The true importance of nutrition seems to be lost among today's society. So to is what qualifies as "good" nutrition for all people, not simply athletes. Nutrition is the single most important and controllable factor of disease prevention and healthy living. Sadly, this seems to be lost on many people I see daily. In this blog, we will look at what constitutes good nutrition, how it's vital to our health, and ultimately show how easy it is to practice on a day to day basis. If during the next few weeks I do not touch on an area you would like to talk about, or you simply want more information, just leave a comment.
I have a challenge for you. While you are at work, school, or wherever you are around other people, I want you to ask a question of them. Ask each person what they believe good nutrition is. I guarantee that each answer will be completely different. Herein lies the first issue we will discuss. There is a fairly large amount of information on nutrition available to the public today. The problem is that it is either in the form of scientific journal articles, or misconstrued in diet books, popular TV shows, and business marketing. This presents a problem for the everyday individual. Most people don't have the training, or desire, to decipher scientific studies, and all of those TV shows, books, and advertisements can be extremely confusing (and often inaccurate!). So to help alleviate this confusion, I am going to give you a simple, easy to understand definition of good nutrition. Good nutrition is nutrition that provides adequate amounts of energy, vitamins, minerals, and other essential nutrients (more on these later). It does so without providing too many calories, which leads to fat gain. Condensed, good nutrition gives you everything you need without excess. Also, good nutrition is unique to you. While base nutritional guidelines are common to all of us, each one of possesses a unique metabolism and physiological makeup. The best nutrition is tailored to your individual needs.
Today, we are going to look a bit into the foods we eat, what makes them up, and how our body uses them for fuel (as well as other important processes). We have a huge variety of foods, both good and bad, at our disposal these days. While the tastes, textures, smells etc of these foods differs greatly, what makes them up does not. There are six components, or nutrients, that are common to all foods: carbohydrates, fats, protein, vitamins, minerals, and water. The first three are the only nutrients your body uses for energy ( meaning the obscene doses of B-12 you could be taking are not giving you the energy they are marketed for!). The other three nutrients are used by your body in various metabolic processes, making them essential. First we will look at the first three, known hereafter as macro-nutrients.
Carbs, proteins, and fats are organic compounds that give our foods their caloric value. Carbs and protein are each worth 4 kcals per gram, and fat is 9kcal per gram. It addition to their caloric value, each of these macros is utilized differently by the body. We will begin by looking at carbs. Carbohydrates can be simple or complex in structure. Simple carbs consist of a single sugar, while complex carbs, like starches and fiber, are long chains of glucose bound together. They represent the fastest digestible energy source for our body, and the preferred fuel during high intensity exercise and competition. When we eat carbs, our body breaks them down into simple glucose. Depending on the size and type of carb, this process can be rapid or slow. In order to manage these digested sugars, our body releases insulin, a hormone that signals cells to uptake glucose. When we eat a meal high in simple, processed sugars, there is a rapid rise in blood sugar, as well as insulin levels. Meals higher in complex carbs and fiber are processed slower, meaning a more sustained rise in blood sugar and insulin level over an extended period. Glucose not immediately used for energy is stored as glycogen ( imagine a long chain of glucose molecules) in our muscles and liver. This last sentence is where most of you should really start paying attention since it relates directly to your body composition. Allow me to explain, when the carbs you eat are not being used as energy for daily activity or exercise, and both your liver and muscle stores are full, these carbs are converted into body fat. Also, when the carbs you consume are rapidly digested, but you body's demand for sugar is not high, like after exercise, the carbs turn to fat. Finally, each person handles carbs differently, with some being more efficient at this process that others (more later). This rapid rise in blood sugar, insulin, as well as sustained high blood sugar levels present us with many health problems, but we will discuss those later. The short message to take away from this is to limit simple sugars to immediately after exercise, consume high fiber/complex carbs over simple carbs, and avoid processed carbs at all cost. Later on we will discuss the what, when and how much of carb consumption, and how to individualize it to you.
Protein, second only to carbs in the amount of controversy that surrounds it. This section is going to short and sweet. First, I draw your attention to two different studies currently published that showed high levels of dietary protein have no side effects in healthy adults. This helps alleviate your fears of shutting down your kidneys, or any of the other rumors that float around these days. Second, the metabolic cost of converting protein to glucose and then fat is extremely high, so in active people high protein intakes are much less likely to result in fat gain. Also, protein is time consuming and energy expensive for your body to metabolize, so it increases the Thermic Effect of Feeding, meaning increased calorie burning. This also keeps you feeling full longer. As far as uses in the body, protein is used in construction and maintenance of many body tissues, including muscle. It is also vital for the function of multiple body systems, such as the cardiac, nervous, and immune systems. So, how does all of this translate to protein levels in your diet? Lean protein should be taken in at each meal. Men should get between 40-60 grams per meal, women 20-30 grams. This equals two servings the size of your fist for men, and a single serving this size for women. As far as protein supplements, they are ok if you are not getting enough protein from food, but limit total consumption to 80g per day, and preferably only after workouts. Your body was built to digest whole food, so it is more efficient. Lean sources include 90/10 or better beef, chicken, salmon, talapia, tuna, venison, elk, buffalo just to name a few.
By increasing your protein intake and limiting your carbs to specific times, you will maintain your caloric intake, speed up your metabolism, and improve exercise performance and recovery, as well as many other benefits we will discuss in a separate post specifically on protein. Next up is fat, one of my favorite things (and yours to I bet ;)
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