Many Americans have turned to diet pills. Should you? In the United States today many people have supposedly lost weight with certain pills. One of these pills is called carb cutter. Carb Cutter claims to inhibit the activity of the starch-digesting enzyme, amylase. When the diet pill binds to the amylase, it prevents the breakdown of starch.
In the Biology 1103 lab, we conducted two experiments to determine whether or not the diet pill, Carb Cutter, actually worked. In each experiment we used an experiment tube and a control (blank) tube. The purpose of a blank is to set a base level (zero) from which other measurements can be performed. In the first experiment we were trying to see if the amylase would digest the starch. We put amylase, TRIS, and starch in the experiment tube. If the amylase were active the starch concentration levels would decrease.
The second experiment was conducted to see if the Carb Cutter stopped the amylase from digesting the starch concentration. In the experiment tube there is amylase, Carb Cutter, TRIS, and starch. The Carb Cutter is working if it stops the activity of amylase. TRIS is just a buffer used in the tubes. The reason for creating the tubes is to find the absorbance level, which would tell us if the Carb Cutter was actually working. The absorbance levels should have gone down as time passes because there would be less and less starch to digest as time went on.
The Term Paper on Test Tube Temperature Amylase Starch
An Investigation Into The Factors Affecting Then Investigation Into The Factors Affecting The Activity Of The Enzyme Amylase – Planning Hypothesis I predict that as the temperature increases, the speed of the reaction will increase. When a particular temperature is reached I believe the rate of reaction will dramatically decrease. I believe this because most chemical reaction happens faster ...
The level of starch concentration should have decreased at a slower rate in the tube with Carb Cutter as opposed to the one without it. This however was not the case. The level of starch concentration was digested at a similar pace for each tube. The results following were that the tube with the Carb Cutter had the same rate of digestion, as did the tube without the carb cutter.
This graph is a depiction of the decrease in the level of starch as time goes on for each experiment.
What we concluded from this was that the Carb Cutter did not work. If the rates of digestion were the same for the tube with the carb cutter as they were for the tube without the Carb Cutter than the normal human being is digesting just as fast without the “diet” pill. Henceforth, there is no need
for Carb Cutter because it is scientifically proven to not be effective. “As is the case with most products in the Carbohydrate blocker category of weight loss aids, Carb Cutter does not seem to have any proof to back up the claims it makes of effortlessly ridding the body of all excess carbs.”
(Diet Spotlight: Carb Cutter Review).
As with my conclusion, Diet Spotlight found the Carb Cutter to be ineffective. With the results in mind, a student looking to avoid the “freshman fifteen” would not accomplish this by taking Carb Cutter. If I were to do this experiment again, I would shorten the amount of time between adding the iodine so that I could save a little time, but other than that I think I would keep it the same.
Citations
“Carb Cutter Review.” Dietspotlight.com. 2009. Web. 29 Sept. 2009. .
