50 nutrients in food

1
50 nutrients in food

• We understand less than half of them
• All fall into 5 groups
• Carbohydrates (macronutrient)
• Proteins (macro)
• Fats (macro)
• Vitamins (micronutrient)
• Minerals (micronutrient)
• We also need water

2
Carbohydrates

• Made from carbon and water
• Made in plants from photosynthesis

3
Three basic forms

• Simple (sugars)
• Taste sweet
• ComplexStarch (sugar stored by plants)
• Pleasant, but not sweet
• ComplexCellulose
• Tough and indigestible)

4
Simple carbs (sugars)

• One, two, or at most three units of sugar linked
  together in single molecules

5
Monosaccharides

• Single sugars (one unit) the stuff your cells
  use
• Glucose digested sugar, also found some fruits,
  vegetables, and honey
• Galactose sugar from digested lactose
• Fructose from fruit

6
Disaccharides

• Double sugars (two units) broken down into
  simple sugars during digestion
• Sucrose sugar cane and sugar beets table
  sugar
• Lactose found in milk
• Maltose used in malted cereals and malted milk

7
Complex carbslow fiber starch

• Hundreds or thousands of sugar units linked
  together in single molecules
• Polysaccharides
• Taste pleasant, but not sweet
• Broken down into simple sugars during digestion
• Examples are banana, tomato, squash and all
  cereals and grains (therefore bread and pasta),
  potatoes and rice

8
Complex carbshigh fiber cellulose

• Tough and woody
• Cant be digested, generally
• Cant eat grass, but cows can, they have the
  extra enzyme to do it
• Examples are lettuce and broccoli
• Celery is almost all cellulose and water

9
What carbs do

• Bodys main source of energy
• When you have enough, you use your other
  nutrients more efficiently
• House heating example
• Need heat (gas) and protein (walls)
• Can burn walls for heat, but only up to a point!
• When carbs are low, body burns fat for fuel, then
  protein
• Protein and fats are needed for other uses

10
Food processing

• Strips away the fiber and/or vitamin content from
  complex carbs
• A simple example of processing is cutting an
  orange in two pieces, pressing the juice into a
  glass and discarding the fiber

11
The advantages of fiber

• It moves food through your digestive system
  quickly, it protects you from absorbing toxins,
  which may be associated with your food
  (pesticides, for example), it modulates the
  absorption of simple carbs, and it keeps the
  walls of the intestine clean by removing toxins
  which are believed to cause cancer

12
Too much sugar

• Too much sugar results in increased insulin
  output from the pancreas

13
A solution

• Complex carbs with lots of fiber should be
  consumed in proper proportion for maximum health
  and vitality