When the battery in your MP3 player runs low, you plug it in to recharge. When the car runs out of gas, your parents take it to the gas station for a refill. What gives YOU energy and “power?” Food, of course!
Your body needs food to move, grow, recover from injuries, and even to think. Every time you eat something, your body tries to pull energy from it. Your job is to make sure that you eat things your body can actually use. Just as you wouldn’t pour milk into your car’s gas tank, you can’t expect your body to run very well if you’re putting junk into it.
So where does the energy in food come from? Straight from the energy cycle! Energy can’t be destroyed—it just changes forms, like when a windmill converts wind energy to mechanical energy to turn the mill. Plants absorb energy from the sun and use it to grow. When animals eat the plants, the energy is transferred to them so they can use it to move and grow. When you eat plants or animals, that energy is now transferred to you—and you can move and grow!
What exactly is in food that fuels your daily activities? Nutrients. These are substances that build your body’s cells, heat and cool your body, and keep you alive.
Macronutrients and micronutrients are the major groups of nutrients. Macronutrients are substances that you need to eat in large quantities. They form the foundation of your diet. You need to eat micronutrients too, but you don’t need as much of them.
Protein is important because it helps your body grow, repair itself, and maintain healthy cells. It also produces the hormones and chemicals that your body needs to survive. Protein is made up of a chain of chemical compounds called amino acids.
nutrients: substances that strengthen or build up your body.
macronutrients: protein, carbohydrates, and fats needed by the body in relatively large quantities every day.
micronutrients: vitamins and minerals needed by the body in small quantities every day.
protein: one of the basic building blocks of nutrition.
hormones: compounds that work with specific organs in your body.
Carbohydrates are your body’s main source of energy. When carbohydrates are broken down they yield glucose, a sugar. This is what gives you energy.
Some carbohydrates convert to sugar faster than others. For example, carbohydrates like white sugars break down very rapidly, producing a quick surge of energy. Unfortunately, once you burn off that energy, you’ll feel ready to fall asleep. For this reason, nutrition experts recommend that you eat more complex carbohydrates, like whole grains and beans, which release energy more gradually.
Remember the story about the race between the turtle and the hare? You want to eat carbohydrates that will burn at a slow and steady pace, like the turtle’s, not lightening quick, like the hare’s. This way you’ll feel full for longer and have energy throughout the whole day.
Fats are often presented as the “bad guys” in nutrition. If you eat too many fats, you can end up overweight and unhealthy. However, you do need some fats in your diet. Why? Because fats give your body some vitamins and essential fatty acids. These lubricate joints, fight infection, regulate oxygen use, and maintain mental sharpness.
Vitamins are substances that your body needs for many different purposes. They help your body maintain healthy red blood cells, as well as absorb calcium, heal wounds, digest food, and protect sharp vision.
carbohydrates: one of the basic building blocks of nutrition, that give you energy.
essential fatty acids: necessary substances found in fish and some plants that your body can’t make on its own.
dehydration: dangerous loss of body fluids.
Minerals are chemical compounds like calcium, sodium, and zinc. Your body needs these for blood circulation, bone growth, and hormone production, among other functions.
The best way to give your body the energy it needs is to eat a variety of natural foods. Stay away from processed foods, such as frozen meals, snacks, and sodas. Processed foods tend to have
NUTRIENT … FOUND IN
Protein … Meat, beans, egg, dairy products, soybeans
Carbohydrates … Pasta, bread, potatoes, beans, rice
Fats … Fish, seeds, nuts, oils
Vitamins … Fruits, vegetables, milk, cereal
Minerals … Eggs, salt, bananas, potato skins
Water is critical to your health. While you can live for weeks without food, you’d face dehydration and death in a matter of days without water. Many foods contain some water, but eating them is no substitute for just drinking water. You need water to carry out basic body functions and to maintain your cells, which are primarily composed of water.
Dietary fiber comes from plants. It helps your body digest and get rid of waste. There are two types of fiber: soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber slows down the digestive process.
There are two main kinds of vitamins. One kind can’t be stored in your body so you need it every day (like Vitamins B and C). The other can be stored in your body so you need it every day (like Vitamins B and C). The other can be stored like Vitamins A and K).
ONE GRAM OF … HAS
Protein …4 calories
Carbohydrate …4 calories
Fat …9 calories
The extra time allows more nutrients to enter your body. Soluble fiber also helps your body maintain the right amount of cholesterol. Oats, beans, nuts, and seeds all contain soluble fiber.
Insoluble fiber bulks foods up and helps them move through your intestines more smoothly. You get this kind of fiber from eating vegetables and whole grains.
People usually mention the word “calories” when they are dieting. “I can’t eat that,” they may say. “It’s got too many calories.” However, you need calories to live.
So what is a calorie? A calorie is a unit of energy. To be more precise, it is the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water 1 degree Celsius (slightly less than 2 degrees Fahrenheit). Different nutrients have different amounts of calories, because they require different amounts of energy to “burn” them. It takes more energy to burn one gram of fat than it does to burn one gram of protein.
Kids should consume 1,600 to 2,500 calories a day. Why the range? Because there are many factors that affect how many calories you need per day. It depends on your age, body type, and current level of activity. If you eat more calories than your body needs, you will gain weight. If you eat less calories than your body needs, you will lose weight. Losing weight too quickly or in the wrong way can make you sick.
To stay healthy, you should eat a “balanced diet.” But what is a balanced diet and how do you know you’re eating one?
In 1992, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) came up with a way to show people what they should be eating. The food pyramid separates food into groups. It then suggests how much of each food group you should be eating every day:
There’s also the “Healthy Eating Pyramid,” created more recently by the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. This pyramid is a little different from that of the USDA. It includes other aspects of a healthy life, like exercise and multivitamins. It also suggests:
Legumes (like peas and beans) and bran have the most fiber of any plant.
But what is a “serving”? You might be surprised by the size of an actual serving, because we’re so used to seeing huge portions on our plates at restaurants and in advertising.
A SERVING OF … IS THE SIZE OF A
Meat, fish, or poultry … Deck of cards
Dried fruit or nuts … Golf ball
Cheese …6 dice
Baked potato … Computer mouse
Oatmeal, cereal, pasta … Tennis ball
Mayonnaise …1 die
Cream cheese …3 dice
Cookies … Top of a soda can
Fruit, vegetables … Baseball
Some people think the USDA’s food pyramid is too general. For example, it puts all grains together into one group. The Healthy Eating Pyramid divides grains up into whole grains, which keep you satisfied longer, and refined grains, which give you quick, but short-lasting, energy.
Finally, the USDA’s pyramid puts oils all in the same group, and suggests eating them sparingly. However, as the Healthy Eating Pyramid recognizes, some oils are necessary for your health.
Will eating a balanced diet filled with wholesome foods guarantee you perfect health? No, but it will increase the odds in your favor. Researchers have made many connections between poor diets and certain diseases.
saturated fat: the fat that is the main cause of high blood cholesterol from what you eat. Butter and coconut oil have high amounts of saturated fat.
sodium: foundin salt.
osteoporosis: loss of bone density.
Some people believe the agricultural industries have put political pressure on the USDA to promote their foods in the USDA pyramid. These industries don’t want people eating less of their particular product.
Do you know many people who are over 100 years old? Probably not. But there are some places in the world where people routinely break that age barrier. Adventurer and researcher Dan Buettner identified five areas in the world where people have unusually long, healthy lives. He calls these places the “blue zones.” The areas are:
Buettner has identified several characteristics that people in these areas have in common. They all place a strong emphasis on friends, family, community, and religion. As far as food, they all eat a plant-based diet: high in vegetables, moderate in protein, and very low in processed foods.
What’s the Process?
What exactly is processed food? It’s a food that has undergone changes from its natural state. For instance, an apple is a whole, natural food. However, if you take that apple and transform it into apple pie filling in a can or apple-flavored sugar cereal, it becomes processed.
On the plus side, processed food tends to last longer, decreasing the chance that it will go bad during its journey to the store or while it is sitting on your shelves. On the negative side, processing can reduce the nutritional value of food.
Processed foods are things like:
Giving your body the right foods to eat is important. But so is portion control. This reminder plate gives you and your family a visual way to remember how much is really enough.
1 Find the objects that represent serving sizes for a variety of foods. Check the chart on page 80.
2 Using the marker or pen, label each object. If it’s a golf ball, for example, write “one serving of nuts” on it. For the deck of cards, write “one serving of fish.”
3 Cut half-inch pieces of Velcro tape and attach one side of the tape to each of the serving size objects. Attach the other sides of the tape to the plate.
4 At each meal, attach the serving size objects that match what you’re eating. Put the plate where you and your family can see it easily. Before long, you’ll all have a great idea of what a serving size looks like for many foods!
Eating a nutritionally balanced diet doesn’t have be blah or boring. Create t “deck of substitutions” car and you can deal out healt tasty swaps for foods you already enjoy.
1 Using the colored paper, cut small “tabs” for your cards. Label each one with a food category that will make sense to you. You could use “Dairy,” “Meats,” “Snacks,” and so on.
2 Tape one tab to the top (along the long side) of each index card. You may want to stagger them so you can read them easier without flipping through all the cards.
3 Start filling out the swaps on the cards. You can do one substitution per card or several on one card, however you’d like. The list below should get you started.
4 As you come across more substitutions, either online or in books, add them to your card deck.
5 Keep them in the kitchen for when your family is cooking, or in the car for when you go to the grocery store.
INSTEAD OF … TRY
cookies ... graham crackers, fig bars, ginger snaps (or make your own low-calorie/low-fat version)
donuts, muffins ... English muffins, bagels
pound cake, chocolate cake … angel food cake, gingerbread
cream cheese ... Neufchatel, “light” cream cheese
Whole milk ... Skim, low-fat, reduced-fat milk
butter ... light margarine, spray butter
pasta with white sauce… pasta with red sauce
oil… applesauce in baked goods
ice cream ... sherbet, sorbet, frozen yogurt
sour cream ... plain low-fat yogurt
white rice ... brown rice
hot dogs ... turkey dogs
tuna in oil … tuna in water
ground beef ... ground turkey, extra lean ground beef
bacon ... Canadian bacon
hot fudge ... chocolate syrup
processed guacamole... salsa