Everyone of us has heard about proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, and minerals. We all know that a good diet supports health and helps us to control our weight, but what on earth does the good diet include?

Macronutrients

Macronutrients include proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. The term ‘macronutrient’ suggest that we need great amounts of these nutrients.

Carbohydrates include sugars (e.g. table sugar, fruits, milk) and starches (e.g. vegetables and grain). By their structure, sugars are simplier than starches, which are formed of more than one sugar. Fibres, which are important for example for the function of our intestines, are most of the time got from carbohydrates. Every gram of carbohydrates contains four kilo calories of energy.

Meat, milk products, vegetable fats, and butter are the source of fats. Fats include fatty acids, part of them are are essential for our bodies. The type of fat (saturated, unsaturated or polyunsaturated fat) and the amount of it are connected to cardiovascular diseases and some cancers. Each gram of fats contain 9 kilo calories of energy, which makes it the most energy dense macro nutrient.

Micronutrients

Micronutrients are nutrients which we only need little amounts. Micronutrients include vitamins and minerals. Despite of the small amounts, vitamins and minerals have important meaning related for example growth of bones and moving oxygen. Combined with water, micronutrients help to maintain our bodies’ homeostasis.

Since the absorption of micronutrients is affected by many factors, the need for them varies from person to person. For example fats are needed for the absorption of vitamin A, where the need of vitamin E is affected by selenium, vitamin C and beta carotene. Vitamin C and calsium are related to absorption of iron.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 at 3:02 pm and is filed under nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.