BACK TO BASICS… WHAT IS A MACRONUTRIENT?

In the 80’s it was allll about the Fats… fats made you fat. Everything was fat-free or low fat, till that was proven wrong. Then with more research coming forward, evidence has shown an overabundance of carbs are making people fat and causing issues like cardiovascular disease.

So you decide you want to lose weight but yet there are so many diets out there. Your friends are doing Keto and losing weight and your other friends are doing Paleo, but what’s the difference?

Burning Down The House

Think of your body as a house, it’s super cold outside and the only heat source you have is a fireplace. First, you have wood that you start burning to stay warm. When you run out of wood, you start burning your furniture and everything inside your house. And, when you run out of all those things to burn, you begin burning your own house down, just to stay warm!

The wood is carbohydrates, the furniture is fats and the house is the protein in your body. These are what we call Macronutrients, they are survival nutrients, essential for us to live.

Carbohydrates

Or Carbs as most people know them. When you eat carbs, this gives your body instant fuel or energy, like the wood. Your body naturally burns this first. Carbs are anything that isn’t a fat or protein source.

The problem with our source of carbs, which are making us fat, is overeating them and the processed carbs. You know foods like junk food… foods that aren’t natural sources of carbs.

Bread, grains, fruits, vegetables, sugar are all carbs. When we eat these foods, our body breaks them down to simple sugars or glucose. We also get a lot of our micronutrients from vitamins and minerals from carbs. This goes to our brains, muscles, and organs, to give them energy and the ability to function.

Fats

This would be the furniture in your house. Of course, we all don’t want a lot of furniture in our homes, we can be able to move and function, but we do need some. Here’s the thing… you need fat to survive. Fat cushions your vital organs, it carries micronutrients to our cells and makes you feel full.

And FATS DON’T MAKE YOU FAT! Just because you eat fats, like butter and oils, these aren’t going to make you fat. They should have named dietary fat and body fat different names because overeating on ALL foods, especially carbs is what gets stored as fat.

And we actually aren’t getting enough healthy fat sources in our diet as it. Although it is hard to find just pure fats though, most fats are in a combination with carbs (mostly the processed carb, oh and these aren’t the good fats) or in proteins (which are the good fats).

Protein

This is one you can’t go without. Even vegetarians need to get their source of proteins somewhere, for their bodies to function. This is our house, this is the structure of everything from muscles development, brain function to DNA synthesis. Proteins are literally the building blocks of life.

Protein is made up of amino acids, 12 can be made up in the body but the other 8 have to be consumed orally, to form protein structures in our body. So you can see how important eating protein really is?

All protein is accompanied by fat, even if it’s a small portion of fat.

All Macronutrients In Moderation

Now knowing how important it is to have all macronutrients in your diet, we need to eat them all. Although, we don’t want to overeat any of these macronutrients. We need to find our body’s balance on protein, fat, and carb consumption.

The American diet is heavily influenced by processed carbs and lower in fat. Where other countries have different priorities. The healthiest and leanest people in the world, like those from Japan and the Mediterranean, eat high fat, moderation of protein, and lower-carb diet.

What To Eat

You still need to eat your carbohydrates, a small amount to them for instant energy and for vitamins and minerals. The lower amounts of carbs you eat, your body will burn through them first and start burning that stored body fat. And you DO NOT want to burn through your protein, which is why it is important to eat protein along with higher fats (which will fill you up), and smaller amounts of carbs.

As my Doctor would say… soups, stews, and salads give you all the nutrients you need and help you lose weight. Think about it… those consist of Protein, Fat, and Carbs! Some pretty good advice if you ask me!