Food Friday: Carbs, protein, & fat! Oh, my!

Trans fat, Calorie, dietary fiber, carb, cholesterol... We hear these words on the radio and read about them in the newspaper, but do we really know what they mean? It can be hard deciphering the language of nutrition.

Carbohydrate: Carbs are the universal energy source. They are the most quickly digested and, therefore, supply energy the fastest. Most authorities recommend that your diet should consist 50-60% of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are not created equal. Here's the low-down on carbs:

Simple Carbohydrates: These are digested the most quickly and are more likely to be converted to fat because so. Types of simple carbohydrates aka sugars are glucose (blood sugar), fructose (fruit sugar), sucrose (table sugar), and lactose (milk sugar). You can find simple sugars in soda, syrup, fruit, candy, and juice. Limit these type of carbohydrates.

Complex Carbohydrates: These are digested less quickly than simple sugars and so are less likely to be converted to fat. They also provide more long-term energy. There are a two different types of complex carbohydrates: Starch and Fiber.

1) Starch is found in bread, potatoes, corn, and many other vegetables. It is fairly easy to digest.

2) Fiber is very important for health. There are two types of fiber, both are essential.

Insoluble Fiber is not digested. Instead it passes straight through your digestive tract. It is important to prevent constipation, hemorrhoids, and diverticulosis and to maintain overall colon health. As my foods teacher once called it, insoluble fiber is nature's broom. It cleans you out. It also does not contribute to overall consumed Calories. When you look at a nutrition label, subtract off the Calories due to Insoluble Fiber because you do not use them. Insoluble fiber is also excellent for weight loss because it is very filling with zero Calories. Sources of Insoluble Fiber are bran (wheat, oat, barley), cauliflower, green beans, potatoes, and celery.

Soluble Fiber is important in lowering blood cholesterol and controlling blood sugar (important for those with diabetes). Some sources of soluble fiber are peas, beans, oats, barley, fruits, and vegetables.

It is important to limit your consumption of refined carbohydrates (white flour) because the process of refining removes the fiber, bran, and most vitamins and minerals that those carbohydrates give you, but it leaves all the Calories.

Protein: These are large organic molecules made up of amino acids. Once digested, the protein is broken down into amino acids which are then assembled to build structures in our body. Amino acids are used to build muscle, hair, fingernails, red blood cells, eye membranes, skin, and many more things. Protein is also important for the proper functioning of antibodies in our immune system, the regulation of enzymes and hormones. Protein rocks!

Carbohydrates are always used first as an energy source. If not enough Calories are consumed as carbohydrates, then the Calories from protein will be used to give you energy. But if you have consumed more protein than your body needs, it will be broken down and stored as fat.

You can get protein from meat, cheese, milk and eggs. You can also get protein from whole grains, beans, legumes, oatmeal, peanuts, and soy. Most authorities recommend 10-15% of your calories should come from protein. Growing children and those who exercise need more protein. People with kidney disease or a history of kidney disease should be careful not to eat to much protein because the process of converting protein into energy puts a lot of extra strain on you kidneys.

Fat: Lipids (or fat) are large biological molecules that do not dissolve in water and are made up of fatty acids. There are many types of fat, and surprisingly, not all are bad for you. In fact, it is essential that your body gets enough.

• Unsaturated Fat: this type of fat isn't bad for you. It lowers blood cholesterol. Unsaturated fats are generally liquid at room temperature. Polyunsaturated fats include safflower, sunflower, soybean and corn oil. Monounsaturated fats (which are really good for you) include olive oil, canola, peanut, and avocado.


• Saturated Fat: this type of fat is really bad for you. It increased blood cholesterol and is generally solid at room temperature (tropical oils are the exception). This type of fat is found in animal meat, dairy, butter, coconut and palm oil.


• Trans fat: This has been a buzz word in nutrition lately. This type of fat is man made. Unsaturated fat goes through a process called hydrogenation to make it more saturated. The reason they do this is to make it more solid at room temperature. Have you ever opened peanut butter and there is this layer of oil on top? You probably think, "gross!" and then stir it up. Peanut oil is hydrogenated so that it can be solid so you won't have that problem with the stirring of the oil. Of course, you end up with different problems because trans fat raises bad (LDL) cholesterol.

Like I said, some fat is essential to overall health. Fat is used to synthesize hormones, it is important for growth, it is used for brain and eye development, and is an important source of energy. Two type of essential fatty acids are omega-6 and omega-3. Omega-6 fatty acids cannot be synthesized in your body so it is essential that you consume them. Fortunately this isn't a problem since omega-6 fatty acids are found in vegetable oil which is in just about everything. Omega-3 fatty acids are more difficult to find. They are found in many varieties of fish and are important in the reduction of coronary artery disease.

Energy Density: Energy density is the measure of how much energy a certain amount of food will give you. Energy is measured in Calories (or kilocalorie) the same way that length is measured in inches and volume is measured in liters. Very simply, one calorie is the amount of energy it takes to increase the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius. How is that for some useful Jeopardy trivia! When our body breaks down either fat, carbohydrates, or protein a certain amount of energy is released. We use that energy for bodily functions or daily activity. Of course, if we consume more energy than is used, those calories are stored at fat. Our body stores energy as fat because it is the "most efficient" at storing energy. That is because it stores 9 Calories of energy for every gram of fat. Carbohydrates, on the other had, only have 4 Calories per gram. Protein also has 4 Calories per gram. The moral of the story then is to limit your fat consumption because it has more than twice the amount of calories per gram as other food. Talk about dense.