Tuesday, July 28, 2009

The Vital Macronutrients Of Nutrition

By Betty White

Nutrition can be quite mystifying. There are the vitamins and antioxidants, the minerals and the fiber, the complex carbohydrates and the sugar but how do they all fit all together?

The necessary building blocks of diet are the macronutrients. We all want a precise sum of macronutrients to live. While there are people who concentrate on one macronutrient over another the healthiest diets hold a decent balance of all three macronutrients.

The macronutrients are protein, fat and carbohydrates. Protein and carbohydrates both provide 4 calories per gram, while the more dense fat contains 9 calories per gram. A calorie is at its most basic description the amount of heat energy required to raise the temperature of 1g of water 1 degree Celsius. While that is a somewhat perplexing explanation for most of us it is easier for us to just know that a calorie is just a measurement that we employ to conclude the energy content of food.

Due to the extra calories in fat it was long believed that the additional fat that we ate was the main cause of the additional fat on our bodies. It turned out that this rationalization was exceedingly simplistic. The fat on our bodies is caused by a number of diverse factors including the eating of too many total calories be they from fat, carbohydrates or protein.

Protein is the most key of the three macronutrients because it is the building block of all of the tissues in our bodies. Protein can be found in meat and fish, dairy products and eggs and some exceptional vegetarian sources such as beans and legumes and soybeans.

The foremost supply of energy for our bodies comes from carbohydrates. Carbohydrates switch to sugar in our bloodstreams, which is turn provides the energy that we have need of. Carbohydrates can be further broken down into simple carbohydrates and complex carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrates contain white sugar, white flour, candy, pastries and more. Complex carbohydrates include the whole grains and vegetables. Complex carbohydrates break down slowly in our bodies and give us continuous energy while simple carbohydrates convert quickly to sugar causing sugar rushes and increased hunger later on.

Fat may be one of the most historically misunderstood of the macronutrients. Fat is undeniably indispensable to our bodies but there are good fats and bad fats. Good fats are the mono and polyunsaturated fats found in olive oil, peanut oil, canola oil and nuts and seeds, avocados and the acai berry. Bad fats are the "fake" fats formed from hydrogenation and the saturated fats found in animal products.

Macronutrients are the foremost construction blocks of all nourishment and the micronutrients, such as the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fiber are all found within the macronutrients.

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