Our nutrition is an extremely important, yet often overlooked, part of our lives.
It’s what’s most essential for our overall health and well-being.
What and how we eat not only effects our energy levels, but also plays a crucial role in preventing and managing many different health conditions.
That’s why it becomes so important to make dietary choices that are best for us.
To do this, there are two fundamental categories of nutrients that I recently learned are critical for us to understand: macronutrients and micronutrients.
In this post, I’m going to cover everything I know about macronutrients and micronutrients and how they contribute to our overall health.
In this post you’ll find:
Macronutrients
To begin, let’s talk about macronutrients or “energy providers”.
I call them the energy providers because they serve as the body’s primary source of energy.
Macronutrients, or macros, as a whole are nutrients that your body requires in large quantities.
Your body will take these large quantities of nutrients and use them for your everyday energy.
There are three different examples of macronutrients
Carbohydrates
Carbs are our body’s main source of energy.
After you eat carbs, your body begins digesting them and breaking them down into glucose molecules.
These glucose molecules are then either used for immediate energy or stored in your muscles for use when you need them.
There are actually two different examples of carbs: complex carbs and simple carbs.
Complex carbs:
Complex carbs take longer for your body to break down so they will provide you with long, stable energy.
Some complex carbs are things like oatmeal, sweet potatoes, starches, and beans.
I like to eat a lot of complex carbs with my breakfast, that way I’ll have a slow and steady supply of energy throughout the day.
Simple carbs:
Simple carbs on the other hand, your body breaks down much quicker.
These provide you with a quick boost of energy but usually a crash shortly afterwards.
The spike in energy comes from your blood sugar rising up, whereas the crash comes from your blood sugar dropping down again.
Some examples of simple carbs are breads, fruits, honey, and sugars.
Eating simple carbs before you workout is a great strategy to get the boost of energy you need for an effective workout.
Proteins
Proteins are the building blocks of your body.
Not only are they essential for building muscle, but are also responsible for any other types of growth and repair in the body.
On top of that, they facilitate the creation of enzymes and hormones.
Some of my favorite examples of protein are meat, fish, eggs, dairy, and legumes.
Eating a high protein meal directly after a workout is a great way to facilitate the muscle growth and repair process.
Fats
The final group of macronutrients are fats.
Fats provide our bodies with long term energy storage, support the growth of our cells, and help absorb many nutrients.
Some the best foods high in healthy fats are avocados, nuts (especially walnuts), olive oil, and fish.
Micronutrients
Now that I’ve covered all the macronutrients, we can talk about micronutrients.
The first big difference between macronutrients and micronutrients is that micronutrients are needed in much smaller quantities.
If you were to eat micronutrients in the quantities you ate macronutrients, you’d likely die. Which, needless to say, would not be good.
Besides this, micronutrients play a huge role in our overall health and preventing diseases inside our bodies.
There are two categories of micronutrients
Vitamins
Vitamins are organic compounds that do so many wonderful things for our bodies.
For example, vitamins provide immune support, increase bone health, and support energy production.
Vitamins can be found in a variety of foods.
That’s why it’s so important to eat a well balanced diet.
So that we can multiple different vitamins from a variety of different foods.
Some foods high in vitamins are fruits, vegetables, diary, and lean meats.
Minerals
Unlike vitamins, minerals are inorganic substances that are essential for our body.
Minerals become essential in certain bodily functions such as maintaining strong bones, balancing fluids, and healthy nerve function.
There are many, many types of minerals, if I were to list them all the list would go on and on.
But, some common, important ones you may have heard of are iron, magnesium, and potassium.
Minerals can be found in many types of foods, especially things like dairy products, dark leafy greens, and lean meats.
Making sure your body gets all the micronutrients you need
The first step to achieving a healthy diet is learning the difference between macro and micronutrients.
Perfect, we’ve already covered the first step.
Now, the next step, is learning how to implement these macros and micros into your diet.
The best way to do this is to create and maintain a balanced diet.
There are a few steps you can take to make create a balanced diet for yourself. And make sure you’re getting in all the macros and micros your body needs.
Diversify your plate
To start getting the variety of nutrients your body needs, start by giving your body the variety of nutrient dense foods it needs.
You can do this by diversifying your plate. Meaning, eating a variety of fruits, veggies, and other healthy foods.
Different types of foods like fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy, and grains are all good foods to look to incorporate into your diet.
This is because each of these have different, essential nutrients.
Additionally, it’s not only important to eat a wide variety of types of foods, but also a variety of each type of food.
For example, try not just eating the same vegetables and fruits, but mixing things up with different fruits and different vegetables.
Try reading food labels
The best way to learn which macro and micronutrients are in certain foods is to read the label.
This will tell you all the information you need to know about the different nutrients in a food.
Then, you can use this to help you decide which foods are best for you.
Try taking supplements to get in any nutrients you lack
I just recently became interested in taking supplements after I learned that my period cramps could be caused by a vitamin deficiency.
Supplements are a great way to get in any nutrients that your body is deficient in or has a hard time getting in from your diet alone.
As a result, if you’re someone who struggles to get all of the essential nutrients and may have a vitamin deficiency, this could be a good option for you.
However, I’d recommend talking with your doctor beforehand to make sure taking supplements is right for you.
Takeaways
The first step to becoming a healthier version of yourself is to become aware of the impacts of the foods you put into your body.
With this information, you can now be more aware of just how important both macro and micronutrients are to your everyday health.
More of my posts on women’s health and fitness:
The benefits of practicing yoga for your mind and body