The Chromium Effect
I hope more than one person agrees with me when I say that the word chromium reminds me of that one episode of Spongebob where they take their time machine to the future and everything is made out of chrome. I always liked that episode, though I am not sure why. Most of you probably already think I'm crazy, so this connection may not surprise you at all.
Our body has this really cool ability of sensing when our blood sugar is really high (i.e. after eating). When this happens, our pancreas releases insulin cells into our bloodstream to try to calm the panic down; the body doesn't like to have its blood sugar out of its normal range. Once insulin is released, it goes to the individual cells of our body and binds to the outside of them, kind of like a lock-and-key scenario. Once this 'lock' is opened (though a whole bunch of other things happen to allow this to do so), glucose can enter the cells from the bloodstream, and blood glucose levels go back to normal. This last part is what scientists believe chromium is apart of. And if you have ever felt that 'crash' 20-30 minutes after eating, this is insulin and chromium at work. When glucose is whirling around in our blood, we feel that 'sugar rush' sensation, but when insulin takes the glucose out of our blood we feel an initial drop in our energy before picking up again in an hour or so. You should be thankful when this happens! It means that your body is doing its job (even though the feeling can totally suck and occasionally makes me fall asleep in my afternoon biochemistry class).
Now that that is out of the way, lets discuss actual chromium, which is one of the many minerals necessary for the human body to function. And here is the fun fact of the day: chromium is the most recent mineral to be found essential to human function (1950's). Being relatively new to the nutrition world, not a whole lot is known about chromium. But that doesn't make the name any less fun to say. To me, it has the same ring to it as the word 'kryptonite', so I bet that its some obscure weakness of Batman or something. Except, unlike kryptonite, chromium is essential for human bodies...so that would be an unfortunate weakness to have.
On that note, I promise I am (hopefully) going to discuss actual nutrition now.
Chromium's main role is to allow the body to use insulin more effectively on the cellular level. In truth, this mechanism isn't entirely known or understood, but it is possible that chromium is involved in the transport of glucose into the cell once insulin binds to the cell membrane. I know this is all science-y, so I will try to explain so those without too much science background can clearly see what is happening:
Our body has this really cool ability of sensing when our blood sugar is really high (i.e. after eating). When this happens, our pancreas releases insulin cells into our bloodstream to try to calm the panic down; the body doesn't like to have its blood sugar out of its normal range. Once insulin is released, it goes to the individual cells of our body and binds to the outside of them, kind of like a lock-and-key scenario. Once this 'lock' is opened (though a whole bunch of other things happen to allow this to do so), glucose can enter the cells from the bloodstream, and blood glucose levels go back to normal. This last part is what scientists believe chromium is apart of. And if you have ever felt that 'crash' 20-30 minutes after eating, this is insulin and chromium at work. When glucose is whirling around in our blood, we feel that 'sugar rush' sensation, but when insulin takes the glucose out of our blood we feel an initial drop in our energy before picking up again in an hour or so. You should be thankful when this happens! It means that your body is doing its job (even though the feeling can totally suck and occasionally makes me fall asleep in my afternoon biochemistry class).
(Get it? Because fats aren't water-soluble? hehe)
Similar to fluoride, chromium isn't naturally available in many food sources unless the soil is rich in chromium. Therefore, the chromium content in food is constantly changing. However, whole grains are a consistent source of chromium, though refined grains are not. Some protein foods (with the exception of dairy) can provide chromium, though they aren't as reliable as whole grains. This is yet another reason why whole grain foods are so good for you! They make your body happy! To help, I put a table below of some of the more popular and consumer-advertised whole grains.
Comments
Post a Comment