If you were to draw all the macronutrient and alcohol metabolic pathways covered in chapter 6, hopefully it would look something like the figure below. In this figure:
- Carbohydrate pathways are orange
- Triglyceride/fatty acid pathways are purple
- Protein/amino acid pathways are green
- Nonclassified pathways are gray
Figure 7.11 Integrated macronutrient and alcohol metabolism1
To simplify, we are going to remove the glycerol and cholesterol pathways so that we can focus on integrating the other pathways in macronutrient and alcohol metabolism.
Figure 7.12 Removal of glycerol and cholesterol pathways1
Thus, we are left with the following simplified figure:
Figure 7.13 Simplified integrated macronutrient and alcohol metabolism1
Notice that acetyl-CoA is the the central metabolite in integrated metabolism that connects many different pathways. For example, carbohydrates can be broken down to acetyl-CoA that can then be used to synthesize fats and ultimately triglycerides.
References & Links
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CellRespiration.svg
