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Getting to the Root of Nutrition: The
Pillars of Nutrition
by: Dave
Saunders
What are we made of? While this may seem like a
simple question, the answer is essential to the study of nutrition.
Over hundreds if not thousands of years the study of nutrition has
aimed to break down the different compounds from which the body is
made and to understand where they came from. The simple fact is that
the entire human body is made out of food and water and to a lesser
extent air and light. The things that do not fall into these
categories may be toxins and actually cause a burden to the
structures and functions of the normal body. Many toxins are added
to our food today and you may be surprised by what some of them are.
Knowing what supports correct bodily function and what burdens it
can help you make better choices about your lifestyle and your diet
and the result is an improved level of wellness.
Understanding that from the very beginning you
were and continue to be made out of the compounds found in food and
water, nutrition and the study of it is obviously primarily health
care and neither alternative nor complimentary. Nutrition is the
most fundamental aspect of life.
What makes the food that makes us?
First we have the so-called “pillars of
nutrition.” These are also known as macronutrients because they take
up the largest portion of the food, apart from water which makes up
a substantial portion of any food.
· Protein
· Fats
· Carbohydrates
Just like the basic parts used to make a car,
these parts are all required for life and in a ratio of about 30%
protein, 20% fats and 50% carbohydrates.
The quality of each of these pillars is very
important. After all, do you want to be made from high quality parts
or low quality parts?
Protein is composed of twenty different amino
acids. In adults there are eight essential amino acids. Essential
means there is no way for your body to get these building blocks
other than through your diet. With children there are ten essential
amino acids and premature babies require eleven amino acids. Again,
they cannot get in these other way than through diet.
Meat from animals contains a complete profile
of the essential amino acids, but some erroneously believe that
vegetarians have a difficult time getting enough protein in their
diets. Protein is a basic building block in all life and vegetarians
eating a reasonably varied selection of foods not only get complete
protein support, the protein from plants tends to be easier to
digest and does not cause a build up of toxins like uric acid in the
kidneys as is the case with all animal protein.
Modern diets tend to have the least amount of
high quality essential fats but large amounts of low quality and
harmful fats. These essential fats are found in foods such as flax
seed, fresh nuts, avocados and certain types of fish. Processed
foods and red meat contain saturated fats and trans fats which are
neither essential nor beneficial.
The essential fats not only assist the body in
the management of inflammation and other bodily processes, they make
up some critical structures in the body as well. Over 50% of the
mass of a healthy brain is composed of these essential, unsaturated
fats.
A word of warning: have you ever opened a jar
of raw nuts and discovered the smell of “oil paint”? This is a sign
that the essential fats have gone rancid. Throw this food out.
The final pillar is the much maligned
carbohydrate group. These foods provide energy as well as fiber to
the diet. Fiber is found in most plants and is not considered a
nutrient, but it is important for normal bodily function and waste
elimination. Fruits and vegetables provide the best source of
carbohydrates and varying amounts of fiber. Grains also provide
beneficial carbohydrates as long as they are whole and are an
excellent source of fiber. Refined grains provide the lowest quality
source of carbohydrates and in excess may now only lead to unwanted
weight gain, but also an increased risk of diabetes, and heart
disease.
These three pillars of nutrition are very
important and provide the bulk of any healthy diet. For hundreds of
years, they were considered to be the only components of nutrition
in food. That all changed as research moved forward in the late 19th
and early 20th century.
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