Fundamentals of a good diet

We have been requested a lot over our media channels to make a writeup on diet, nutrition, food, calories, charts and more. So we decided to make a series of blogs on the same in a way that it is quite informative  on one hand and quite simple and  comprehensive on the other, so don’t be surprise if you find 3 or may be even 4 continuous blogs related to diet as it’s a huge topic and we don’t want to take chances on it. Though you might find the importance of diet in our body from our previous blog. Here are we… with our first part of the more detailed diet series – the most important part of the fitness knowledge- The Fundamentals of a good diet!

A good body is a combination of better food and appropriate exercise where diet obviously takes a bigger portion of the credit. Hence in order to obtain the perfect body, one need to eat proper food and in order to eat that proper food one need to know about it.

Diet is the most important factor in the growth of your muscles and to achieve it, one must learn the fundamentals of a good diet.

It’s a science with simple mathematical logics. Believe me, once you get to know these things, you be self sufficient and enough knowledge-able to ask anyone anything about a diet plan. You can prepare your diet strategy yourself. YES!

Our body is a machine which perform day to day work. And different you feel it is to a machine, as same as them you might find it. Just like machines, your body perform mechanical actions or do work and hence in the process, spend energy or to say in other words burn the fuel. This fuel is nothing but the food we eat and we measure this energy in Calories.

Metabolism

Every activity that you do your body requires energy to perform those particular actions. The energy comes from metabolism.

Metabolism is a process in which your body converts foods into energy. The metabolically active ingredients can be divided as below,

• Fat
• Fiber
• Short carbohydrate
• Long carbohydrate
• Protein

Macronutrients

Nutrients are substances needed for growth, energy provision and other body functions. Macronutrients are those nutrients required in large amounts that provide the energy needed to maintain body functions and carry out the activities of daily life. There are 3 macronutrients – carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.

Now when we know about macronutrients lets have some deeper look at their importance and function.

1g of Fat = 9 Calories

1g of Carbohydrates = 4 Calories

1g of Protein = 4 Calories

Your body can extract at least the following three kinds of fuel from food that you intake:

1. Free Fatty Acids
2. Amino Acids
3. Glucose

Fiber

Fibers are extremely important in the extraction of digested food from your body. They help in digestion as well. Fibers enhance your immune system while maintaining the overall health of your digestive system.

Some best sources of fiber are whole grain foods, fruits and vegetables, legumes, and nuts.

Protein

Protein, the most important, is mostly used in our body to build and repair muscle tissue but has many other important functions as well.  Its primary resources would include:

• Meat and meat products (beef, chicken, lamb, pork or kangaroo)
• Fish and seafood
• Eggs
• Dairy food such as milk and yogurt (also carbohydrate)
• Beans and pulses (also carbohydrates)
• Nuts (also fats)
• Soy and tofu products

Carbohydrate

Many people immediately think of bread, pasta, rice, and potatoes when someone says carbohydrate, and they’re not wrong, but many other foods are carbs too:

• Bread, rice, pasta, oats, quinoa, couscous
• Starchy vegetables (potatoes, corn, and pumpkin)
• All other vegetables (broccoli, lettuce, tomato, carrot, peas)
• Beans and pulses (chickpeas, baked beans, lentils)
• Some dairy foods such as milk and yogurt
• Fruit
• Sugar and honey

Carbohydrates are our bodies’ preferred source of energy, so this macronutrient should make up a lot of our diet.

Fats

Fats are an important part of our diet. They’re used by the body as energy, storage for vitamins, for production of hormones and as protection for our organs. There are different types of fats:

Saturated

These should be limited, but not necessarily avoided. If eaten in large amounts they can be bad for your heart health. They are found in:

• Meat fat
• Butter
• Full-fat dairy products
• Coconut oil and products
• Peanut oil, palm oil, and cottonseed oil
• Food items such as chips, biscuits, and cake

Swapping to reduced- dairy fat and trimming the fat off your meat before cooking it, are good ways to reduce your saturated fat intake.

Unsaturated

We should aim to include more of these fats in our diet, as they have the opposite effect to saturated fats, and can be beneficial for your heart health. They are found in:

• Fish
• Nuts
• Avocados
• Vegetable oils (olive, canola, sunflower, rice bran)

Stay tuned… next up we’ll discuss the – Things You Should Know About Macronutrient | The Science Behind Diet

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