Tag Archives: carbohydrates

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Some Nutrition Basics – Carbohydrates

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Macronutrients – Carbohydrates, Fats & Protein

When trying to eat healthier as part of your weight loss plan, you need to learn the basics of nutrition.  I’ll spend the next few posts covering those basics or you could click here to be taken to the www.InsightsForHealth.com Learning Center Module on Nutrition.

Nutritionists often refer to carbohydrates, fats and proteins as  macronutrients and vitamins and minerals as  micronutrients. We require a relatively small amount of the micronutrients, and they have no caloric content. The macronutrients do have a caloric content with fats having the highest caloric density. So, of the three, fat is the most efficient storehouse for energy.

Macronutrient

Calories Per Gram

 USDA Daily % Caloric Recommendation

Carbohydrate

4
45% – 65%

Fat

9
20% – 35%

Protein

4
10% – 35%

Carbohydrates are classified as simple or complex. The simple sugars are smaller and include glucose and fructose. Since they are smaller molecules they get absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract very quickly. Glucose is the only source of energy used by the brain, so the body has several mechanisms to convert the other macronutrients into glucose if the glucose level is running low. Complex carbohydrates are actually simple carbohydrates linked together. They include corn, beans, root vegetables (potatoes), pasta & grains. Because they are larger, extracting energy from them takes a bit longer than from simple carbohydrates, but it is still relatively rapid. The body stores only about one day’s worth of energy as carbohydrate in the form of glycogen in the liver and muscle.

In the next post I’ll talk about fats.  Meanwhile, you can check out this information and more at www.InsightsForHealth.com.

I’ll look forward to any comments you may wish to leave..

For Your Health – Dr. Bob

Decoding Nutrition Labels

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Nutrition Label - Whole Wheat Penne PastaAt your grocery, one of the most beneficial things you can do to assure your weight loss success is to read the Nutrition Labels of the foods you consider buying. Let’s talk a little about the kind of information that these labels provide.

The example shown here is from a box of whole wheat penne pasta. The first thing to notice is the definition of Serving Size since all the other information is related to 1 serving. Here we see that 1 serving of this pasta is 3/4 cup. It also tells us that there should be approximately 8 servings in this box of pasta. All the other information is based upon 1 serving, so if you eat 1 serving of this pasta, you will consume 210 calories and 15 of those calories are from fat.

As you continue looking at the label you’ll see the content of Fat, Cholesterol, Sodium, Carbohydrate and Protein. Two of the kinds of fats are listed separately, Saturated Fat & Trans Fat. These are the two kinds of fat that you should avoid as much as possible because of their association with heart disease. In this example they are 0, so we know that the other kinds of Fat, Monounsaturated or Polyunsaturated must account for the 1.5 grams that are contained in this food. Another positive for this food is the absence of Cholesterol & Sodium. The Carbohydrate content is somewhat high at 41 grams.  For a 1200 calorie meal plan, the recommended Carbohydrate intake is approximately 150 grams.  That 3/4 cup contains a lot of complex carbohydrates, since the Dietary Fiber and Sugar components are relatively small at 5 and 2 grams respectively. For a person who has an elevated amount of triglycerides in their blood, lowering their Carbohydrate intake will also improve their triglyceride level.

Finally, you can see that the Protein content is 7 grams and that this pasta contains some Calcium & Iron. The percentages that you see are the percentages of the daily recommended values where known for each of these for someone on a 2000 calories meal plan. So, since most people who are trying to lose weight have a recommended daily caloric intake less than 2000 calories, these amounts actually represent a greater percentage of the recommended amounts for them.

As you can see there is a lot of information on these labels to help you make healthier choices.  And isn’t that what eating healthier is all about?  It will take time for you to use this tool as you make your choices, but it will be worth it.  Before you know it you’ll know exactly what to look for and how to use the information to help you reach your goal.

For Your Health – Dr. Bob