There is no one perfect food. We need an assortment of nutrients that can be obtained only by eating a wide variety of foods. What is it that our bodies need? Scientists have identified more than 40 different nutrients in food. These substances are essential for growth and for the chemical reactions and processes that keep us alive and functioning (metabolism). Except for an extremely small number of foods that consist almost entirely of one nutrient, the vast majority of the foods we eat are mixtures of many nutrients.
Nevertheless, each group of foods included in the Food Guide Pyramid (grains, fruits and vegetables, milk products, and meats) (see Chapter 1, page 11) is unique in the types of nutrients it contributes to our diets. For example, fruits and vegetables are the main source of many vitamins, minerals, and complex carbohydrates in our diets, and the meat group (including dry beans and legumes, eggs, poultry, and fish) is the main source of protein for most people. It can be difficult to understand the difference between the nutrients themselves and the foods that contain them.
For example, when you hear nutrition experts talk about the need to get more complex carbohydrates, what do they mean and what foods contain those nutrients? In this chapter, we focus on the nutrients themselves—how they are digested, what happens to them in the body, and what they do for you. We also say a little about the best food sources of each nutrient, because, after all, when you go to the supermarket, you don’t look for protein, starch, fiber, and antioxidants, you look for chicken, rice, raisin bran, and orange juice.
Nutrients are sorted into categories on the basis of their chemical structures and functions. Carbohydrates, proteins, and fats contained in foods are known as the macronutrients, because they are required in the largest quantities. In addition to their other functions, macronutrients provide energy in the form of calories. Vitamins and minerals are known as the micronutrients. They are required by your body in much smaller quantities.
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Although the micronutrients help your body use the energy in macronutrients, they provide no energy (calories) themselves. Water is also an essential, calorie- free nutrient. The work our bodies do each day causes us to deplete some of our stores of these essential nutrients. Only by maintaining a diet that is rich in various nutrient-containing foods can we replace those lost nutrients. Furthermore, if you are looking for a healthy source of nutrition for your infant, do check the infant formula.
