Krusty wrote:

> "Dana Carpender" > wrote
>
>>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluconeogenesis
>>
>>http://web.indstate.edu/thcme/mwking...eogenesis.html
>>
>>The body is perfectly capable of making glucose with no dietary
>>carbohydrate whatsoever. That makes carbohydrates inessential by
>>definition.
>
>
> Gluconeogenesis is used by the body when carbohydrates are limited or are
> not in sufficient quantities to produce glucose.

Very good. Making carbohydrates inessential.

Producing glucose from
> amino acids (glutamine and alanine for instance), glycerol and and lactate
> is a response by the body when carbohydrates are *unavailable*.
>
> Hardly an argument for "carbohydrates are inessential".


It's exactly the argument that carbohydrates are inessential.
"Essential" in nutritional terms means something the body *cannot make*.
Vitamin C is essential because we can't make it. Eight amino acids
are essential because the body cannot make them, no matter how many
other amino acids you eat. The others can be made, given sufficient
essential aminos, and therefore are inessential.

If the body can make it, it is considered inessential. That's the
definition. Carbohydrate is inessential.

Dana