Eating Better: Part Three
Eating 101

By Stephanie Hembree

This is the third and last article in the series Eating Better. The first article discussed getting started. The second article looked at evaluating your diet. This article covers the basic components of eating carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and water. The basics and some pitfalls of each will be examined.

The first thing to look at is energy requirements. How many calories do you need to eat each day. From there you can lower or increase your intake depending on whether you need to gain or loose weight. Please remember that all of the methods used to determine your caloric needs are based on statistics and averages. You will need to play with them to find your individual needs. Basically it is a balance of input and output. If you eat more than you need you gain weight. You can reduce calories or increase exercise to loose weight. Most studies show a combination of both works the best. A quick estimate of the caloric needs is to multiply your weight in pounds by 16. For example someone who weighs 120 pounds would need roughly 1920 calories a day to maintain body weight.

Basically carbohydrates come in a two forms. Complex carbohydrates which include fruits, vegetables and grains and simple carbohydrates which include sugar, honey, maple syrup and corn syrup. They also come as unrefined for example whole grains and fruit or highly refined like white flour. The simple answer is strive to eat more complex unrefined carbohydrates and save the simple highly refined ones for a treat. No one expects you to give up birthday cake.

Fat is not bad for you. It does not need to be avoided like the plague. In fact fat is so important that I devoted an entire article to it. One important thing is to avoid trans-fatty acids found in partially hydrogenated fat. The next thing to know is to use Canola and Olive as your main oils. This helps ensure adequate essential fatty acids intake. The last way to help ensure essential fatty acid intake is to eat fish 2-3 times a week or take a fish oil supplement.

Protein has been grabbing headlines lately. The debate continues on whether a high carbohydrate or high protein diet is best. It really depends on you and what makes you feel best. If you have been avoiding meat and dairy you might be falling short of your daily protein requirements. A simple way to find out how much protein you need is to divide your weight in pounds in half. So if you weigh 120 pounds you need 60 grams of protein each day. The Food Guide Pyramid recommends 2-3 servings of protein rich foods each day (a serving of protein rich foods is 3 ounces meat, 1 cup of beans, 1 egg, 4 ounces of tofu, or 1 tablespoon of nuts).

Until recently most nutrition experts believed all you needed was a balanced diet not vitamins and minerals supplements. However two years ago the National Academy of Sciences announced that a good diet was not enough. They pointed out that even people who got five servings or fruits and vegetables where not getting enough B vitamins. A few things to remember about vitamin and mineral supplements they are supplement to a good diet they do not replace it. The synthetic forms of most vitamins are just as good except for vitamin E. The prefix d- identifies natural while dl- indicates the man made variety. Spend your money on the natural vitamin E your body absorbs it easier. Your best bet on supplements is to get a good multi-vitamin that gives you around 100-150% of your daily value. In addition to your multi-vitamin you will need to add calcium and magnesium in a separate supplement if you don't get your 2-3 servings of dairy products. You also might consider adding extra antioxidants like E and C. Researchers suggest taking 100-400iu of vitamin E per day much more than the RDA of 15iu. Vitamin C can be taken in doses of 250-1000 milligrams much higher than the RDA of 60 milligrams.

Water is the most vital nutrient to live and easiest to explain, drink six to eight glasses a day. If you do this and nothing else you will feel better.

Eating is easy. Find out how much you need to eat to maintain a healthy weight. Make sure you get adequate protein and enough water. Increase your amount of whole grains, fruits and vegetables and decrease your intake of highly processed simple carbohydrates. Take a multi-vitamin with added C and E along with calcium if you don't get three servings of dairy a day. Use Canola and Olive oil and add essential fatty acid supplements if you don't eat fish 2-3 times a week.

About the Author:

I currently spend my time doing nutritional consulting and freelance writing. My degree is in nutrition and dietetics from the University of California at Davis. My hobbies are cooking, gardening, reading, sewing and trying to simplify my life. I love helping people to evaluate their eating and lifestyle choices.

Article courtesy of Suite101.com.