Fats, Proteins, and Carbohydrates: Finding a Healthy Balance
A healthy diet requires the right combination of nutrients so the body has all the elements needed to sustain life. As nutritional science advances our understanding of human nutrition, the number of nutrients grows. Most nutrients are simple chemical elements presented to the body in their most basic form – calcium, iron, oxygen, for example. These individual chemical elements are not consumed individually, but are part of a larger molecule called a macronutrient. Macronutrients are more complex molecules, often a combination of several nutrients pieced together in a specific way that, when molecularly altered through the digestion process, nutrients are released and freed up to fuel the body as necessary. There are only three macronutrients – fats, proteins, and carbohydrates.
Fats
Fats come from both animal-based foods and plant-based foods. The body needs fats to perform all kinds of functions, such as moving muscles and lining the nerve cells to prevent electrical short circuiting. Dietary fats have gotten a bad reputation as being a diet buster, but the type of fat consumed and how much of it is the key to maintaining a healthy nutritional balance. The body burns fat as 9 calories per gram, but proteins and carbohydrates are burned at only 4 calories per gram. This means it’s more than twice as hard to burn off a gram of fat than it is a gram of the other two macronutrients. It’s this difference in fuel value that makes it so important to enjoy fats in moderation and to be mindful of the type of fat being consumed.
- 5 Quick Tips for Choosing Healthy Fats: The Harvard School of Public Health gets to the bottom line on fats.
- How Much Total Dietary Fat Do I Need?: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says the answer to this question depends on how old you are.
- Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005 / Fats Overview: There’s more than one kind of dietary fat and optimum health requires awareness of them all.
- The Human Brain / Fats: The human brain is about two-thirds fat, leading some scientists to conclude that it was adding fat to the early human diet that led us to our big-headed evolutionary advantage point.
- What’s Good About Dietary Fat?: Dietary fat adds flavor to the foods we eat but it also plays key roles in several physiological processes and makes us feel good.
Proteins
Proteins are macronutrients made from amino acids. There are 20 amino acids known to be important to human nutrition; the body itself can manufacture 12 of them. The remaining eight (some say nine) are called essential amino acids as it is essential we obtain these nutrients by eating the foods that contain them. All animals, including humans, have all 20 amino acids in their muscles, bone, and other tissue so eating meat supplies them all. There are very few plants that contain all eight essential amino acids; vegetarians must be careful to eat a variety of foods in combinations that supply them all. Caution is advised when considering a high-protein diet: animal-based foods (meats and dairy) are considered high-protein foods, but they are high in fats, too. It’s easy to consume too many fats when eating a meat-based diet. The redder the meat (beef, for example) the higher the ratio of fats to protein.
- Protein in Diet: Every cell in the body contains protein.
- Health Tip – Get Enough Dietary Protein: Eat plenty of protein but be aware that optimum serving sizes are smaller than most Americans are used to.
- Nutrition Fact Sheet / Protein: The basic structural material of all cells is protein.
- Complementary Protein and Diet: Understanding the amino acids in proteins helps vegetarians make the most protein-rich healthy choices.
- Cancer Risk May Increase with Too Much Dietary Protein: Too much of a good thing is often risky.
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are the sugars and starches in the diet. Both fats and proteins have carbohydrates in them, too, but it’s in plant-based foods where carbohydrates are most abundant. Simple carbohydrates digest quickly and when they are from nutrient-rich sources, such as fruits and honey, they are quickly digested and absorbed into the bloodstream where they produce a boost in energy. Refined sugars and flours are simple carbs, too, but their quick digestion is without much nutritional value and often do more harm than good for the body. Complex carbs are frequently called starches. These fiber-rich starches take longer to digest than the simple carbs, a situation that makes the feeling of fullness after a meal last longer and the release of nutrients into the bloodstream is slower than when simple carbs are digested. This slower, steady release of nutrients into the bloodstream supplies nutritious fuel that keeps the body at the peak of performance for longer periods of time. Whole grains, beans, and potatoes are some of the most beneficial and most common complex carbohydrates.
- EatSmart / Carbohydrates: Carbohydrates are the body’s preferred supply of fuel for energy.
- Why are Carbohydrates Important in Exercise?: Performance can be enhanced when careful attention is paid to which carbohydrates to eat and when.
- Dietary Carbohydrate Composition: Learning more about carb composition makes it easier to make wise choices.
- What Are Carbohydrates?: When children learn which carbohydrates give them more energy, they’re more likely to maintain those wise dietary choices throughout their lives.
- Healthy and Unhealthy Carbohydrates: Sugar is a carbohydrate but there are many different kinds of sugar. When people learn to recognize the chemical names of all these sugars on a package’s label, better choices can be made.
Finding a Healthy Balance
Dietary needs vary a bit from person to person but, for the most part, we’re all the same as far as healthy nutritional balance is concerned. Doctors once viewed the human body as individual parts that all happened to be attached, treating just the isolated problem without regard for any effects treatment, illness, or injury might have on the rest of the body. Today’s medical scientists understand we’re each a finely calibrated, integrated organism in which each part relies on all the others for best function and a healthy diet fuels every function. A healthy lifestyle relies on a healthy balance of sleep, work, and play and our nutritional needs must be met in a healthily balanced way, too. Diets vary but a good starting point for a balanced diet is to follow the recommendations of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) – 60% of daily caloric intake should be carbohydrates, 30% from fats, and the remainder from proteins.
- MyPyramid.gov / Steps to a Healthier You: Since one size does not fit all, the latest USDA pyramid offers variations.
- Nutrition Data: This highly interactive website provides a nutritional analysis for almost every food under the sun.
- How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Facts Label: All packaged foods are required by law to carry a nutrition facts label but its message is often misunderstood.
- Effect of Different Levels of Carbohydrate, Fat, and Protein Intake on Protein Metabolism and Thermogenesis: Energy is the ultimate reason why people eat and it’s very important to understand how the foods eaten influence the energy output they produce.
- Wellness Resource Center: Learn more about the three nutrients that supply calories for energy.
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