Subject: Re: Jays and Nutcrackers
Date: Sep 27 16:43:51 1995
From: Burton Guttman - guttmanb at elwha.evergreen.edu



After reading

> > But let's remember that fats are made largely from
> > carbohydrates; we all get fat from eating too many pastries and candies
> > and the like without enough exercise.

Lisa M. Smith wrote:

> Fats made
> from carbohydrates? Those pastries and candies that make so many of us
> fat do so not because they're carbohydrate rich, but because they're
> loaded with fats, like butter and cocoa butter and palm kernel oil and
> almonds...

I won't argue about the calories in fats or carbohydrates in various
pastries, because it must vary a lot. When you eat carbohydrates (sugars
and starch) they get metabolized down the glycolytic pathway, heading
toward the Krebs cycle where they can be completely oxidized to CO2. But
if you aren't working hard enough to keep burning up all those sugars,
they get sidetracked and converted into fatty acids, which go right to
those lovely bulges and folds under the skin. Same with birds. So my
question about Gray Jays and Steller's Jays: Do they seek out nuts and
other foods that are especially rich in carbohydrates or in oils (fats)
or do the two species differ? I'm still want to know why the native
Americans called the Grays "fat lovers" and just how their habits, both
in diet and caching, differ from those of Steller's.

Burt Guttman guttmanb at elwha.evergreen.edu
The Evergreen State College Voice: 360-866-6000, x. 6755
Olympia, WA 98505 FAX: 360-866-6794