NUTRITION
In the past few decades the word diet has become a word that to most people means: restriction of food, restriction of select foods, or a system of eating to attempt weight loss. The weight loss industry in The United States of America has become a multi-million dollar business. It is apparent that the industry is no accomplishing what it claims it can. Recent studies show that Americans are getting obese at an ever increasing rate 30% in the last decade. Non-insulin dependant diabetes has tripled in that same time period. Strokes and coronary heart disease are also still on the rise. The dietary experts have been preaching that these problems are a result of too much fat in the American diet. Fast food has been blamed as the culprit and has definitely contributed but, not for the reasons that the weight loss industry says. We have been told that carbohydrate based foods are harmless and we can eat until we are satisfied as long as there is no fat in the meal to make us fat.
All foods are made up of basically three macro nutrients: Protein, fat, and carbohydrates. The saying that goes: "You are what you eat." would lead us to believe that fat will make you fat. Then a protein would make you a protein based organism; which we are. And carbohydrates are energy so, you will be more energetic if you eat them. Every believable untruth contains a partial truth to make it believable. We need to examine these macro nutrients both individually and together to get a full view of the truth.
PROTEINS: Proteins are links of amino acids that are formed in different patterns to accomplish different biochemical results. All of the different tissues of our bodies are made up of protein. As our body breaks down through activity and metabolism, the tissue that is damaged needs to be replaced by new tissue. The body creates new tissue out of protein. If there is not enough protein in the diet to support this process, the body will use its own protein from other tissue sources of the body to rebuild the areas it wants to. The body wasting its own protein for this purpose or for an energy source, will result in a body weight loss but, not a body fat loss. Excess protein consumption doesn't lead to calorie storage. The protein that is not used from the diet is passed as waste.
FATS: Fats are stored energy sources designed to be available for use when the dietary calorie intake is not sufficient to run the bodies functions. The body gets its energy by chemically oxidizing nutrients in the cells. Fats take longer for the body to breakdown and oxidize so they don't raise the blood sugar level very quickly after consumption. Different types of fat are responsible for the synthesis of many essential hormones. Testosterone, estrogen, DHEA, and progesterone are some of these hormones. If a person does not eat enough fat, the body will make it to use for this and other reasons. 80% of the bodies cholesterol is produced by the body and the other 20% is dietary. That means that even if you eat low cholesterol foods, you can only effect 20% of the problem at best. Too little cholesterol intake can lead to an over production and hoarding of the available cholesterol by the body. The final analysis indicates that a low er cholesterol diet may be beneficial but, too low of a cholesterol intake can be more harmful than too much. Fats will also be metabolized at a slower and more steady rate than carbohydrates which will result in a more steady level of blood sugar.
CARBOHYDRATES: Carbohydrates are the easiest of the mactronutients to oxidize. Carbohydrates are in the form of complex carbohydrates and sugars. Complex carbohydrates are just sugars that are linked together to form a larger molecule of fuel for the body. The difference is similar to the difference between diesel fuel and gasoline. Gasoline burns faster and ignites easier that diesel. This isn't a really big difference in some circumstances. Carbohydrates effects on the body are an increase in insulin production and an increase in energy to use right away. The body always produces more insulin than it needs when you eat. This means, when your carbohydrates are burned up, there will still be insulin looking for more energy to burn. The two functions of insulin are to transport sugars into the cells for oxidation or into a fat cell to be stored. None of the carbohydrates that you eat will escape the insulin. As long as there are carbohydrates in the body the pancreas will make insulin to effect these two means. Insulin also will not allow fat out of the cells to be used as energy. So every time a quantity of carbohydrates are eaten, the blood sugar goes up and the pancreas puts insulin in a larger amount into the blood to process the sugar. The fat loss consequence is that no body fat will be used for energy while the insulin levels are high. The opposite hormone to insulin is called Glucagon. Glucagon pulls the fat out of the fat cells when the body needs it for energy. The pancreas produces glucagon when the body needs to metabolize fat. When you eat fat and low carbohydrates, your body will make glucagon and less insulin and the glucagon will go to the fat cells and leave a lot of the dietary fat to become waste.
MACRO NUTRIENTS AT WORK: Our weight loss industry tells us to eat low fat which eliminates a lot of protein fortified foods i.e.: meats, eggs, dairy, and nuts. So right away we have a protein shortage and a fat shortage. The industry says to eat carbohydrates and you will burn them up as energy. But the second half of the story is that you will store them as fats if you don't use them right away. When all of the carbohydrates are oxidized or stored the insulin drops the blood sugar level and hunger is the result. Then the process starts all over. If a large and adequate serving of protein with some fat is consumed, glucagon becomes the main player and the body will metabolize its body fat rather than strong hold it with insulin for that "rainy day" that your carbohydrate rich diet will never let come. The dietary fat and protein that is not used will pass as waste. Dietary fiber is an essential nutrient that will help to pass the waste through the gastrointestinal track. Proper hydration is also necessary to move the nutrients around in the body to be used the way the body wants to use them.
DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS: The dietary supplement industry has exploded in the recent years.
The substances that are considered dietary supplements even though a lot of them are homeopathic remedies for illnesses. The angle is that a lack of these types of herbal properties are the cause of our nations illnesses. The industry is so new that the jury is still out on a lot of these claims. Bodybuilder/power lifter supplement are usually of a performance enhancement nature. This is because of the illegality of anabolic steroids and their huge cost in the black market. The supplement industry has come out with some compounds that mimic the effects of steroids to a lesser degree and without known side effects. The old dietary supplement industry dealt in vitamins and minerals. Every individual needs to assess their dietary need for vitamins and their desire for the effects from some of the performance enhancement compounds. Whether or not you want to take homeopathic remedies for colds, muscle aches, and other maladies is also an individual decision. The medical community has proven that vitamins and minerals are essential, but with the other types of supplements, they just have mostly anecdotal evidence to support their worth for the most part. There is enough anecdotal evidence for some of them that may make investigating them and trying them worth while. One thing to consider is, the supplement industry is not (yet) regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.
That means that inside the bottle is not necessarily what is claimed to be in there on the label. If you find that you have been ripped off, your only recourse is the better business bureau or a civil action. The civil action will cost you more in attorney"s fees than the $30.00 bottle of garbage you bought.
SUMMARY: The key to fat loss is to exercise three to seven times a week and to supply your body with enough of the proper nutrients to handle the activity and repair you for the next workout. A combination of weight resistance training with moderate cardio-vascular staining exercise will result in fat loss. If you want to loose weight and maintain bone density and muscularity, a high protein diet with not much regard for the fat intake and a low carbohydrate diet will do the trick. Don't by a value meal and never supersize it. Simply get a burger and if that doesn't give you enough calories, get another. Drink a lot of water and leave drinks that are higher that 12% carbohydrates out of the picture. Take vitamins to supplement what you don't get in your meals. If you eat some colorful vegetables each day you may get all you need. Definitely do not eat carbohydrates on a regular basis as a snack after 6:00 p.m. Once in a while is O.K., but remember what is normal in America today creates obesity. I think that the results on our society prove that what we consider normal is not healthy. The models on the "fat free" food commercials don't talk much about the training regimen and help from the plastic surgeon they get on the television. These folks are not very strong and certainly wouldn't make adequate Firefighters. We need to train and eat like Firefighters ought to in order to do our job the way it needs to be done.