Nutrition is a word that gets thrown around a lot, but what does it actually mean? It's the process of eating the right foods and drinking enough fluids to keep your body healthy.
Nutrition involves more than just getting calories; it's also about making sure you're eating an adequate amount of protein, carbohydrates, and fats. In this article we'll explore seven different types of nutrition in depth so you know exactly what they are and how they affect your body:
Macronutrients
Macronutrients are the big players in our diets. They're the main sources of calories, or energy, and include carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. You've likely heard them called "macros" at some point. The word macro means large or large-scale (like a macroeconomics problem), so it's not surprising that the term was adopted by fitness enthusiasts to refer to these three nutrients.
There are different recommendations for how much of each macronutrient you should get every day based on your age, gender, whether you're pregnant or breastfeeding and your activity level—but most people need around 50–65 percent of their total daily calories from carbohydrates; 20–35 percent from protein; and 15–25 percent from fat (1). For example:
If you're eating 2,000 calories per day as recommended by the USDA Food Pyramid Guide (a common guideline), that would mean eating 469 grams of carbs per day; 145 grams of protein; 81 grams of fat.
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are the body’s main source of energy, and they’re found in grains, fruits, vegetables and milk. When you eat carbohydrates they are broken down into glucose which is used by the body to fuel the brain and muscles.
In addition to providing energy for your cells, some carbohydrates also provide dietary fiber—a form of indigestible carbohydrate that helps remove toxins from the body.
Fats
Fat is an important part of a healthy diet. It’s an important source of energy and also has essential fatty acids, which are necessary for brain function and hormone production. Fats also help the body absorb vitamins and minerals.
Just remember that there are good fats and bad fats; sources of healthy fat include olive oil, nuts and seeds, fish oils (such as salmon or tuna), avocados, coconut oil.
Proteins
Proteins are the building blocks of muscle. They are essential for growth and repair, maintenance of tissues, and production of enzymes used to digest food. Protein is also important for the immune system, nervous system, endocrine system, digestive system, reproductive system (for example: testosterone is a protein), and more! Proteins are made up of amino acids that are linked together in various ways.
Micronutrients
Micronutrients are vitamins and minerals.
are organic compounds that are essential for life, while minerals are inorganic (or not containing carbon) compounds necessary for life. Both vitamins and minerals have a small molecular weight, meaning they can be absorbed by your body much more easily than macronutrients.
To create these substances naturally, plants use energy from the sun to make them through photosynthesis. They can then convert these into usable forms that humans need to survive—energy!
These micronutrients aren’t needed by everyone in large amounts; however, they are required in order for us to function properly over time and keep our bodies healthy overall.
Vitamins
Vitamins are organic compounds that are needed for normal cell function. This means they can only be found in living things. Vitamins occur in three forms: fat-soluble, water-soluble and vitamin K. Fat-soluble vitamins stored in body fat such as A, D, E and K are not lost when you sweat or go to the bathroom. Water-soluble vitamins (C and B complex) do not store well in your body so they need to be consumed daily through food or supplementation.
Vitamins can be obtained from other sources besides food like certain supplements but most of them come from the foods we eat each day!
Minerals
Minerals are inorganic elements that play a key role in bone and muscle development, blood clotting, nerve function, energy production and more. They’re also the building blocks of our teeth and bones. When it comes to minerals, there are two major categories: macrominerals (calcium, phosphorous) and microminerals (zinc).
Minerals can be found in foods like fish (calcium), chicken (phosphorous), beans (molybdenum) or nuts (iron).
Making sure you get adequate nutrition is important for your overall health and well-being.
So what does it mean to get adequate nutrition? Getting enough calories, carbohydrates, fats, proteins and vitamins and minerals is important for your overall health and well-being. Adequate nutrition helps keep you feeling healthy and strong; it also helps prevent disease.
Vitamins and minerals are micronutrients that are essential for growth and development as well as maintenance of the body's tissues. They're found naturally in food sources such as fruits, vegetables, grains (cereals) and dairy products. Vitamins help maintain a normal metabolism so that the body can use the energy from foods correctly—for example: B vitamins help break down carbohydrates into glucose for energy production; vitamin C prevents scurvy (a disease caused by lack of vitamin C). Minerals help form bones or act as catalysts in chemical reactions within our bodies—for example: calcium builds strong bones; iron carries oxygen throughout our blood stream.
Nutrition is so important to our health. We need to make sure we’re getting enough of the right kind of nutrients to keep ourselves nourished and healthy. If you’re interested in learning more about how your diet affects your body, check out our blog on the subject!
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