Protein, carbohydrates, fat, fibre, water - this is what we eat
Posted by kathryn in Carbohydrates, Fat, Protein and Fibre
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve posted a series of questions on Limes & Lycopene. Given a list of foods – do you know which contain fat, fibre, protein, carbohydrates and water? How did you go in the quiz?
I posted the questions, because I find it’s common for foods to be discussed in terms of single nutrients. Rice is referred to as a carbohydrate, meat is a protein, butter is a fat. Each food is put in its box
However, if you’ve been following the quiz you’ll know it’s more complex than that.
In nutrition fat, protein and carbohydrates are known as the macronutrients. These are the nutrients we need in the largest quantities. And together with fibre and water, these macronutrients are the fundamentals of our diet.
In contrast vitamins, minerals and antioxidants are micronutrients. While they are hugely important to health, they’re only present in foods in tiny amounts. They make up milligrams and micrograms of our diets.
No matter what you eat, the majority of your food is made up of protein, fats, carbohydrates, water and fibre.
If you take the example of rice. While it’s discussed as a carbohydrate food, rice also contains small amounts of protein, fat, water and some fibre.
We think of vegetales in terms of their fibre, but they’re also a source of water, along with tiny amounts of protein, fat and some carbohydrates.
In fact there are only a few categories of food that don’t contain all five components. Oils buck the trend by being 100 percent fat. While meat and fish contain fat, protein and water – they are carbohydrate and fibre free.
29 April, 2008
Comments
This is absolutely fascinating. While I suspected that many of the food items would have surprising amounts of each category, it was quite interesting to read that most foods contain each one.
hi Kathryn, i know this is an older post but i’ve just come back from a holiday in Japan. while i was overseas i read In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, and i thought of you a few times while i was reading it! have you read it or come across any of his other writing on food?
basically the book is “anti nutritionism” on the basis that it is dangerous to view foods purely as the sum of their parts i.e. as nutrients and not as whole foods. really interesting stuff and a lot of what he presents really resonated with me!
and this post of yours reflects it too. it is so easy to think of rice as “carbs” and meat as protein! but perhaps it is not very helpful to our wellbeing…?
Hi there Lindsey, hope you had a lovely holiday. I haven’t read Michael Pollan’s new book, but am a big fan of Omnivore’s Dilemma. While I am a nutritionist, I have a lot of sympathy for his perspective. I often feel myself walking that fine line. Between breaking food down into components and encouraging people to eat food because of its “nutrients” – rather than because it’s a good food.
It’s part of why I hate the “super-foods” thing – reduces food complexity down to a league table. And perpetuates the idea of eating stuff purely based on a simplistic nutritional perspective.
Interesting and complex issues.
On a separate note – Michael Pollan is actually appearing at this year’s Writers’ Festival – and he’s taking part in a talk on The Future of Food on Saturday afternoon.
hi kathryn. i just saw your mention of Michael Pollan’s visit on your latest blog post. i actually bought tickets for my husband and i to see his interview with Caroline Baum tomorrow morning… not realising he’s also doing the panel session in the afternoon for free! haha. oh well, i’m sure the interview is going to be great and i’m really excited – i’ve never been to a SWF event before!
SWF is fabulous event. I try to go every year. Amazing speakers and I love the buzz of the event. Plus it always seems to be sunny during the writers’s fest. So between speakers you get to sit outside on the harbour basking in the autumn sun.
At least with the ticketed event you won’t have to queue up to guarantee a seat. Love to hear what you think of it Lindsey.
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