A Nutrition Lesson...

I think that a considerable amount of people have no idea of how to eat correctly. Some think that drinking strictly shakes all day, or eating nothing but protein is the way to go. Let me tell you, this is ridiculous!!!

Depriving your body of carbohydrates, proteins, or fats (yes, even fats) can be very detrimental! I think the problem is that many people really do not know what your body does with these types of foods.

Well, pay attention all you crazy dieters, this could help tremendously!

Why do we even need food? Calories. These are tiny units of energy that your body uses in order to do work. What types of food contain kcalories? All types.

What Are KCALS? Kcal's, or kilocalories, are the preferred name for what regular people just call "calories". While there is technically (and confusingly) a difference between a calorie and a kcal in the scientific world, when dealing with the body and food, the two terms are interchangeable.

Carbohydrates give 4 kcal per gram, protein gives 4 kcal per gram, and fat gives 9 kcal per gram. It's easy to see from this information that fats are the most energy dense types of food. This means that fats give the body more energy than either carbohydrates or protein!

CARBS:

We'll start with carbohydrates. I'm sure you've heard of glucose before. Carbohydrates are the source of glucose. Glucose is a simple carbohydrate that is stored in your muscles and liver as glycogen. Glycogen can be thought of as just a string of glucose.

What Is Glycogen? Glycogen is the principal stored form of carbohydrate energy (glucose), which is reserved in muscles. When your muscles are full of glycogen, they look and feel full.

Since glucose can be obtained and stored so easily from the body, it is used in order to fuel most of the body's cells. Get this, glucose provides energy for your brain and for making blood in your body. Glucose can be made from protein, however, this requires the breakdown of body protein, yes, from muscle!

That's right, if you're not eating enough carbohydrates, your body will start breaking down precious muscle tissue for glucose!

PROTEIN:

Now onto to protein. More well known than glucose is the term amino acid. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, just as many glucose molecules make up glycogen, amino acids make up proteins.

There are numerous functions of proteins in the body, but I'll just concentrate on the most important: proteins are involved in growing, repairing, and replacing tissue. They are able to do this because they are the building blocks of body structure.

FATS:

Now for the fats. Fats are very important! In the body, fats are the main source of energy!Believe it or not, fat combines with glucose for energy in order to spare the breakdown of protein. This way protein can be used in order to do its job, make more muscle!!!!!

Like I said, fat broken down in the body gives 9 kcals per gram. Now think about that, since fat releases more kcals (energy) per gram, it only makes sense that your body would first use fat as its chief source of energy.

Types of Fats:

1). Saturated fats are the fats that you want to stay away from because high intake can lead to things like heart disease and high cholesterol. Your body cannot break down saturated fat very well either because of its chemical composition.

2). Unsaturated fats are the good fats that are easier for your body to breakdown. Some act as an antioxidant and many actually aid in losing stored fatty tissue in the body.

After reading this Nutrtion Lesson I hope you will combine a healthy combination of all of these to obtain your optimal performance and potential!