Basics of Nutrition

When it comes to training for any sport or just to stay healthy nutrition is a key aspect regardless of what level or activity you take part in, the human body is an amazing thing and functions like a machine if kept in good condition and fuelled correctly then the human body is capable of some truly amazing things.

Nutrition comes down to ensuring your body is receiving the right nutrients to obtain your goals and fuel your activities so if you’re looking to build muscle, lose weight or just perform well at whatever sport you enjoy then you’re nutrition should be the first thing you look at.

Nutrition is not a complicated subject and a basic grasp is easy to obtain, everything we eat and drink on a day to day basis consists of protein, carbohydrates and fats along with hundreds of other vitamins and minerals, being deficient in only one of these can result in the body functioning at a less optimal level.

For the purpose of this article though we will focus on the complete basics you need to know in order to have a better understanding of your day to day nutrition and what you are putting into your body, for this we will look at proteins, carbohydrates and fats the three key macro nutrients that make up our daily diets.

So first of all let’s look at proteins, these come from many different types of food but some of the best sources are beef, poultry, dairy products, eggs nuts and seeds to name but a few.  Proteins are used by the body to build specialised protein molecules which function within the body to do a range of things including the production of haemoglobin which is the part of a red blood cell used to carry oxygen around the body, these protein molecules are also responsible for building muscle and most importantly cardiac muscle used to help repair and maintain our hearts.

Secondly we have carbohydrates; these are an ideal source of energy for our bodies because carbohydrates can easily be broken down into glucose which is the sugar transported around the body and used to fuel it. Carbohydrates are not all the same but can more easily be broken down into two categories simple and complex.

Simple carbohydrates can be found in refined and natural forms, natural sugars found in fruits are a perfect example of simple carbohydrates also things like chocolate and jelly are refined simple carbohydrates.  Complex carbohydrates are often referred to as starchy carbs and are found in brown rice, wholemeal bread etc.

Finally we have fats which are often confusing for people as they consider fats to be a bad thing but this couldn’t be further from the truth, not all fats are bad for you in fact our body needs some specific fats to function properly and these fats are referred to as healthy fats. The best sources of these healthy fats are oily fish and nuts which are high in omega fishy oils.

These three key macro nutrients are the basis for all nutrition and a basic understanding of the above should be common knowledge amongst all adults but more so for those looking to get the best from there training.