Energy from Food

Energy from Nutrients

Three nutrients-carbohydrates, proteins, fats provide energy the body can use.

Energy is the capacity to do work or produce heat. The body uses energy from these nutrients to grow, move, and create heat to maintain a steady temperature.

Carbohydrates supply the body with one of its main fuels called glucose.

Glucose is a simple form of carbohydrate which serves as the body’s sugar. The brain and nervous system depend almost entirely on glucose for energy to think, trigger movement, and send messages between tissues.

Fat supplies fatty acids-which are building blocks of fat that supply energy fuel for most of the body’s cells. The muscles including the heart muscle, rely heavily on fatty acids to fuel physical activity and movement.

Energy from Nutrients

Protein supplies amino acids- which are building blocks of protein normally used to build tissues or under some conditions burned as energy.

In difficult situations such as starvation or severe stress the body can burn amino acids from protein for fuel at a much greater rate than in normal times.

Alcohol also provides calories, but is not a nutrient. Alcohol does not help the body in any way but is a toxin or poison that the body can only tolerate in small amounts.

Calorie- is a unit used to measure energy. If you consume more carbohydrates, fat, and proteins than you need than these nutrients will be stored in your body mostly as fat.

Note calories are listed as per gram of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.

A gram is a unit of weight, about 1/28th of an ounce. Vitamins and minerals are often measured in grams or milligrams.

Digestion

A better choice is a meal that provides carbohydrates, fats, and proteins in the right amounts.

The carbohydrates in the meal provide a quick source of glucose energy in the form of calories.

The fat in the meal slows down digestion- which means the breaking down of food into nutrients the body can use.

This makes the glucose last longer and the protein helps make you feel fuller for longer periods of time.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are important in any diet because they have starch, fiber, and sugars.

Starch- is the main carbohydrate in grains and vegetables. It provides glucose which the body uses. The brain needs glucose to perform at its best.

Fruits and vegetables also provide the brain with glucose from the sugars in it.

The body stores extra energy in two forms: glucose and fat.

Carbohydrates

Glycogen-is the form in which the liver and muscles store glucose. Fat is stored mostly under the skin and in the abdomen.

Within seconds of eating carbohydrates, glucose flows into your blood. Your liver and muscle cells gather up all the glucose they can hold and store it as glycogen. If more glucose still flows in, the liver will convert it to fat and the fat cells in the fat tissue store it.

Hypothalamus-a brain regulatory center. It sends out signals hunger signals when blood glucose levels get too low. If you don’t eat the body starts to use its four hour worth supply of glycogen stored in your liver to provide glucose.

Fiber

Fiber is a carbohydrate, but it is not digestible by human beings. Fiber provides very few calories. However it helps maintain the health of the digestive tract.

The body needs about 25 grams of fiber each day to remain healthy.

Most types of fiber move through the digestive tract almost unchanged.

Fiber aids in the digestion by making the digestive tract contents (stool) soft and bulky.

Fiber

Fiber binds with cholesterol and carries it out of the body in stool. It reduces blood cholesterol and the risk of heart disease.

Fiber helps balance blood glucose and helps control the most common form of the disease diabetes.

Some fibers bind cancer causing agents in the digestive tract, reducing the risk of cancer.

Fiber also helps control body fat and it is very hard for a person to gain weight when they are on a diet of high fiber intake.

Choose whole grains, whole fruits and vegetables. Eat these foods either lightly cooked or raw.

Sugars

Sugars- carbohydrates found both in foods and in the body. All sugars are chemically similar to the sugar called glucose. They can be converted to glucose in the body.

Glucose- also known as blood sugar or the body’s fuel.

Fructose- the natural sugar in fruits and honey.

Sucrose- known as table sugar.

Lactose- the natural sugar in milk.

In foods, all four sugars are delivered in diluted form mostly from fruits, vegetables, and milk.

Sugar

Some of them are also delivered in the concentrated form as sweeteners; table sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, and molasses.

Any ingredient that ends in ose has sugar in it.

Added sugars- sugars and syrups added to a food for any purpose, such as to add sweetness.

Empty calories- foods that contribute a lot of energy (calories) but too little nutrients.

Fats

Fat supplies most of the body’s fuel. It also transports fat-soluble vitamins.

Fat can be stored, it serves as a reserve supply of energy. Ft is stored in a layer of cells beneath the skin, in many padded areas such as the abdomen and elsewhere.

Pads of fat help insulate the body and protects it from cold temperatures. Pads of fat also cushion the body organs, protecting them from shocks and bruises.

Forms of Fats

The fats come in two forms saturated fat and unsaturated fat.

Saturated fats- are fats associated strongly with heart disease and artery disease.

Unsaturated fats- are less associated with heart disease.

Polyunsaturated fats- is a type of unsaturated fat in a heart healthy diet.

People who are developing or who have heart and artery disease it is very important to switch from saturated fat to unsaturated fat in foods.

Saturated fats come mainly from animal sources including meat fats, whole milk, butter, and cream. They tend to be solid at room temperature. A few plant oils are high in saturated fat such as coconut oil and palm kernel oil.

Unsaturated fats come primarily from vegetable oils. They include olive oil, corn oil, and canola oil.

Fats and Cholesterol

Fish oil- a polyunsaturated fat from certain fish, thought to be necessary for health. It is an animal fat but is polyunsaturated.

Trans fats- are a type of fat that forms when polyunsaturated oils are processed. These trans fats damage heart health as do saturated fats.

Cholesterol- a type of fat made by the body from unsaturated fat. The body makes some cholesterol from other fats in the body because cells need it to function properly.

Too much cholesterol is linked to heart disease. Also it cause build up in the arteries and increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

People trying to lower their cholesterol need to lower their intake of cholesterol and limit their intake of saturated fats.

Proteins

Proteins are body’s machinery-they do the cells work.

Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. A set of 20 different amino acids form proteins.

Your body can make amino acids for itself.

Essential amino acids- are amino acids that the body can’t make for itself and must be gotten from food.

Proteins

Protein is found in meats, fish, poultry, eggs, cheese, milk, and plant foods such as grains and beans.

Teens may receive more than enough daily protein from one egg, 3 cups of milk, and an assortment of fruits and vegetables without a single serving of meat.

Vegetarians-people who omit meat, fish, and poultry from their diet. They can easily make it up with grains, legumes, seeds and nuts, and vegetables.

Vegetarians must eat a variety of them everyday to receive to get all of the essential amino acids.

Vitamin B12 is found only in meats, poultry, fish, eggs, and milk. Vegetarians who only eat food from plants must rely on vitamin B12 fortified foods such as soy milk, breakfast cereals, or take a supplement.

Protein

Vegetarians also must make sure they are getting enough vitamin D and calcium. Soy milk, leafy green vegetables also have protein.

Iron and vitamin C are also important and can be found in fruits and vegetables. Iron can be found in meat and poultry.

A person who does not consume enough protein can have their body waste away and left defenseless against disease.

This happens to neglected and homeless children, sick people in hospitals, and substance abusers.

Vitamins

Supplement- is a pill, powder, liquid, or the like containing only nutrients.

Deficiency- too little of a nutrient in the body.

Fat-soluble- vitamins are able to dissolve in fat and tend to remain in the body. Fat-soluble vitamins tend to remain in the body and can reach dangerous levels if a person takes too much of them.

Water-soluble- are able to travel in the body’s watery fluids and leave the body readily through urine. You need to regularly replace the vitamins that you lose.

Vitamins

Vitamin A is well known in its role in vision. Each year half a million children go blind from a deficiency in this vitamin.

Night blindness- slow recovery of vision after flashes of bright light at nigh. As vitamin A deficiency grows worse, it leads to permanent blindness.

Vitamin A helps the body fight infections and maintains healthy skin and promotes growth.

Beta-carotene- is an orange vegetable pigment that the body can change into the active form of Vitamin A.

Antioxidant-is a substance that defends the body against destructive compounds.

Free radicals-are compounds that trigger damaging chain reactions in the cells of the body. The damage may promote cancer or heart disease.

Vitamins

Vitamin E- is an antioxidant nutrient. People who eat plenty of vitamin E rich foods have lower rates of heart disease.

Thiamin-is a typical water soluble vitamin. It helps the body use energy from other nutrients such as carbohydrates. It also helps release energy from carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.

Folate and Vitamin B12- they work together but are found in different foods.

Folate is found in leafy green vegetables. While B12 is found in foods that come from animals such as meats and milk.

Folate deficiency causes anemia, weakened immunity and abnormal digestion.

B12 deficiency causes anemia and abnormal nerve and muscle function.

Minerals

Calcium is the most abundant mineral in the body and is mostly stored in the bones and teeth.

A deficiency of calcium will cause the strength of bones to be greatly impaired.

Osteoporosis- a disease of gradual bone loss, can cripple a person later in life.

If you can’t drink milk, you can have almonds, canned sardines (with bones), leafy greens broccoli, beans, and some orange juice does have calcium.

Minerals

Iron is present in every cell in the body and is the oxygen carrier for the body.

Anemia- reduced number or size of the red blood cells. With too few red blood cells a person will have anemia and grow tired and weak quickly.

Electrolytes-minerals that dissolve in body fluids and carry electrical charges. They help maintain the proper balance of fluids in the body.

Salt-is a compound made of minerals that, in water, dissolve and form electrolytes.

Hypertension-high blood pressure.

Water is a major substance of which bodies are made. 60% of your body’s weight is water.

Water carries nutrients, waste, oxygen, and other materials from place to place in the body.

Urine-fluid waste removed from the body by the kidneys. You must replace all of the water that you lose.