Nutrition Series: The Basics | BodynSoil

When discussing fitness, nutrition is a question on the tip of everyone?s tongue and for good reason. Read any post, book or news article and you will see that nutrition is a large part of the equation when it comes to making gains or losses in your level of fitness.? Like many people, nutrition becomes as routine as driving to grandma?s house so that when asked it is sometimes hard to remember specifics just like trying to remember often traveled street names, you just do it. I picked up ?Nutrient Timing for Peak Performance? by Heidi Skolnik, MS CDN, FACSM and Andrea Chernus, MS RD CDE and found a lot of information written in a way that is clear and easy to understand.

The first page of the book states their opinions regarding the four most important aspects of sport performance which are: training, skill development, nutrition and SLEEP!! One cannot replace the other, you can?t out train a poor diet or compensate inadequate rest with nutrition.? Proper eating is important when it comes to training due to your body needing to be fully fueled for the job, eating properly after the workout while your body is recovering gives you the full benefit of your training.? This book reconfirms that you need to treat your body like your car, run the engine with the best fuel possible to get the best mileage and efficiency.

It takes time for your body to convert the food you eat into fuel to be burned as energy, food needs to be digested, absorbed then prepared for use. ?After chewing, food is then swallowed, which sends it to your stomach to become liquefied and mixed with enzymes. Once the enzymes break the food particles into molecules they will pass into the small intestine for the next step, which is absorption into the blood stream to be metabolized and/or converted into future energy.? There are three types of macronutrients that are derived from the foods we eat: carbohydrates, proteins and fats which then have micronutrients like fiber, water, phytonutrients, vitamins and minerals.

• Carbohydrates (1 gram = 4 energy calories) are turned into glucose (future energy) and stored in your muscle as glycogen. The type of carbohydrate consumed determines the speed of breakdown and the amount of energy gained from it. (fruits, sweets, soft drinks, breads, pastas, beans, potatoes, vegetables, bran, rice, and cereals etc.)
• Protein (1 gram= 4 energy calories) breaks down into amino acids, which are then absorbed into the blood stream to build muscle, form bone, grow hair/nails, creating new blood cells. Certain amino acids can be burned as fuel by the muscle or converted by the liver but that isn?t the best option for our body when looking for energy sources. (Beef, poultry, pork, eggs, fish, cheese, beans, dairy etc)
• Fats (1 gram = 9 energy calories) breaks down into fatty acids, not all of them are bad, in fact they are a necessary evil as your body uses them to produce hormones like estrogen and testosterone and for the absorption of nutrients like vitamin A, D, E and K plus Beta Carotene.? Fats also help keep your joints lubricated and can also be burned as energy, of course all of this happens after a long digestion process. (Nuts, oils, butters, lard, animal products, processed foods etc)

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Metabolism is the actual use/burning of the food nutrients your body has broken down to be utilized as a fuel source. People with fast metabolisms convert nutrients into fuel faster than those who have slower metabolisms. When your body needs fuel to complete any task from breathing, pumping blood, running or exercising it metabolizes fuel sources for energy. To do this a series of chemical reactions occur, changing these molecules of glucose, amino acids or fatty acids into energy, this can take place anywhere within your body but this is your metabolism at work converting nutrients into energy.

When muscle is working and in need of energy, the only fuel it can use is glucose which it gets directly from digested carbohydrate in the blood, stored in muscle as glycogen or by converting it from digested proteins and fats. ?To use the glycogen stored in muscle the body needs to convert it back to glucose using enzymes, this is called glycolysis.

Your body determines what fuel to use and when from hormones which are produced by glands.? Hormones regulate the anabolic (building) and catabolic (breaking down) of tissues. Both the building and breakdown are important as it ensures old cells are carried away and replaced with the new and improved cells we?ve worked to create.? This tear down and rebuilding happens all day long, which is why it is good to eat well at regular intervals to keep feeding these processes, exercise helps keep these systems working at their highest potential. ?Hormones work together to help signal hunger, fullness and the need to repair, breakdown or build up tissue.

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This is the first part in a series, I enjoy sharing this information with you and also using writing as a means to remember the complicated process our body goes through each and every day.? The way our body processes nutrients happens automatically and most often we don?t take time to appreciate the complexity of this system and the amazing things our body can do, each day is a gift it given to us.

Related posts:

1. Pre and Post Workout Nutrition
2. Beginning Nutrition: Just starting & looking for advice
3. Nutrition, Fitness,Fuzzy Math and keeping a balanced budget.
4. Fitness Nutrition: A commonly asked Question (Via: Active.com)
5. Do you take a multivitamin to suppliment your nutrition? I do?

Source: http://bodynsoil.com/blog/2011/09/nutrition-series-the-basics/

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