BUILDING BLOCKS

Get to know villains and heroes in your bait

Without getting too technical and putting your brains on fire, let me explain basic nutrition building blocks and why the composition of your bait matters. The six classes of nutrients found in foods are carbohydrates, lipids (mostly fats and oils), proteins, vitamins, minerals, and water. Carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins constitute the bulk of the diet. These macronutrients provide raw materials for tissue building and maintenance as well as fuel to run the myriad of physiological and metabolic activities that sustain life. In contrast are the micronutrients, which are not themselves energy sources but facilitate metabolic processes throughout the body: vitamins, and minerals. The last nutrient category is water, which provides the medium in which all the body’s metabolic processes occur.

Animals in general require the same nutrients as humans. Some feeds, are grown specifically for animals. Other feeds, such as sugar beet pulp, brewers’ grains, soya meals, are by-products that remain after a food crop has been processed for human use. Surplus food crops, such as wheat, other cereals, fruits and roots, may also be fed to animals (https://www.britannica.com).

Energy

Let s start with universal fact that every living organism needs energy (food) to survive. Human and animal bodies need energy to grow and repair themselves, reproduce and do physical activity. Food is made up of different amounts of protein, fat and carbohydrate; known collectively as macronutrients. The amount of each macronutrient in the food will determine its energy content. This energy is measured in kilojoules (kJ) or calories (kcal), with 1 kilocalorie equalling 4.2 kilojoules. Energy values of different nutrients: Protein 17kJ (4 kcal) per gram; Fat 37kJ (9 kcal) per gram, Carbohydrate 17kJ (4 kcal) per gram. (www.nutritionfoundation.org.nz)

Proteins – building blocks of life.

Proteins are of primary importance to the continuing functioning of life on Earth. Proteins catalyze the vast majority of chemical reactions that occur in the cell. They provide many of the structural elements of a cell, and they help to bind cells together into tissues. Some proteins act as contractile elements to make movement possible. Others are responsible for the transport of vital materials from the outside of the cell (“extracellular”) to its inside (“intracellular”). Proteins, in the form of antibodies, protect us from disease and, in the form of interferon, mount an intracellular attack against viruses that have eluded destruction by the antibodies and other immune system defenses. Many hormones are proteins. Last but certainly not least, proteins control the activity of genes (https://www.britannica.com/science/amino-acid).

Proteins can be put into groups based on what kind of shape they have, whether or not they dissolve in water, by what they do, or in lots of other ways.

Proteins are made up of hundreds or thousands of smaller units called amino acids, which are attached to one another in long chains. There are at least 20 different types of amino acids that can be combined to make a protein. The sequence of amino acids determines each protein’s unique 3-dimensional structure and its specific function. (https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov). Proteins are source of energy too, but we want them to be used for growth and repair function. That’s why we combine them with fat/CH energy sources instead.

Proteins are catalysts for most of the biochemical reactions that take place in every body. Along with DNA and RNA, proteins constitute the genetic machinery of living organisms (https://www.khanacademy.org).

Proteins are the most important tissue building and repairing nutrient!

Raw egg protein biological value: 51% while heat treated egg protein biological value rises to 91% (Zupanic 2013 : 125).

Amino Acids

You already know that AA are building blocks of every protein. They are also sources of energy, like fats and carbohydrates. However, amino acids are structurally characterised by the fact that they contain nitrogen (N), whereas fats and carbohydrates do not. Therefore, only amino acids are capable of forming tissues, organs, muscles, skin.

The proteins in food—such as albumin in egg white, casein in dairy products, and gluten in wheat—are broken down during digestion into constituent amino acids, which, when absorbed, contribute to the body’s metabolic pool. Amino acids are then joined via peptide linkages to assemble specific proteins, as directed by the genetic material and in response to the body’s needs at the time. Each gene makes one or more proteins, each with a unique sequence of amino acids and precise three-dimensional configuration. Amino acids are also required for the synthesis of other important nonprotein compounds, such as peptide hormones, some neurotransmitters, and creatine.

The relative proportions of different amino acids vary from food to food. Foods of animal origin—meat, fish, eggs, and dairy products—are sources of good quality, or complete, protein; i.e., their essential amino acid patterns are similar to human needs for protein. Individual foods of plant origin, with the exception of soybeans, are lower quality, or incomplete, protein sources. Lysine, methionine, and tryptophan are the primary limiting amino acids; i.e., they are in smallest supply and therefore limit the amount of protein that can be synthesized.

A large proportion of carp cells, muscles and tissue is made up of amino acids, meaning they carry out many important bodily functions, such as giving cells their structure. They also play a key role in the transport and the storage of nutrients. Amino acids have an influence on the function of organs, glands, tendons and vessels. They are furthermore essential for healing wounds and repairing tissue, especially in the muscles, bones, skin and hair as well as for the removal of all kinds of waste deposits produced in connection with the metabolism.

When carp eat foods that contain protein, the digestive juices/enzymes in intestine go to work. They break down the protein in food into basic units, called amino acids. These amino acids then can be reused to make the proteins carp’s body needs to maintain muscles, bones, blood, and body organs.

Amino acids are extremely versatile. Although more than 200 different amino acids exist, the most well known are the 20 so-called proteinogenic amino acids. (http://aminoacidstudies.org/).

Body can produce 10 of the 20 amino acids. The others must be supplied in the food. Failure to obtain enough of even 1 of the 10 essential amino acids, those that we cannot make, results in degradation of the body’s proteins—muscle and so forth—to obtain the one amino acid that is needed. Unlike fat and starch, the human body does not store excess amino acids for later use—the amino acids must be in the food every day.

Essential amino acids are called “essential”, because the body cannot make (“synthesize”) them. It is therefore essential that they are consumed through food in sufficient amounts.

Semi-essential amino acids or “conditionally essential”, when they cannot be produced in sufficient amounts by the body. This can happen in special conditions, such as under severe catabolic distress (such as extreme hunger/unbalanced food) or disease. (http://aminoacidstudies.org)

Essential amino acids:

L-phenylalanine (essential to make L-tyrosine)
L-valine
L-threonine
L-tryptophan
L-isoleucine
L-methionine (essential to make L-cysteine)
L-histidine
L-arginine
L-leucine
L-lysine

Semi-essential amino acids:

L-arginine
L-tyrosine: if not sufficiently consumed, L-phenylalanine is used to make L-tyrosine
L-cysteine
L-glycine
L-glutamine
L-proline

Lipids (fats and oils)

Another form in which some plants store energy in their seeds is fat, commonly called oil in its liquid form. In animals, fats form the only large-scale energy store. Fats are a more concentrated energy source than carbohydrates; oxidation yields roughly nine and four kilocalories of energy per gram, respectively.

Animals generally either store absorbed fatty acids or oxidize them immediately as a source of energy. Particular fatty acids are needed for the production of phospholipids, which form an essential portion of cell membranes and nerve fibres, and for the synthesis of certain hormones. Animals can synthesize their own fat from an excess of absorbed sugars, but they are limited in their ability to synthesize essential polyunsaturated fatty acids such as linoleic acid and linolenic acid. Thus, fatty acids are not just an alternative energy source—they are a vital dietary ingredient. The main vegetable oils are good sources of linoleic acid, and most of these also contain a smaller proportion of linolenic acid. Cats have lost one of the principal enzymes used by other animals to convert linoleic acid to arachidonic acid, which is needed for the synthesis of prostaglandins and other hormones. Since arachidonic acid is not found in plants, cats are obligate carnivores, meaning that under natural conditions they must eat animal tissue in order to survive and reproduce.

Lipids are soluble in organic solvents (such as acetone or ether) and insoluble in water, a property that is readily seen when an oil-and-vinegar salad dressing separates quickly upon standing. The lipids of nutritional importance are triglycerides (fats and oils), phospholipids (e.g., lecithin), and sterols (e.g., cholesterol). Lipids in the diet transport the four fat-soluble vitamins (vitamins A, D, E, and K) and assist in their absorption in the small intestine. They also carry with them substances that impart sensory appeal and palatability to food and provide satiety value, the feeling of being full and satisfied after eating a meal. Adipose (fatty) tissue in the fat depots of the body serves as an energy reserve as well as helping to insulate the body and cushion the internal organs.

Fatty acids

Fatty acids are classified as saturated or unsaturated according to their chemical structure. Of particular importance are the 18-carbon polyunsaturated fatty acids alpha-linolenic acid (an omega-3 fatty acid) and linoleic acid (an omega-6 fatty acid); these are known as essential fatty acids because they are required in small amounts in the diet. The omega designations (also referred to as n-3 and n-6) indicate the location of the first double bond from the methyl end of the fatty acid. Other fatty acids can be synthesized in the body and are therefore not essential in the diet. Essential fatty acids are needed for the formation of cell membranes and the synthesis of hormones. A fat consisting largely of saturated fatty acids, especially long-chain fatty acids, tends to be solid at room temperature; if unsaturated fatty acids predominate, the fat is liquid at room temperature. Fats and oils usually contain mixtures of fatty acids, although the type of fatty acid in greatest concentration typically gives the food its characteristics. Butter and other animal fats are primarily saturated; olive and canola oils, monounsaturated; and fish, corn, safflower, soybean, and sunflower oils, polyunsaturated. Although plant oils tend to be largely unsaturated, there are notable exceptions, such as coconut fat, which is highly saturated but nevertheless semiliquid at room temperature because its fatty acids are of medium chain length (8 to 14 carbons long).

Saturated fats tend to be more stable than unsaturated ones. The food industry takes advantage of this property during hydrogenation, in which hydrogen molecules are added to a point of unsaturation, thereby making the fatty acid more stable and resistant to rancidity (oxidation) as well as more solid and spreadable (as in margarine). However, a result of the hydrogenation process is a change in the shape of some unsaturated fatty acids from a configuration known as cis to that known as trans. Trans-fatty acids, which behave more like saturated fatty acids, may also have undesirable health consequences (https://www.britannica.com).

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are probably the most abundant and widespread organic substances in nature, and they are essential constituents of all living things. Carbohydrates are formed by green plants from carbon dioxide and water during the process of photosynthesis. Carbohydrates serve as energy sources and as essential structural components in organisms. Carbohydrates comprise three different nutrients – starches, sugar and dietary fiber. Therefore, when looking at the nutrition facts table, the number of total carbohydrates corresponds to the sum of sugar, starches and fiber.

Three of the most important simple (monosaccharide) sugars—glucose (also known as dextrose, grape sugar, and corn sugar), fructose (fruit sugar), and galactose—have the same molecular formula, (C₆H₁₂O₆), but, because their atoms have different structural arrangements, the sugars have different characteristics (taste). Two molecules of a simple sugar that are linked to each other form a disaccharide, or double sugar. The disaccharide sucrose, or table sugar, consists of one molecule of glucose and one molecule of fructose; the most familiar sources of sucrose are sugar beets and cane sugar. Milk sugar, or lactose, and maltose are also disaccharides. Before the energy in disaccharides can be utilized by living things, the molecules must be broken down into their respective monosaccharides. Polysaccharides (the term means many sugars) represent most of the structural and energy-reserve carbohydrates found in nature. Large molecules that may consist of as many as 10,000 monosaccharide units linked together, polysaccharides vary considerably in size, in structural complexity, and in sugar content. The starch found in plants and the glycogen found in animals also are complex glucose polysaccharides. Starch (from the Old English word stercan, meaning “to stiffen”) is found mostly in seeds, roots, and stems, where it is stored as an available energy source for plants. Plant starch may be processed into foods such as bread, or it may be consumed directly—as in potatoes, for instance. Glycogen, which consists of branching chains of glucose molecules, is formed in the liver and muscles of higher animals and is stored as an energy source.

The importance of carbohydrates to living things can hardly be overemphasized. The energy stores of most animals and plants are both carbohydrate and lipid in nature; carbohydrates are generally available as an immediate energy source, whereas lipids act as a long-term energy resource and tend to be utilized at a slower rate. Glucose, the prevalent uncombined, or free, sugar circulating in the blood of higher animals, is essential to cell function. The proper regulation of glucose metabolism is of paramount importance to survival.

Dietary fibers

Dietary fibre, the structural parts of plants, cannot be digested by intestine because the necessary enzymes are lacking. Even though these nondigestible compounds pass through the gut unchanged (except for a small percentage that is fermented by bacteria), they nevertheless contribute to good health. Insoluble fibre does not dissolve in water and provides bulk, or roughage, that helps with bowel function (regularity) and accelerates the exit from the body of potentially carcinogenic or otherwise harmful substances in food. Major food sources of insoluble fibre are whole grain breads and cereals, wheat bran, and vegetables. Soluble fibre, which dissolves or swells in water, slows down the transit time of food through the gut (an undesirable effect) but also helps lower blood cholesterol levels (a desirable effect). Types of soluble fibre are gums, pectins, some hemicelluloses, and mucilages; fruits (especially citrus fruits and apples), oats, barley, and legumes are major food sources. Both soluble and insoluble fibre help delay glucose absorption, thus ensuring a slower and more even supply of blood glucose. Dietary fibre is thought to provide important protection against some intestinal diseases and to reduce the risk of other chronic diseases as well.

Vitamins

Vitamins may be defined as organic substances that play a required catalytic role within the cell (usually as components of coenzymes or other groups associated with enzymes) and must be obtained in small amounts through the diet. Vitamin requirements are specific for each organism, and their deficiency may cause disease. Vitamin deficiencies in young animals usually result in growth failure, various symptoms whose nature depends on the vitamin, and eventual death. When a vitamin is in short supply or is not able to be utilized properly, a specific deficiency syndrome results. When the deficient vitamin is resupplied before irreversible damage occurs, the signs and symptoms are reversed. The amounts of vitamins in foods and the amounts required on a daily basis are measured in milligrams and micrograms. Unlike the macronutrients, vitamins do not serve as an energy source for the body or provide raw materials for tissue building. Rather, they assist in energy-yielding reactions and facilitate metabolic and physiologic processes throughout the body. Vitamin A, for example, is required for embryonic development, growth, reproduction, proper immune function, and the integrity of epithelial cells, in addition to its role in vision. The B vitamins function as coenzymes that assist in energy metabolism; folic acid (folate), one of the B vitamins, helps protect against birth defects in the early stages of pregnancy. Vitamin C plays a role in building connective tissue as well as being an antioxidant that helps protect against damage by reactive molecules (free radicals). Now considered to be a hormone, vitamin D is involved in calcium and phosphorus homeostasis and bone metabolism. Vitamin E, another antioxidant, protects against free radical damage in lipid systems, and vitamin K plays a key role in blood clotting. Although vitamins are often discussed individually, many of their functions are interrelated, and a deficiency of one can influence the function of another. The 13 vitamins known to be required by human beings are categorized into two groups according to their solubility. The four fat-soluble vitamins (soluble in nonpolar solvents) are vitamins A, D, E, and K. Although now known to behave as a hormone, the activated form of vitamin D, vitamin D hormone (calcitriol), is still grouped with the vitamins as well. The nine water-soluble vitamins (soluble in polar solvents) are vitamin C and the eight B-complex vitamins: thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B₆, folic acid, vitamin B₁₂, pantothenic acid, and biotin. Choline is a vitamin-like dietary component that is clearly required for normal metabolism but that can be synthesized by the body.

The solubility of a vitamin influences the way it is absorbed, transported, stored, and excreted by the body as well as where it is found in foods. With the exception of vitamin B₁₂, which is supplied by only foods of animal origin, the water-soluble vitamins are synthesized by plants and found in both plant and animal foods.

Water-soluble vitamins are not appreciably stored in the body (except for vitamin B₁₂) and thus must be consumed regularly in the diet. If taken in excess they are readily excreted in the urine, although there is potential toxicity even with water-soluble vitamins; especially noteworthy in this regard is vitamin B₆. Because fat-soluble vitamins are stored in the liver and fatty tissue, they do not necessarily have to be taken in daily, so long as average intakes over time—weeks, months, or even years—meet the body’s needs. However, the fact that these vitamins can be stored increases the possibility of toxicity if very large doses are taken. This is particularly of concern with vitamins A and D, which can be toxic if taken in excess.

Minerals

Unlike the complex organic compounds (carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, vitamins) discussed in previous sections, minerals are simple inorganic elements—often in the form of salts in the body—that are not themselves metabolized, nor are they a source of energy. Minerals have diverse functions, including muscle contraction, nerve transmission, blood clotting, immunity, the maintenance of blood pressure, and growth and development. The major minerals, with the exception of sulfur, typically occur in the body in ionic (charged) form: sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium as positive ions (cations) and chloride and phosphates as negative ions (anions). Mineral salts dissolved in body fluids help regulate fluid balance, osmotic pressure, and acid-base balance. Minerals constitute about 4 to 6 percent of body weight—about one-half as calcium and one-quarter as phosphorus (phosphates), the remainder being made up of the other essential minerals that must be derived from the diet. Minerals not only impart hardness to bones and teeth but also function broadly in metabolism—e.g., as electrolytes controlling the movement of water in and out of cells, as components of enzyme systems, and as constituents of many organic molecules. As nutrients, minerals are traditionally divided into two groups according to the amounts present in and needed by the body. The major minerals (macrominerals) are calcium, phosphorus (phosphates), magnesium, sulfur, sodium, chloride, and potassium. The trace elements (microminerals or trace minerals), required in much smaller amounts , include iron, zinc, copper, manganese, iodine (iodide), selenium, fluoride, molybdenum, chromium, and cobalt (as part of the vitamin B₁₂ molecule). The levels of different minerals in foods are influenced by growing conditions (e.g., soil and water composition) as well as by how the food is processed. Minerals are not destroyed during food preparation; in fact, a food can be burned completely and the minerals (ash) will remain unchanged. However, minerals can be lost by leaching into cooking water that is subsequently discarded. Many factors influence mineral absorption and thus availability to the body. In general, minerals are better absorbed from animal foods than from plant foods. Unlike many vitamins, which have a broader safety range, minerals can be toxic if taken in doses not far above recommended levels.