Hypercurious 1
Nutrition Basics – Macronutrients
We’re going to get into a lot of different concepts in this series, and we’ll cover all sorts of topics from cellular respiration to quantum entanglement. I’ll focus on the things I’m most interested in at the time, or what I happen to be studying, or what you submit questions on, and my Patrons get first dibs on topics.
We’re starting in basic nutrition because it’s near and dear to my heart, and it occurs to me that you could use a refresher. Truthfully I don’t remember learning most of this stuff in high school, so unless you deliberately studied it you might need this.
Today we’re going to talk about macronutrients.
Macro means big. There are also micronutrients, and we’ll talk about those later. So, MACROnutrients are the substances that are most plentiful in food, and they’re broken down into three categories:
Protein
Fat
Carbohydrates
Of these, protein is the most essential. In the most basic terms, protein is what you’re made of, so you need it to let your body do normal repair and growth, as well as healing. Protein isn’t just for bodybuilders, though they need more of it since they’re ripping their muscles up all the time. Protein is made of amino acids, which are further classified as essential or non-essential. An essential amino acid is one that can’t be made in the body from other things. Non-essential amino acids can be constructed in the body from other protein parts. Proteins are found in muscle meats, organ meats, fish, poultry, dairy, eggs, and some plants. My next video will be on how much protein you need and what specific ones.
The next two have caused small scale war on the internet and in gyms worldwide, so in this video we’ll talk about what they ARE, not HOW MUCH you should have. We can fight about that later.
Fat
First, some fat is essential. It helps skin stay supple, cell membranes to stay flexible, and your brain to do brain-like things. You need it to have stable energy, and to produce the right hormones in the right amounts.
Saturated fat, contrary to the villain they made it out to be in the 80’s, is the most essential kind, as it’s most compatible for our bodies and is the most stable. Saturated fats are generally solid at room temperature, so think butter and coconut oil. There are no double bonds at the tail of this kind of fat molecule so it isn’t likely to go rancid, nor create free radicals when you eat it.
Monounsaturated fat is the next best, and includes avocado oil, olive oil, and macadamia oil. These support health. Chemically it means that the tail end of this fat has one double bond. It tends to react favorably in the body, just don’t drink a gallon of it at a time.
Polyunsaturated fats aren’t good for you, but they’re in a lot of things. They have multiple double bonds at the tail end making them highly reactive, which creates a lot of oxidative stress, aka cell damage. When saturated fats were replaced in many foods with polyunsaturated fats, disease rates actually increased. Omega 6 oils are polyunsaturated, and we need only a small amount of it to see the benefit…which some scientists think is questionable. Polyunsaturated fats are often abbreviated as PUFAs.
Trans fats are bad. Don’t eat them. They’re in fried and processed foods and are highly inflammatory. They hold no benefit and are universally harmful. They’ve been hydrogenated which is a process of turning a liquid vegetable oil into a solid.
Last, carbohydrates!
Are carbohydrates essential? A little, possibly. As much as most people get? Unlikely, especially in the forms we’re eating the most of.
Carbohydrates come in the form of sugars and starches. Candies, cakes, pastries, pasta, bread, rice, potatoes. All the good stuff, the easy stuff, the convenient stuff. Carbs are everywhere. Simple carbohydrates are things like sugar, honey, and fruit. The sugar needs very little work inside the body to be used. Complex carbohydrates are starches like potatoes, rice, and grains that need several steps to turn them into a form that’s useful.
Carbohydrates are the fastest source of energy for our bodies. They break down into glucose, which is the form of sugar our cells can use to create ATP, which is the form of energy cells make and use. Later we’ll talk about how cells make energy in the mitochondria through the citric acid cycle which is really the krebs cycle and it always will be, but that’s later.
Anyway! If the cells don’t use carbohydrates from the diet, the cells use fat to make energy. If the body is really desperate you can turn protein into energy but, and this is science here, it’s better to get your energy from fat or carbs. More on that another time.
And that’s it! Hope this was as fun for you as it was for me. Leave your questions and comments below!
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