub of intermediary metabolism. In aerobic organisms, the citric acid cycle is an amphibolic pathway, one that serves in both catabolic and anabolic processes. Besides its role in the oxidative catabolism of carbohydrates, fatty acids, and amino acids, the cycle provides precursors for many biosynthetic pathways.
I know you would be eager to know the danger raw egg poses to this vital process of life. I would explain in a moment.
As intermediates of the citric acid cycle are removed to serve as biosynthetic precursors, they are replenished by anaplerotic reactions.
Under normal circumstances, the reactions by which cycle intermediates are siphoned off into other pathways and those by which they are replenished are in dynamic balance, so that the concentrations of the citric acid cycle intermediates remain almost constant.
However,the most important anaplerotic reaction in mammalian liver and kidney is the reversible carboxylation (take note of this process; there was a removal of CO2 in the first stage but now in the second stage there is a re-carboxylation, i.e adding of CO2) of pyruvate by CO2 to form oxaloacetate, catalyzed by pyruvate carboxylase(an enzyme).
When the citric acid cycle is deficient in oxaloacetate or any other intermediates, pyruvate is carboxylated to produce more oxaloacetate.
Pyruvate carboxylase is a regulatory enzyme.Whenever acetyl-CoA, the fuel for the citric acid cycle, is present in excess, it stimulates the pyruvate carboxylase reaction to produce more oxaloacetate, enabling the cycle to use more acetyl-CoA in the citrate synthase reaction.
Now be very attentive as we are about explaining the aim of this article.
The pyruvate carboxylase reaction requires the vitamin biotin. Biotin plays a key role in many carboxylation reactions. It is a specialized carrier of one-carbon groups in their most oxidized form: CO2.
Biotin is a vitamin required in the human diet; it is abundant in many foods and is synthesized by intestinal
bacteria. Biotin deficiency is rare, but can sometimes be caused by a diet rich in raw eggs. Egg whites contain a large amount of the protein avidin, which binds very tightly to biotin and prevents its absorption in the intestine.
Its quite clear that though Biotin deficiency is rare it could inhibit the forward reaction hence deplect cells of energy which may be fatal. When eggs are cooked,avidin is denatured (and thereby inactivated) along with all other egg white proteins.
So its important you cook your eggs properly and avoid drinking raw eggs because of is resultant effect.
If you find this piece interesting drop a note at the comment box below. Thanks
OGHAGHARE ESE FREEMAN
esefreeman@gmail.com
@eseblogger
07034479170
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