What means nutrition, topics about nutrients, its composition, functioning and more

Nutrition fundamentally is the study of what we eat, what it does to the body and for the body.

There are important molecules in the food, that provide the nutrients that we need for living:

+ Lipids or fats.

+ Proteins.

+ Carbohydrates.

+ Vitamins and minerals.

+ Water.

FATS

Composition: Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen.

Fats are solid at environmental temperature and oils are liquid.

Nutrition: The main way we store energy is from the fat we have.

1 pound of body fat = 3500 calories.

Talking about function: In our body, the fat allows us to absorb shock, they isolate our bodies (help us to maintain corporal heat) and are present in all our cells.

Fat helps us to digest some nutrients, like beta-carotene.

Fats in our body can keep medicines that were not absorbed by our bodies and that we could have taken many years ago.

Most of the Oils composition are unsaturated fats.

We refer to fats as lipids and this can be any type of fat molecule: oil, trygliceride, phospholipid, etc.).

You will learn more about fatty acids, tryglicerides, types of fat, and more, in further articles.

The anti-inflammatory fats and its health benefits.

PROTEINS

Composition: Proteins are composed of 20 different units called aminoacids of which 8 are essential, meaning we need to get them from outside sources, because our body doesn't synthetize them.

Complete proteins contain all the essential aminoacids. They are found in eggs, milk, fish and meat (30-40% of the meat protein is glutamic acid). Incomplete proteins are generally found in vegetables.

To determine its amount in the body; the level of activity and weight are needed.

Weight lifters usually eat excessive amount (100-350 gr/day).

Vegetarians instead can acquire few (10-20 gr/day). They should be aware of eating enough essential aminoacids, specially lysine, methionine, and tryptophan.

Normal ingestion is about 40-50 gr/day.

Too much protein can lead to complications by risks of failure on the kidney.

Too little protein compromises the inmune system and other functions.

Many molecules are proteins in the body: enzymes, antibodies, structural components of the cell, hair, nails, and hormones.

You'll be able to read more articles about proteins in a specific section designed for that.

CARBOHYDRATES

Carbohydrates are produced thanks to the photosynthesis process. This molecules are present in fruits, dry fruits and grains.

Interesting stuff about Foods like fruits, dry fruits and grains and other tasty stuff

Sugars are final by product of the photosynthesis process. They are divided in 2 depending on the molecules size: Simple (like sugars) and Complex (like starches). According to the structure, they will enter fast or slow to the bloodstream, very important for nutrition because this will affect insulin levels.

Glucose is the most basic type of sugar (monosaccharide), and there are 3 types: monosaccharides like fructose and galactose; disaccharides like sucrose, maltose and lactose; and polysaccharides like pectine, celulose and amilopectine.

Function: Glycogen is the way we keep carbohydrates in the body. It breaks in glucose creating available energy in the form of Adenosin Triphosphate (ATP), and in the body's composition we find it basically in the muscles (150-180 grams) and the liver (60-90 grams, which represents energy for 4-6 hours of fast).

Our body uses carbohydrates by breaking polysaccharides into mono and disaccharides. Then, the simple sugars enter to the glycolisis process to create glycogen.

In nutrition, a very important type of carbohydrates is Fiber, whose composition is a chain of polysaccharides. Fiber is a molecule that the body is not able to cut into more simple molecules. That's why we divide it in two types according to the specific function of it:

There is Soluble Fiber (which disolves in water and introduces itself to the bloodstream, helping the heart and circulatory system) and Insoluble Fiber (which doesn't disolve in water and helps food to move efficiently through the digestive tract, raising the fecal volume and helping to move the toxins from the system).

With aerobic breathing carbohydrates are broken in the presence of oxygen. In the fermentation process instead, carbohydrates are broken in absence of oxygen.

VITAMINS AND MINERALS

More nutrition: Vitamins and minerals are micro nutrients that help to develop many specific functions in the body. Vitamins catalize biochemical reactions. Our body doesn't synthetize them, (except for vitamin D3), so we need to get them from our food.

According to the way they are absorbed, they can be soluble in fat (A, D, E and K) or soluble in water (the rest of them, including the B complex vitamins and C).

The function of soluble in fat vitamins is: Be used for the production of steroid hormones, the synthesis of prostaglandins and the maintenance of the membranes.

The function of soluble in water vitamins is: Be used for many neurological activities, and all tissues need to have a constant saturation of them for working normal.

Minerals have specific activities to do. The most common and needed mineral is Calcium, but we also need chromium, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, zinc and other traces of important minerals like selenium.

The function of minerals is diverse, it goes from building our bones and structures to helping to regulate insulin, catalize specific reactions, maintain osmotic pressure, etc.

We can find vitamins and minerals in all food, but the amounts and quality may vary. Today, we are aware that our food has been affected by the environment, the storing, the cooking and many other factors that deplete nutrients from it, so, in today's nutrition, supplements make sense to complete our diet.

Food has changed, we know of the need of supplements but, what are the benefits?, how to choose them?, etc.

Many antioxidants are needed in order to help the body against the oxidative damage. This antioxidants are found in different types of foods and are molecules such as: Gamma Tocopherol, Vitamin C, Polyphenols and Flavonoids.