Eat this not that. Drink this not that. Eliminate sugar. Eliminate Fat. No, eliminate carbs! The yo-yo of health fads and fitness foods never seems to stop spinning. What used to be the thought that counting every calorie and logging every gram by detailed gram of food has given way to a back to basics approach: the Macronutrient.
The word macronutrient may seem a little scientifically involved, but its meaning is quite basic. Macronutrient simply refers to the basic building blocks of nutrition: fats, carbohydrates, and proteins.
What Nutrients Do I Need?
Everyone needs a full spectrum of foods rich in healthy fats, complex carbohydrates, protein, dietary fiber, minerals, and vitamins. Some foods are much better than others at giving you the right kinds of fats, carbs, and protein. By focusing on natural foods that provide a balance of the three macronutrients: fat, carbohydrates, and protein, your body will also be supplied with ample amounts of dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
The Macronutrient Approach
The thought behind macronutrient based nutrition is the idea of healthy living through simplicity. Give your body the balance it needs of fats, complex carbohydrates, and protein, and it will give you what you need back in terms of energy to get through the day and work through your fitness routine.
Whereas regimens of the past have forced you to deprive yourself of nutrients your body craves, focusing your food health on a balance of macronutrients takes the headache and suffering of difficult diet plans away and replaces it with an approach you can stick with.
Where are the macronutrients located on a nutritional label?
Macronutrients are easy to find on most packaged food nutrition labels. You should find them listed in bold along with other helpful nutritional information such as serving size, calories per serving, sodium, vitamins, and minderals. More detailed information about each macronutrient can be found below each heading.
You can use the label to determine how healthy each macronutrient is within the food item you’re examining. As you scan the label for fat content, you will see both saturated and unsaturated fat is listed. Likewise, with carbohydrates, the label will list how many grabs of dietary fiber the food item has versus the amount of sugars.
Other helpful information found on the food label is serving size, calories per serving, sodium, and percentage of recommended daily minerals and vitamins.
Image by Lukas Bieri from Pixaba
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