Explaining nutrition (life support machine)

well, it is a life support machine, it is literally an organism that uses food (nutrition) to support its life functions. The support can be poor to excellent depending on the diet it is given to live on. Therefore, nutrition is a biochemical and physiological process which uses a diet to support a life form. What nutrients the system receives over time will determine the health of the individual.

With nutrition we have to take in nutrients, these nutrients effect our health and our way of life. So, we need food for our survival. Food is comprised of macronutrients and micronutrients.

Both are equally as important as the other. Macronutrients includes protein, carbohydrate, and fat. These help to fuel our body giving it its energy, theses macronutrients, play specific roles in maintaining health.

Micronutrients are the vitamins and minerals that we get from our diet. Although we need these in smaller amounts over the macronutrients without them, we could survive. We need to consume macro and micronutrients on their correct amounts to function at our leak performance.

We also digest photochemical what are, chemical compounds produced by plants. micronutrients and photochemical unlike macronutrients do not provide any calories.

Macronutrients do provide calories, carbohydrates contain 4 calories, per gram. Protein contains 4 calories per gram and fat contain 9 calories per gram.

Let us have a better look at the macronutrients and where they come from.

Explaining Carbohydrates

These are our bodies main source of energy, and it is our brains preferred source of energy. So, as you can imagine carbohydrates main job in the human body is to provide energy (fuel) Including Brown bread, rice, flour, beans, fruit and vegetables including potatoes, will insure we get good complex carbohydrates.

There are two types of carbohydrates which has already mentioned complex carbohydrates which in short means that when we consume complex carbohydrates, they take longer to break down than their counterparts’ simple carbohydrates meaning we stay fuller for longer, because our blood sugars are not spiking and dipping suddenly as is the effect when consuming simple carbohydrates.

Explaining Fats

These have had a really tough time over recent history as they were thought has been bad for us. This is not true and in fact we need facts Dietary fat in our diet as we need carbohydrates. Fats are found in oils, coconut, nuts, milk, cheese, meat, poultry, and fish, provides structure to cells and cushions membranes to help prevent damage. Oils and fats are also essential for absorbing fat-soluble vitamins including vitamin A, a nutrient important for healthy eyes and lungs.

Explaining Protein

Is Found in products such as beef, pork, chicken, nuts and seeds, salmon, tuna. The very building blocks of proteins are called amino acids and there are twenty-one amino acids of which thirteen are essential meaning we have to get them from our diet. Proteins are needed for development, repair, growth, and maintenance of body tissues. Proteins help to Carrie hormones around our body along with repairing damaged tissues and help to keep our immune system strong.

So, we now know that our body requires macronutrients as these give our body the energy (fuel) it needs for growth, which is especially important for growing children and pregnant women. We need fuel to move and to do daily tasks such as breathing, laughing, walking, and talking.

This Energy also allows the body to do more complex activities such as running and moving heavy objects.

Even at when we are still our body needs calories (energy)to perform vital functions such as maintaining body temperature, keeping the heart beating and digesting food. Our body uses carbohydrates then fats and finally proteins as fuel in this order.

So that was macronutrients now we are looking into micronutrients which are the vitamins and minerals that we require. Vitamins aid in energy production, wound healing, bone formation, immunity, and eye and skin health.

Minerals help maintain cardiovascular health which provide structure to the skeleton.

Vitamins and minerals which are micronutrients are components of food that help support our health and play important roles in cell metabolism and neurological functions.

Vitamins and minerals are micronutrients nutrients your body needs in lesser amounts to work properly and stay healthy. We should all be able to get the nutrients we need by having a varied and balanced diet, although some people may need to take extra supplements depending on their nutritional needs

There are three types of units used to measure amounts of minerals and vitamins:

Milligrams – a milligram is 1 thousandth of a gram and is usually spelt out as mg

Micrograms – a microgram is 1 millionth of a gram and is usually spelt out as μg or mcg. 1,000 micrograms are equal to 1 milligram.

International Units, which are sometimes used to measure vitamins A, D and E – and usually spelt out as IU. The conversion of milligrams (mg) and micrograms (μg) into IU depends on the type of vitamin.

Different vitamins and minerals do different things: for example, helping your body to digest food while others help to build strong bones. Eating a varied, healthy, balanced diet can help you to get almost all the vitamins and minerals you need. You should be able to get most of the vitamins and minerals you need by eating a healthy, balanced diet. This includes at least five portions of fruit and vegetables Eating whole grains, starchy foods, dairy foods meat, fish, or alternatives such as beans and pulses.

Different foods have different amounts and combinations of vitamins and minerals, so variety is key. If you follow a vegetarian or vegan diet, you will need to pay extra attention to getting certain vitamins and minerals that usually come from animal sources. These include vitamin B12, calcium and iron.

We could say that carbohydrate is go foods, as they give us fuel. Proteins are grown foods as they give us the building blocks. and colourful varied foods like different fruits and vegetables are our glow foods as they are helpers and protectors of our bodies.

This is a considerably basic description of nutrition, and I will follow up this with a more in-depth look at nutrition including hydration, exercise and more in a different blog. Of course, if you did not want to wait till that blog comes out, I am sure you will be able to find what you are looking for in an older blog.

For an amazing external resource please check out MyNutriWeb. 

By Aaron Christopher Slade

A.C.S Nutritional Therapist and weight loss specialist.
A registered nutritional therapist.