Download What is Food - Merritt Wellness Center

What’s In Food?
We wanted to distinguish for our patients what the different elements of food are, so that
people can make better choices regarding what they eat. Foods always break down to certain
categories; these categories are often on a nutrition label. A website we recommend to look up
values is www.sparkpeople.com, which is very helpful because it will also give you alternatives
to foods, and can also be used to look up “name brand” foods, like Starbucks. A great app as
well as website for the same purpose is MyFitnessPal at www.myfitnesspal.com
The first category is PROTEIN. Protein is primarily broken down in the stomach, and requires
proper levels of stomach acid to do so. Protein is found in meat, eggs, dairy products, soy, nuts
and seeds, beans. Examples include:
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Beef
Chicken/fowl
Pork
Bacon
Sandwich meat
Fish
Shellfish
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Eggs
Milk
Cheese
Soy
Nuts and seeds
Peanut and nut butters
The second category is CARBOHYDRATES. Included in this category are simple sugars
(glucose, sucrose, fructose, etc – anything ending with –ose), and more complex
carbohydrates, both refined and unrefined (meaning, still having fiber). Sugars and
refined simple carbohydrates, like white flour, white sugar, etc, cause the blood sugar to
rise rapidly and increase insulin levels as a reaction. More complex, unrefined carbs
have fiber to slow down the absorption, but will still cause blood sugar and insulin levels
to rise, albeit slower, and they have more nutrients. Examples of carbohydrates are:
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Bread
Crackers
Cereal
Bran
Snack/ breakfast bars
Oatmeal
Baked goods
Pastries
Cookies/cakes
Pasta
Fruit
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Fruit juices
Sodas
Energy drinks
High fructose corn syrup
Agave nectar
Beer
Rice
Potatoes
Starchy vegetables
Beans
Corn/ Popcorn
Carbohydrates and sugar are quick forms of energy for the body to use, as it converts
easily to glucose, the main fuel of the body. 40% of glucose is used for brain function,
which explains the difficult concentrating with low blood sugar. Carbohydrates are not
essential nutrients – the body can obtain all of its energy and nutrients with protein and
fats.
FATS are found in meat, oils from plants and eggs. Fats, similar to carbohydrates, come
in a variety of types. Saturated fats are solid at room temperature and are very resistant
to going rancid. Unsaturated fats are liquid oil at room temperature and are vulnerable
to becoming rancid. Polyunsaturated fats are found in very small quantities and are
extremely vulnerable to becoming rancid. Most foods are a mix of different fats. For
instance, beef fat is half saturated and half unsaturated with the same unsaturated oil
predominant in olive oil. Beef fat even has as much Omega 3 polyunsaturated oils as
salmon if the beef is grass-fed rather than grain fed.
Healthy fats:
 Fats in meat
 Lard
 Nuts/seeds
 Eggs
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Avocado
Butterfat/dairy
Seed oils (olive, flax, peanut,
etc.)
Fats to be avoided:
 Trans-fatty acids/partially hydrogenated vegetable fats (artificially saturated)
 Unsaturated oils that are not cold pressed or expeller pressed
Commercially prepared seed oils (corn, canola, etc.) found in grocery stores are NOT
safe to eat. Using high temperatures and chemical solvents to economically extract the
oils, they become damaged and rancid. The offensive smells are removed prior to
bottling, but the rancid oils with the free radicals are still present.
It is a myth that saturated fats are dangerous for your health. The error in the large
dietary studies of the twentieth century was that saturated fats were grouped with
trans-fatty acids (artificially saturated). All of the detrimental health effects associated
with saturated fats belong to trans-fatty acids.
It’s also a myth that fat makes you fat. Fats have more calories than protein or
carbohydrates and this has led people to believe that this makes one fat. Fat is
fattening only when eaten with carbohydrates. Calories only count when eating a diet
that includes carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are also what give us hunger. Fasting
(eating nothing) results in a total loss of appetite in a few days in exactly the same
manner that no- or very low-carbohydrate diets do. When your body begins to burn fat
and protein for energy instead of carbohydrates, appetite is very reduced or gone. Fats
reduce hunger, improve moods, sleep and energy and supply fat-soluble vitamins such
as A, D, E, K, portions of B complex and essential fatty acids (EFA’s) such as Omegas -3
and -6.