Welcome to Nutrition 101 (Nutrition for Dummies) – Nutrition Crash Course Part 2 of 7
This is Part 2 of a 7 Part Nutrition Series. You can find the other parts here:
- Part 1: https://grahamtuttle.com/2021/02/the-big-3
- Part 2: https://grahamtuttle.com/2021/02/nutrition-101
- Part 3: https://grahamtuttle.com/2021/03/fats
- Part 4: https://grahamtuttle.com/2021/03/carbs
- Part 5: https://grahamtuttle.com/2021/05/cholesterol
- Part 6: https://grahamtuttle.com/2021/07/gut-health
- Part 7: https://grahamtuttle.com/2021/07/what-to-eat
The next step in improving your eating and nutrition is cutting out the empty calories. At this point we’re not overly focused on optimizing anything, I just want you to prioritize getting more nutrients and value from the food you’re eating. To do this, we’ll use the simple meal planning formula of building your meals around real food. At the beginning, I advise my clients to shoot for 90% of their calories from meat, fruit, and some vegetables. Much like the “Big 3” in section 1, it really can be that simple.
Obviously there is a lot of room in that equation for you to take ownership and explore what works best, but ultimately the most essential metric to consider when thinking about any pattern of eating is how sustainable it is for you. The perfect diet you don’t follow won’t do you any good. I’d rather you stick to the imperfect diet that you can work with consistently.
Additionally, at this stage in your nutrition journey, this is where we want to begin a baseline education about what you are actually eating. Unfortunately, most people think about their body in the same way they think about their car – if something isn’t working well or a light pops up on the dashboard, they just take it to the mechanic for them to fix it.
The problem is that you don’t have that luxury with your body. Every body is unique and responds to nutrition, stresses, and stimuli differently. You can’t outsource fixing yourself to anyone else. Does this mean you need to be a nutritionist or doctor and obsess about health and eating? Of course not! But you do need to take some ownership of your health and familiarize yourself with the basics. Starting to read the back of nutrition labels on foods is a great place to begin. Let’s cover some basic terms.
What are Macronutrients? Macronutrients are the broad categories of nutrients in our diet. There are three main types of macronutrients – proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. All food is broken down into one of these three types based on its chemical structure. This impacts how it is digested and absorbed. Each type has a unique and important role in the body.
Protein should be the central component in planning out macronutrient levels and calorie consumption in your diet. Proteins are composed of amino acids, which are the building blocks for almost everything in the body including muscle, bones, organs, and blood cells. Through the digestion process, proteins are broken down into their amino acids components which are used to create new cells and structures. There are 20 main amino acids that the human body uses. 11 of these can be produced in the body while the other 9, called essential amino acids, need to be consumed in the diet.
Not all protein sources are equal. For instance, while peas and broccoli contain protein, they do not have all of the essential amino acids and are therefore considered an incomplete protein. Complete proteins are those that have all nine of the essential amino acids in a single protein source. Meats, eggs, and dairy tend to be the most bioavailable sources of a complete protein in terms of the nutrient density per quantity consumed.
While not ideal, there are non-meat options for complete proteins, including soy products, rice and beans together, quinoa, buckwheat, and pumpkin seeds among others. However, as with all other dietary restrictions, care needs to be taken to ensure that there is no vitamin and mineral deficiency caused by the elimination of a certain food source. Whenever any item is removed from a diet it is important to consider what nutritional value is lost and how that will be replaced moving forward.
While the RDI for adults is just under .4 grams of protein per pound bodyweight, this amount is insufficient for many populations. For athletes and those looking to increase muscle mass a minimum protein recommendation is at least 1 gram per pound bodyweight each day. This means that a 150lb individual needs to consume at least 150g of protein daily. Additionally, for those looking to lose weight, increasing protein intake each day will help aid in satiety and provides an energy inefficient source of calories. Research hasn’t demonstrated an upper limit to how much protein you can take in each day.
Though certain amino acids can be metabolized for energy, they are a poor source given the small return on the process relative to fats and carbohydrates. Protein deficiency is rare in developed countries but can be a problem for poorer nations. Supplements can help reach this goal but the best source of protein is always natural, whole foods.
And though I’ll spend a long time discussing both carbs and fats in the coming sections, don’t let that mislead you about how important protein is. It’s the main core of human existence, a nonnegotiable. Whether you are building muscle or losing fat, anchoring your pattern of eating around protein is the single most effective way to be successful with it. This isn’t a controversial statement either. Some in the “plant based” framework may try to dilute the importance of protein to downplay how vital animal based foods are for our health, but don’t be confused. I’m not saying you need an excessive amount of protein (2+ grams/pound bodyweight or more), but if you are chronically low on the amino acids you need to thrive, you’re not going to do well.
I’ll circle back to the best sources of protein for you to eat in the last section of this series, but the essence of what I’m saying is that you need protein – and high quality protein too! But protein is fairly straightforward past that, and most preventable disease we see in modernity isn’t caused by protein. Rather inappropriate relationships with refined fats and carbs are driving dis-health. Naturally, I’ll spend more time digging into those.
Carbohydrates (Carbs) are the quickest digesting macronutrient and can be a fast source of energy. All digestible carbs that will be used in the body are eventually broken down into simplest building blocks of sugars – glucose, fructose, or galactose. Vegetables, fruits, starches, legumes, breads, and most snack foods are predominately composed of carbohydrates. These can be simplified to two main categories of fast and slow carbs based on the length of time required for digestion. This can also be graphically displayed by a factor called the Glycemic Index (GI), which determines the impact that the carbohydrate has on the insulin levels in the blood.
Once the carbohydrate source has been digested, the glucose is absorbed into the blood quickly and needs to be dealt with. An organ called the pancreas releases a hormone called insulin that directs the newly digested glucose to storage in the liver, muscles, or fat cells depending on when and where the body requires energy.
More processed foods like chips, bread, pasta, and many desserts fall in the junk food category because they have minimal nutrients relative to their caloric content. The high carbohydrate, modern day diet is not consistent with the ancestral way of eating that humans evolved with. This has created an epidemic of health problems like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disfunction and obesity. To be clear, I am not blaming carbohydrates for this. The bigger issue is that carbs, processed sugars, corn, wheat, soy, and vegetable/seed oils have replaced more nutrient dense fat rich animal based foods. Chronically eating inflammatory processed sugars eventually leads to insulin resistance and disease.
Alternatively, whole foods that are less processed, like vegetables and starches take a longer time to digest. Because these foods have a more complex structure and higher levels of fiber, they typically have a lower insulin response. Also, these foods tend to have a higher nutritional density, meaning that they are higher in vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Fiber is plant matter that cannot be digested or absorbed by humans and therefore passes through the body undigested. Fiber slows down the rate of absorption of sugar, which regulates blood sugar levels, aides in food elimination from the body, and maintains satiety levels longer.
The real question when it comes to how many carbohydrates you should consume is whether or not you actually need them.For high intensity and field sport athletes, carbohydrates can play an important role as a source of energy before and during training sessions and competitions. Additionally, the glucose absorbed from carbohydrates after training is used to replenish the glycogen stores and repair tissue to aid in recovery before the next session. On the other hand, if you’re mostly sedentary or do mostly endurance training, you will want to rely on a mostly fat and protein based diet for your energy and nutrients.
Fats (triglycerides) are essential for of human function. They play a role in energy storage, cell membrane structure for every cell in the body, absorption of fat-soluble vitamins, and establishing the structure of our brain. Fats are the most energy dense macronutrient but take the longest to digest. Fats require oxygen for metabolism and energy release whereas carbohydrates can be broken down anaerobically and quickly. However, once metabolized, triglycerides release multiple times the amount of energy than the same amount of glucose does.
Fats can be classified broadly into unsaturated, saturated, and transaturated fats based on their chemical structure and placement of hydrogen and carbon atoms. Both saturated and unsaturated fats are essential to human function. These fats provide the building blocks for hormone production, maintain healthy organ function, and create the foundation of the nervous system.
Transaturated fats are unnatural and have been correlated with heart disease and have no benefit to the human body. Foods like margarine, shortenings, cookies, crackers, icings, many baked goods, and other junk foods are often made with trans fats. Anything with the words hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated in the ingredient list needs to be removed from the diet. These should be avoided at all cost, simple as that. Trans Fats have now been recognized as unsafe for human consumption and are being phased out of commercially available foods.
Unfortunately, in the “low fat” craze of the 80’s and 90’s where many people rushed to replace natural fats with artificial alternatives, fats came under unfair scrutiny and were blamed as the culprit for the rising epidemic of disease and obesity. This stigma caused many to shun fats and turn to a carb heavy diet with the unintended side effect of losing the multitude of health benefits that come from a balanced diet that includes a variety of fats. The reality is that an overconsumption of food in general based around a high carbohydrate diet composed of sugar, excess omega 6 fatty acids, and vegetable oils has much more to do with the rising levels of cardiovascular disease and weight gain.
Additionally, saturated fats have been exonerated as recent studies have demonstrated that there is no evidence to suggest that these fats have any association with an elevated risk of cardiovascular disease. The cholesterol we eat has been shown to have little impact on the cholesterol in our blood. This is tightly regulated by the liver which endogenously creates most of the cholesterol our body. Cholesterol and saturated fats are vital for health and function and should not be avoided.
What are Micronutrients? Micronutrients broadly describe the essential vitamins and minerals that are necessary for normal human function. All of these are required in trace amounts but can be the cause of severe dysfunction if absent for long periods of time. Additionally, many metabolic and autoimmune disorders affect the body’s ability to digest these elements and regular blood work is highly recommended to establish and maintain optimal levels. These can be added to the diet via supplementation but are best consumed as part of real food.
Vitamins are divided into two categories; water soluble vitamins that can be dissolved in the presence of water, and fat-soluble vitamins that can only be utilized alongside the absorption of fatty acids. Water soluble vitamins, like vitamin C and the B vitamins are responsible for energy production, metabolic activity, and cell maintenance. These are not easily stored and are eliminated through urine, hence the off-colored pee you may notice after supplementation. Vitamins A, D, E, and K are all fat soluble and will not be absorbed unless there is fat being digested at the same time to pull these vitamins into the blood stream. This is why consuming adequate levels of fat is so important in your diet for optimal nutrition. These vitamins can be stored in the liver and fatty tissue for later use.
Minerals are inorganic substances that are essential to proper bodily function. Several are needed in larger quantities such as calcium, potassium, sodium, and magnesium. These all have independent and important roles like maintaining bone and teeth structure, fluid balance, blood pressure, muscle and nerve function, and digestion. Trace minerals are those that are needed in very small amounts such as iron, manganese, copper, zinc, and iodine. These minerals assist in metabolism, healing, oxygen transport, immune function, and thyroid regulation. Electrolytes (sodium, chloride, potassium, magnesium, calcium, and phosphorus) are a group of minerals that have an electric charge and are essential for the transmission of nerve impulses. Salts, nuts, seafood, some vegetables, and dairy are all dietary sources of these minerals.
Calories are like money. Your body looks at calories the same way that you look at your bank account. The more you have the better. Think of your body fat as your savings account. Sure, it might not be aesthetically pleasing to be overweight, but your body views that as having extra insurance in case of famine or scarce food after a bad hunt. The issue is that our body and brain did not evolve with the constant access to food that we have now. This results in an all too easy over consumption of food leading to obesity and metabolic disease.
This is why stage 2 of my protocol is focused on removing empty calories. Just like paying your bills each month, money goes to the highest priority items first – rent/mortgage, food, utilities, savings… After that you get to spend money on non-essential items like new clothes, entertainment, and so on. If you drop all your money on a new purse but don’t have enough for groceries and rent, that’s a problem.
When you’re trying to lose weight, or at least not gain weight, you want to think about your caloric needs like your budget for the day. You only get to spend so much if you don’t want to store the excess calories as fat. Your nutritional needs come first – vitamins, nutrients, and protein are all essential, just like rent and utilities. So, you want to plan your meals around that.
Once you’ve hit your required nutrient level for the day, you might have some leftover space to play around with. I like to think about using this reserve as a buffer to save up for a cheat meal on the weekend, but if you’d rather have a glass of wine each night, then go for it. BUT you can’t spend what you don’t have!
Finally, we’ll touch on adjusting your caloric intake for exercise. Say this with me: I CANNOT OUT WORK A BAD DIET. This is the most important thing you can understand about weight gain or weight loss. Exercise can help create a stimulus for burning fat or adding muscle but cannot actually out do the poor decisions you make in the kitchen. Exercise is helpful to shape your body’s functional composition which does impact the calories you burn, but your body will outwit you every step of the way to fight weight loss or weight gain if the eating is not supporting the work you do.
We’ll cover that more in the next section, but for now, know this – if you’re trying to gain weight, you have to eat more to compensate for the calories you burn in exercise. A good estimate is 500 extra calories for every hard hour of training. If you’re trying to lose weight, eat for a small and consistent caloric deficit and let the exercise be a nice added bonus to build in reserve for the long haul.
To sum this section up, the prescription is simple – EAT REAL FOOD. Look at the nutrition label on the back of anything you eat. If you can’t pronounce the words or it has more than 5 ingredients in it, then it’s not on your menu. Keep things simple. Make your own food. Use real ingredients. Meats, Vegetables, Fruits, and Starches form your daily diet.
Read part 3 of the series here, all about fats!
