1) Late-night TV ads are often quite educational. One advertisement touted the m
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Question
1) Late-night TV ads are often quite educational. One advertisement touted the merits of eating grapefruit to lose weight. At that point, Dr. Blakeslee, in a lab coat standing in front of a blackboard covered with molecular formulas proceeds to explain how it is the citric acid in the grapefruit that burns up the fat and for only $XX you can get a month's supply of their pills. Use what you know about the citric acid cycle and fatty acid metabolism to deduce whether added citric acid causes weight loss.Explanation / Answer
Citric acid is a key intermediate metabolite formed in Krebs cycle. Citric acid is formed in the first step of Kreb cycle via the combination of oxaloacetate and Acetyl-Coa via Citrate Synthase. This step is not rate limiting for Kreb cycle. Thus excess amount of citric acid enhances the rate of Krebs cycle. Krebs cycle uses acetyl CoA which comes from carbohydrate, fats and proteins. Thus, increased rate of Kreb cycle enhances the use of carbohydrates first and then utilizes fat to produce ATP. Hence, citric acid supplements enhances the consumption of fat which results in weight loss.
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