NUTRITION

What is nutrition? We all have our own ideas of what nutrition is, and how it is applied to our lives. We will begin by breaking up nutrition into 6 subjects: vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and water. These will be short concise overviews, just to give you an idea of what these are, how your body uses them, and how they affect your diet.

Vitamins

Vitamins are organic substances that the body uses for each and every function it does. They are vital components of the body’s enzyme system. They act as catalysts to activate chemical reactions that take place in your body. Without enzymes your body would not be able to function properly, which means you could do nothing. No walking, talking, tasting, seeing, thinking, breathing…get the idea. So you see, vitamins are you friend. Now you may be thinking…gee I should be taking lots of vitamins, after all more is better…right? Well, to tell you the truth…NO. Medical research and common sense will tell you that. The Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. came out with the Recommended Daily Value Table; it is meant to be followed.

Minerals

Minerals are inorganic substances that go hand in hand with vitamins. Without one the other could not function, which is why you see Iron for example in a multivitamin. The body cannot produce minerals so the only way the body can get them is through food, or in tablet form. Many minerals perform the same functions as vitamins helping the body’s chemical reactions.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are the body’s main source of energy. During digestion, starches and sugars are broken down into glucose, which the body uses as energy. Many people try to stay away from carbohydrates due to the fact that taking in too much can lead to extra fat being stored. What they do not understand is that there are two different kind of carbohydrates, Simple Sugars (high-glycemic), and Complex Carbohydrates (low-glycemic) These will be explained in the advanced section, you just need to know for now that carbohydrates are the body’s source of energy.

Protein

Protein is made up of amino acids and is the building block of the body. Their function is to build and repair tissue. There are twenty-three amino acids, eight of which are called ‘essential amino acids’. These amino acids can only be obtained through food or synthetic supplements. The amino acids will be covered at a later time. To much protein can lead to weight gain as well, as protein is the body’s secondary source of energy, and again excess can lead to unwanted fat.

Fat

Ah, the source of all problems, the thing people strive so hard to rid their diet of and burn from their body. What people do not know is that the body needs fat to survive. In fact like everything else, when taken in moderation fat is not bad for you. There are two kinds of fat, saturated fat (derived from animals), and unsaturated fat (derived from plants). These will both be covered more in depth later on, with them I will also cover cholesterol.

Water

Water accounts for one half to four fifths of our body weight. We are people of water, we cannot function without water, and our inner being craves water. All of our body processes could not be done without water. The human body can go weeks without food, but only a few days without water. Water cleanses our digestive system and helps remove waste. Water is your best friend.

That covers the six areas of nutrition. See, brief and concise, just like I promised. I won’t make you read through pages and pages of explanations…well not yet (that will be next month in N&E 101 Advanced).

Ok, now that we've tackled nutrition, let's use what we've learned and apply it to food.

We'll start with what everyone counts, Calories!

CALORIES

By definition a calorie is :a unit equivalent to the large calorie expressing heat-producing or energy-producing value in food when oxidized in the body:

WHAT!? Ok, Ok, it means that a calorie is the amount of 'energy' that a certain food contains. I know that you've heard that your body burns calories (or uses the energy) for everything you do from thinking, to exercise, to sleep. Now why does that matter any? Well, when you look at the package and you see calories you are only getting a generalization of what is actually in the food. Are you getting good calories, or bad calories? This is where the breakdown of carbohydrates (as sugar and fiber), protein, and fat come in. Each of these is measured in grams, and each gram carries a caloric value. Here is the average caloric value per 1 gram: Fat 9 calories, Carbohydrates 4 calories, Protein 4 Calories. So what does that mean? That means that if you take your grams times their calorie value you can see what the majority of your food is comprised of. (Example 1 Large Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast 190 Calories--made up of 21G Protein) That's right all protein which amino acids for your body! See that a happy healthy body.

Now, why do we count calories? Calories contribute to our weight gain, or weight loss. There are roughly 3500 calories in one pound.(No you don't have that many calories in your body, remember your body is ½ to 4/5 water) The rest is muscle, organs, skin, bone and fat. Your body burns calories on a constant basis whether you be sitting or running we always burn calories. How much we burn or store depends on a lot of things. What types of foods are we eating, does the body get a constant supply of energy, do we exercise on a regular basis? These factors all affect our Metabolism, or our bodies ability to burn calories. The higher your metabolism the more calories you will burn. (Since this is just a general course I will stop there on the calorie thing, I will explain in more detail on the Advanced Course next month)

THE FOOD PYRAMID

Ok folks, I'm only going to cover this once because I really don't agree with it. For those who do not know what this is here is the low down. The United States Department of Agriculture created this pyramid in order to promote a 'healthy America'. It is based on the assumption that you are eating only 3 meals a day. From the bottom up it reads:

Bread, Cereal, Rice, & Pasta 6-11 Servings

Vegetables 3-5 Servings\Fruit 2-4 Servings

Milk, Yogurt&Cheese 2-3 Servings\Meat, Poultry, Fish, Beans, Eggs, Nuts 2-3 Servings

Fats, Oils, & Sweets Use Sparingly

As you can see you are in carb city, followed by Veggies&Fruits, then you get to the protein. I do not like this at all, it may have been fine when everyone and their brother was a hard working farmer and could burn all those carbs, but it does not suit us desk going people. All this pyramid will do is make us fat. Ok, that's all on that. Now you know how the U.S. got so fat. (Other than McDonalds that is)

The new way to eat...Portions

Gosh Mepheston, we already have to count Calories, now you want us to learn about portions!

Yes I do! and you'll like it too. Here's how it works, it's simple.

A portion is roughly the size of your balled up fist. So one chicken breast would be a portion of protein. A couple slices of bread is a portion of carbohydrates, as would an apple. Now, Carbohydrates and Protein are the only things you have to portion because when used equally they can counter balance each other. Carbohydrates are used to give your body energy. This energy is used to keep you going...you know...alive. When carbs are used up protein is used as a secondary source of energy. Protein however is harder to convert to energy than carbs so in order to break it down your body must work harder, hint, hint.(more calories are burned)

How you use the portions will greatly affect your metabolism. Also, the reason you do not have to portion vegetables is because a lot of them are very low or no carb and only provide vitamins and fiber. For example one stalk of celery is only 10 calories, but your body has to burn 25-30 calories just to digest it. This is what we will call a 'free food'. I would not suggest making a diet of only celery, but for cleansing it does a great job, and you'll probably lose a few pounds in the process.

A good healthy meal using portions would be this. (Yes it's yummy!)

1 Tall Glass of Skim Milk (one portion of protein)

1 Skinless Boneless Chicken Breast Grilled (one portion of protein, and no fat)

1 Fist sized Baked Potato (one portion of Carbohydrates)

Season with whatever seasonings you want, and a dab of butter just for flavor. Add broccoli, peas, green beans, carrots, whatever veggie you want.

You have just created a wonderful meal with the following stats.

Protein 30G

Carbohydrates 50-75G

Fiber 6-8G

Fat 0-10G (the only fat you will get is if you use butter)

Not to bad at all, and like I said it tastes good as well.

[The end of Nutrition and Exercise 101]

This brings us to the end of this forum. This is all the basics I wanted to cover in order to prep you for theadvanced course.

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