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.

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