Nutrition can be quite confusing. There are the vitamins and antioxidants, the minerals and the fiber, the complex carbohydrates and the sugar but how do they all fit concurrently?

The important building blocks of nourishment are the macronutrients. We all want a certain amount of macronutrients to subsist. While there are people who concentrate on one macronutrient over another the healthiest diets contain a decent balance of all three macronutrients.

Protein, fat and carbohydrates are the macronutrients. Fat is the most dense of the three and it provides 9 calories per gram. Protein and carbohydrates both supply 4 calories per gram. A calorie is a measurement of the energy content of food and it is fundamentally the amount of heat energy vital to raise the temperature of 1g of water 1 degree Celsius.

Due to this inconsistency of 5 additional calories per gram, it was assumed for a few years that the fat in our diet was the main cause of the fat on our bodies. It has since been verified that this all too easy explanation is not quite accurate. The fat on our bodies is caused by a number of distinctive factors including the consumption of too many calories altogether be they from fat, protein or carbohydrates.

Protein is the building blocks of the tissues in our bodies and it is crucial to all of the processes within our cells. Protein can be found in animal tissue, dairy products and eggs but also vegan sources such a beans, legumes and particularly soybeans.

Carbohydrates are the foremost energy source of our bodies. A basic clarification of carbohydrates is that they change to sugar in our bodies, which in turn provides the energy that we need. Carbohydrates can be further broken down into simple carbohydrates, which include sugar, candy, white flour and more and complex carbohydrates, which include whole grains and vegetables. Simple carbohydrates break down in our bodies at a very speedy level, causing energy swings and increased hunger while complex carbohydrates break down slowly which gives us continued longer-term energy.

Fat may be one of the most historically misunderstood of the macronutrients. Fat is absolutely vital to our bodies but there are good fats and bad fats. Good fats are the mono and polyunsaturated fats found in olive oil, peanut oil, canola oil and nuts and seeds, avocados and the acai berry. Bad fats are the “fake” fats formed from hydrogenation and the saturated fats found in animal products.

The macronutrients provide the building blocks of all nutrition and the micronutrients like vitamins, minerals and antioxidants are all found within one of these three.

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