Introduction
March is National Nutrition Month® created by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) to raise awareness about nutrition education and help you make informed food choices along with physical activity appreciation. Before you can make any decisions, you should know the basics first.
This is a simple overview of basic nutrition and will be followed by a 3-part series of the nutrients you consume in the largest amounts known as macronutrients: carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Macros are where your calories come from. The proportion of each macro will vary for everyone based on age, activity level, gender, medications, and personal goals. The quality of your food choices is more important than the goal percentage of calories for each macro because there isn’t a standard amount.
Nutrition is complex, but your food choices don’t have to be once you have a handle on the fundamentals. In simple terms, nutrition is understanding how the nutrients found in foods affect your body concerning health and disease.
Identifying what’s considered nutritious can be difficult, especially when we’re blasted with constant ads, advice, social media influencers, and marketing about what we should and shouldn’t eat. It’s no wonder that there’s mass confusion about health. Wholesome nutrition can be delicious while being nutritious. I know that sounded like Dr. Suess 😊 but most people think eating healthy is bland and boring. Over time, your taste buds, cravings, and mindset will change when you begin to eat healthier with repetition.
6 Basic Nutrients
Food contains six basic nutrients. The macros mentioned earlier: carbohydrates, proteins, fats, plus water. Water doesn’t produce energy like the first 3 macros, but is needed in large amounts. The other two are called micronutrients, i.e., vitamins and minerals. When you see the number of calories on a Nutrition Facts label, it comes from the three major macros: carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.
It’s helpful to discover what each macronutrient has to offer to the health of your body, so you can make educated choices about your food. Your body is a complex machine that requires energy, cell maintenance, hormone production, etc., and, in turn, optimizes your health and wellness.
What’s a calorie?
Calories are a unit of energy necessary to perform daily activities and sustain bodily functions, such as circulation, new cell production, and organ regulation, to name a few. Calories don’t measure the nutritional value of food. The nutritional value of food refers to the quality and the essential nutrients found in it. More on why a calorie is not a calorie and how it matters where your calories come from!
Breakdown of calories for each macro
The following is a breakdown of calories per gram of each macronutrient. Note: Alcohol is not a macronutrient, however, it contains far more calories than most people realize so I’ve included it in the comparison.
| Energy | Carbohydrate | Protein | Fat | Vitamin | Mineral | Water | Alcohol |
| Calories per Gram | 4 | 4 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
Notice that each gram of fat contains nearly twice the number of calories that are found in protein and carbohydrates. Alcohol is a close second to fat as a dense source of calories and can easily contribute to weight gain if you’re not paying attention.
Example of calories for a potato:
Keeping the serving size the same at 3 ounces. A boiled potato is approximately 66 calories versus frying the potato (French fries) is roughly 265 calories. Just changing the cooking method (process) can alter your caloric intake.
Note: The more processing food undergoes, the more it changes the structure of the nutrients, hence losing nutrients. This is why processed, and ultra-processed foods are not very healthy.
How many calories do you need?
By now, you might be wondering how many calories you need. The answer is very individualized, but to give you a general idea, check out the calorie calculator. Keep in mind, this is only part of the formula. It doesn’t take into consideration your medications and desired personal goals, but it’s a place to start.
High-quality foods
Choosing fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and meats is a good start toward understanding high-quality foods and a healthier you. For example, 60 calories in a piece of fruit will give you 60 calories worth of energy to do some activity or just simply help your heartbeat and your lungs breathe. Fruit is considered to have high nutritional value because it’s high in micronutrients.
Low-quality foods
Foods that have non-nutritional value are considered empty calories—in other words, low in micronutrients. You know the ones! Cookies, ice cream, crackers, juice, soda, chips, etc. They do contain the macros I mentioned but not micronutrients. They’re higher in calories with fewer nutrients. Consuming food with high nutritional value is essential to keep you healthy and resilient to fight off illness with minimal downtime.
Conclusion
You may not have control over your age, gender, race, or genetic factors, but you do have control over your food consumption (including alcohol) and movement. Optimal health is found in a variety of minimally processed foods (real food, not altered) like an apple.
Once you recognize how your body feels when eating optimally versus less than ideal, you’ll eventually, and with experience, naturally select the best food choices for yourself without feeling deprived or restricted. No longer will you have to guess what to eat.
In my next blog post, I’ll review carbohydrates. This macronutrient is one of the three main nutrients found in food and drinks—the largest group of macros and source of energy.
In optimal health,
Lisa