organs - Disciples Path Ministry

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Our Physical Health
Organs
God did not make any mistakes when He created us. All the organs in your body serve an important purpose. That purpose is many times another organs need. Everything in our body is connected for a reason! I intentionally will focus on just a few organs that I consider pertinent to this message on nutrition. Let’s begin!
The Kidneys are bean-shaped organs, each about the size of your fist. They are located near the middle of your back, just below the rib cage.
They perform many crucial functions. They maintain overall fluid balance, regulate and filter minerals from the blood, filter waste materials from food, medications, and toxic substances, and create hormones that help produce red blood cells, promote bone health, and regulate blood pressure (Jewel, healthline.com). So over all the kidneys most essential functions are removing waste products from the blood and regulating the water fluid levels in our body.

The Liver, according to WebMD is a large, meaty organ that sits on the right side of the belly. The liver’s main job is to filter the blood coming from the digestive tract, before passing it to the rest of the body. The liver also detoxifies chemicals and metabolizes drugs. I would add that the liver also metabolizes fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. It also keeps a store of glycogen, vitamins, and minerals. In addition the liver produces a digestive compound called bile. Stick with me here…it will all come together soon!

The Pancreas, is about 6 inches long and sits across the back of the abdomen, behind the stomach. The pancreas, according to Medical News Today, is a gland organ. Enzymes, or digestive juices, are secreted by the pancreas into the small intestine. There, it continues breaking down food that has left the stomach. The pancreas also produces the hormone insulin and secretes it into the bloodstream, where it regulates the body’s glucose or sugar level. Again I added the emphasis to this excerpt deliberately.
    
Just to maybe peak your interest I am going to add a bit more information here. If you have any interest in nutritional health I encourage you to make the time to study and understand why I included the additional information.
Whatever the source of carbohydrate (carbs) — they all break down in the body and turn into glucose (sugar). Anything starchy, vegetables, fruits, sugars, and grain converts into glucose for energy use. Glucose (sugar) is NOT a sustainable source of energy. We only store a couple thousand calories of glucose or glycogen once it is stored (Vogel). Therefore, what we have all been told up to recently is that we need to eat and just “graze” in-between our meals. Well that is good in theory if you can hit the numbers and burn exactly what you consume. If you do not use all the glucose you consume and convert immediately, the excess will get stored in your muscles and liver. That glucose is now called glycogen.  Now the glycogen besides being used for short-burst physical efforts, keeps certain systems, (the brain, red blood cells, kidney cells) running efficiently all day long (Vogel). But (there is Always a but… right?) when glycogen in the liver and muscles is full, any additional glucose will converted into fat but can be converted into triglycerides in the blood, which can be a risk for heart disease.
 
Every time you eat, it affects your blood sugar. By relying on glucose for the source of energy, we have a “working/personal range” of glucose. Too low or too high and alerts begin in the body brain connection. Usually the alert tells us to eat something. That is the glucose shouting out! If it is not immediately replenished the body will start using what is “stored up” in the muscles and liver. This means our blood sugar is ever changing and in doing so affects other organs and/or parts of the body overall. This ends poorly for us but good for the “food” industry. We become a slave to never ending food cravings and a resulting weight gain.
 
Glucose and Insulin
Does the body need glucose? Yes, it does but you don’t need to eat carbs to get glucose. Our bodies actually make glucose. Fancy Word alert here — Gluconeogenesis! That is what the process is called when the liver turns amino acids and fatty acids into glucose. Do we need glucose? Sure we do but our body makes a far more efficient source of energy named Ketones. Insulin is the hormone that balances blood sugar by telling the body to absorb the glucose. Insulin is good. But (there is that word again) there is something called insulin resistance, and insulin sensitivity.

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