Hey bikers, did you grease the chain?

Can you imagine embarking on the Tour de France with flat tires and a rusty chain? No matter how hard you pedaled, you would be too fatigued to compete.

The human body is like a Tour de France with 73 billion bikers. Each cell is one of the racers, with its own nutritional requirements to keep it pedaling. In the actual Tour de France, you might see an athlete snacking on specially designed supplements to keep his muscles fueled and his legs pumping. In the Tour de Life, our cells ride through a process called the Krebs cycle by chowing on glucose and converting it to energy.

Since it is glucose only that the cell accepts as food, one might wonder why there is such a hype about eating correctly. It would seem that as long as we have some form of carbohydrate, our cells should be able to survive. Granted, proteins CAN be converted into glucose through a more complex channel. But it's not like the cells actually change vitamins or minerals into energy. So why can't we just snarf candy and pop all day long?

For starters, nutrients such as B vitamins, magnesium, and manganese "grease the chain" of the Krebs cycle, so that it runs efficiently. Secondly, the body seems to actually prefer essential fatty acids over carbohydrates as a glucose source because they have a higher potential (9 calories per gram versus 4 calories per gram). It like super-sizing your Five-Hour Energy shot.

Running on refined carbohydrates can be compared to racing uphill with flat tires. It is exhausting! Since white sugar actually uses vitamins and minerals to metabolize it, soon you are in a deficit.

So, if you're going to ride, ride with gusto! That means taking care of your bike through proper maintenance. Whole, nutrient-dense foods are proven winners for giving tune-ups to the bicyle Kreb-cycle of the cell.