Nutrition 101

In this post, we’re going to talk all about how to create a balanced meal. Let’s begin by breaking down nutrition into 4 main categories that you’ll want to include at meals and snacks throughout your day:

1. Carbs
2. Fats
3. Protein
4. Fiber

Carbs, fats, and proteins are your primary source of calories, collectively known as macronutrients, or “macros.” Fiber is a type of carbohydrate that your body doesn’t digest, something we’ll touch on more later. When it comes to nutrition, most foods contain overlapping macros. For example, cheese typically has protein, carbs, and fat.

Macros

Let’s dive into macros! It’s helpful to note that macronutrients are the primary sources of calories. But what is a calorie? A calorie is an energy unit that supplies your body with fuel. We talked a little bit about them in our previous article about body composition and how calorie balance affects your weight. Under normal conditions, if you consume more calories than you can burn off, your body will store the excess energy, which results in weight gain.

Here’s some helpful info about macronutrients!

Fats

Fats promote satiety and are involved in nutrient absorption, hormone production, insulation, and more (1).

Aim to choose unsaturated fats that are found in olive oil, avocados, nuts, and other plant-based sources more often than saturated fats. You can typically determine if a fat is saturated if it’s solid at room temperature or cooler (such as butter, animal fat, shortening, and coconut oil). The nutrition label will also indicate the content of saturated fat per serving of your food. It’s important to limit your intake of saturated fat because it’s associated with an increased risk for heart disease and is even tied in brain health (2)!

Carbs

Carbs provide energy in the form of sugars, a primary energy source for the body.

Carbs that support your health include whole grains, fruit, starchy vegetables, dairy, beans, and legumes. These are known as complex carbohydrates. They may not taste sweet, but they are largely composed of complex molecules of bound sugars and fibers that your body has to really work at to break down.

Carbs that don’t support your health as well include sugar, sweets, and refined grains, such as white bread. One common source of carbohydrates that contributes a tremendous amount of excess calories is sugar-sweetened beverages and juices. If managing your sugar intake is part of your strategic health plan (which it is, for most), consider replacing sugary drinks with water.

Pro tip: You can add fruits and/or herbs to kick your water up a notch!

Protein

Protein promotes satiety and is involved in muscle synthesis and maintenance.

Protein plays a particularly significant role in body composition; it’s highly involved with muscle synthesis and maintenance. Increasing your muscle mass is relevant because it equates to having a faster metabolism and basal metabolic rate (i.e. how many calories you burn when you’re at rest). This means you can burn more calories if you have more muscle because muscle requires more energy to maintain than fat does (3).

More protein does not equate to a healthier diet. Most Americans over consume protein, which can result in increased cancer risk, high cholesterol, and kidney failure in extreme cases (4). The recommended daily allowance for most adults is 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram body weight with variations based on activity level and disease state.

Sources of protein include poultry, meat, seafood, eggs, dairy, beans, legumes, and more. Plant-based sources of protein are particularly beneficial to the body due to their lower saturated fat content and higher fiber content.

Fiber

Fiber is all about satiety and maintaining a healthy gut microbiome. It also has a wide variety of other health benefits, such as lowering the risk of diabetes, heart disease, and other diet-related diseases (5).

There are 2 main types of fiber: soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber slows digestion while insoluble fiber bulks stool, which promotes healthy bowel movement (6).

• When you choose foods high in fiber, such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, you promote healthy digestion and improve your satiety.
• Refined grains are low in fiber, which can make us feel full for a short period of time, but your body digests them quickly and you’ll often feel hungry again all too soon.

Micronutrients

Vitamins and minerals are collectively known as micronutrients. They do not contain calories, and your body needs smaller amounts of them in comparison to macronutrients (think milligrams or smaller units versus grams).

Vitamins and minerals have different roles in the body, and you can develop deficiencies with serious health consequences if you don’t consume enough of them. For instance, you may know that an iron deficiency results in anemia, which is a red blood cell deficiency (7).

If you’re concerned that you’re missing out on a particular micro or group of micros, you can always talk to a doctor about supplementing your diet with a multivitamin; however, for most healthy people, a well-rounded diet should be sufficient to meet all your vitamin and mineral needs!

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

Overall, foods that are less processed tend to be more nutrient-dense. So, in addition to supplying calories, they have other beneficial properties as well, like vitamins, minerals, fiber, and phytonutrients. It’s like the food works for you beyond offering just calories. A good rule of thumb: the more “processed” a food is, typically the more stripped of its naturally-occurring nutrition benefits it will be (8).

At EatLove, we use Harvard’s Healthy Eating Plate, which shows a different method of dividing up your plate compared to the USDA MyPlate. The main difference is that this plate does not recommend as much dairy. It’s another great way to evaluate what you’re eating and assess if you need more or less of any category (9). Each individual’s needs may vary, so make sure you check in with your EatLove coach!

ASK YOURSELF THIS:

Having a sense of our food habits is very important. What do your plates typically look like? Are there aspects of your meals that you’d like to work on, like getting more veggies, or reducing added sugars?

TRY THIS:

When you make an EatLove dish this week, think about what you’re putting on your plate. Where are the carbs, the fats, proteins, and the fiber? You can review this nutritional information for any recipe on the EatLove platform. Practicing this identification exercise can help you gain intuition about how you typically fuel yourself. Awareness is the first step!

Review your tailored nutrition prescription set by your provider and start building healthy meals based on your macro goals.