Example custom flexible dietary plan

So I often get asked what a custom flexible dieting plan entails, what do you get out of the process and how will it help. So I have decided to create an example based on my own specific training and physique goals. This example will layout the information provided by one of my plans, the everyday tracking of calories, macros and micros and give you an idea of just how easy it can be to enjoy food, maintain a healthy lifestyle and look great.

Upon signing up I will create for you a free myfitnesspal.com account. We will discuss via email your goals, training, current diet, schedule, food preferences and anything else that may impact the plan. During this process, I will educate you on the fundamentals of nutrition, exercise and supplementation and ensure you understand the process. Don’t let that frighten you, I teach only as much as you want to learn.  After careful planning and lots of math, I will come up with custom calorie and macro-nutrient figures. I will then enter these on your account on myfitnesspal. (below)

From there I will create a one day food intake plan, which will hit your calorie and macro-nutrient figures, showing you what a regular day eating within your personal figures would entail. (below) I also give you detailed guide on how to use myfitnesspal to track your figures, including tips and tricks to make the entire process far simpler.
Now with a solid foundation knowledge of why we are aiming for these figures and how to meet them, I leave you to track your calorie and macro-nutrient figures on a daily basis. I keep a watchful eye on your progress by logging in daily, weekly or monthly* to ensure you are correctly hitting your figures, not making mistakes and to make any adjustments based upon progression and results.
*check-ups based on plan paid for

There you have it, as easy to follow, minimal work, maximum payout custom flexible dieting plan. Sign up now: http://jgfitnut.com/contact/

Meal frequency and size

“Eat six smaller meals throughout the day to keep your metabolism firing”
“It provides a constant stream of amino’s so you don’t go catabolic” 

Today we will be discussing why the above statements are moronic and if you hear anybody mutter them you should immediately punch them in their stupid mouth…Okay now I have your attention, I will actually be demonstrating why the above statements are incorrect and should not be adhered too unless convenient for you, however please note following one, two or all of these will have no effect on performance, results or anything else.

Basically both meal frequency and size should based around what is convenient for you and your lifestyle, consuming smaller meals more frequently provides no added benefit to consuming larger, infrequent meals. This whole idea is that smaller, frequent meals leads to the body always being in a state of metabolizing food, which uses energy and ensures your body always has adequate resources to stay “anabolic”. The energy used to metabolize food is known as the Thermal Effect of Food or TEF. Research has shown time and time again when caloric intake is the same over the course of a day, food can be consumed at any frequency and portion size and the TEF will remain the same. Now the notion staying “anabolic” is idiotic, your body is constantly switching between anabolic and catabolic states, even if you could control it via ensuring frequent fuel is available, your body takes longer to metabolize larger meals than smaller meals, so it would make more sense to eat larger meals.

Why? 

Because if you consume a larger meal, your body will use the same amount of energy metabolizing it, just over a longer period of time. If you were to consume several smaller meals your body would metabolize them quicker using the same TEF. So as per usual it comes down to overall calorie and macro-nutrient intake over a 24 hours period. The only thing you are achieving by consuming smaller, frequent meals is programming your body to release hunger hormones every few hours, if you are able to eat every few hours, no dramas, if you aren’t why are you doing this to yourself? You are getting no extra benefits. Food intake should fit in with your lifestyle, not dictate your lifestyle. 

Mistakes, Misinformation, Myths, Lies and Bullshit

This entire article will be dedicated to revealing the common mistakes, misinformation, myths and in some cases flat out lies and bullshit touted by most in the fitness/nutrition/supplementation industries.  As I mentioned in The TRUTH, this is a major reason as to why our industries are in such a bad state. I have taken the liberty of splitting this article into sections dependent on which industry the lie most belongs to.

Fitness

Higher rep ranges for toning
This is one for the females, usually scared of getting “bulky” or muscly they convince themselves if they do a lighter weight  and increase the amount of reps they perform it will lead to muscle toning. Toning or definition is simply results of body fat levels decreasing which has more to do with nutritional intake than training protocols. Furthermore the shape of your muscles are pre-determined by genetics and the insertion point on your body, so no amount of training will change the shape of a muscle. I suppose the theory behind this one was increasing reps meant burning more energy, this however isn’t true, increasing intensity via lowering reps and increasing load will burn more energy. Click the highlighted text for more information on training programs and dietary programs.

Doing weights will make me gain to much muscle
If only it were that easy….yet another common mistake made usually by females. The fact of the matter is whether you are male or female, muscle building is a slow, tedious bitch of a  process. It takes dedication, proper nutrition, progressive overload and time among many other things to gain even the smallest amount of muscle. You will not suddenly wake up one day after a few session, weeks, months or even years of training to find you have gained a ridiculous amount of unwanted muscle. Furthermore ladies, as females you have only a minuscule amounts of endogenous testosterone available, meaning you have to work much harder than males to gain muscle.

Spot reduction
This is an old old myth that refuses to die, the theory was by working a specific muscle you could target that area, burning fat straight from the source. A prime example of this is sit-up/crunches, they are often performed in the thought that it will lead to gaining abs. This is not the case, once again this has more to do with the your dietary intake and reducing fat stores. Doing an exercise using a specific muscle group does not mean you will be burning fat from that area.

Fasted cardio for fat-loss
Another old myth that dies hard. This is a common piece of misinformation often giving out by bodybuilders and personal trainers . Basically the thought is by waking up  in a fasted state and performing low intensity cardio you will use fat as the primary energy source. Unfortunately the research says otherwise, fasted or not there is little difference in the energy substrate used.

Nutrition

Anabolic Window
This is an extremely contentious issue in all industries, mainly due to the fact that it involves supplements, nutrition and training in some way. It is well known and true that  protein post training  begins the repair process by increasing muscle protein synthesis, however some personal trainers, bodybuilders and nutritionist claim that there is a set period of time(usually 2-3 hours post-training) in which your muscle cells are most sensitive to up-taking nutrients due to the effect of resistance training, and missing this “window” will yield inferior results. However research suggests that resistance training effects muscle cell sensitivity for 24 hours, meaning the urgency of ingesting protein is not as important as it is often emphasized. However it should be noted the faster you consume protein post training the quicker the repair process begins, yet it would be more advantageous to consume a whole food meal…so really you make that decision.

CHO with protein post training
Often the same people pushing the anabolic window and post-workout shakes are also recommending a large dose of fast acting(High GI) carbohydrates to be consumed with the post workout shake. The idea is that it spikes insulin which will shuttle the protein to the muscle faster, decrease digestion time and replenishes glycogen. Hmmm where to begin, research shows that adding fast acting carbohydrates to a post workout shake does not increase then insulin response any more than protein alone, nor does is aid in increasing muscle protein synthesis(muscle building) or inhibit muscle protein breakdown (muscle breakdown).  As for glycogen replenishment, a typical resistance training session will come nowhere near exhausting stored glycogen, in fact a study designed to attempt to exhaust glycogen via high intensity resistance training incorporating extremely high volume still didn’t come close, not to mention research suggests normal daily eating habits will ensure glycogen replenishment when your next session is 24+ hours away. The only time you need to worry about consuming carbohydrates post training is if you have another high intensity session planned in under 24 hours or cannot consume adequate amounts of food .

Low GI vs High GI foods
For those unaware, the GI of foods stands for glycemic index and indicates the time taken to metabolize food and convert it to it’s simplest form, glucose, and the effect it has on blood glucose levels. Now the theory once was and for some “professionals”( I use that term sarcastically) still is, foods with a lower GI response are better for you as they provide sustained energy and don’t raise blood glucose level as rapidly, leading to increased satiety and decrease fat storage. Research shows this is not the case, in fact blood glucose levels have little effect on weight loss in the overall scheme of things. Also mixing a high GI food with a low GI food alters the GI of both foods, as it is extremely rare to be eating only one type of food at a time, GI is somewhat null and void for most people.

Clean vs Dirty food
Labeling food in a negative or positive manner is idiotic, not only does it create a bad relationship with food, in which you are scared and therefore avoid food deemed unworthy, when you do eventually consume these foods you feel guilty, ashamed and upset. NEWSFLASH it’s food, you are supposed to enjoy it!!!!!!!! I can’t stress that enough. The idea is to eat less calorie dense, micro-nutrient poor foods less often and micro-nutrient dense calorie poor foods  more often. However this doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy your food, just do so in moderation. On a final note research shows that your body can’t differentiate the calories between so called clean and dirty foods when the macro-nutrients contents are the same. For a more in depth discussion on this read Flexible dieting.

Don’t consume CHO at night
Yet another piece of idiotic advice mainly given out by personal trainers. The mere idea of this is mind boggling, the thought that somehow consuming carbohydrates after a certain time in the afternoon leads to increased fat storage. This suggest that somehow at a certain point in the afternoon your physiology changes and  you begin converting carbohydrate to fat and storing it….how do people believe this shit? I assure you this is not the case, if you are trying to lose weight the defining rule of weight loss is being at a calorie deficit as discussed in  Flexible dieting and Fueling the body. Just to put this one to bed once and for all, your body will only convert carbohydrates to fat, a process called de novo lipogenesis, on extremely rare occasions where a extremely low fat diet is adhered too, we are talking less then 10% of overall calories, or carbohydrate intake is exceedingly high for extensive periods, and by exceedingly high I mean 700-900 grams per day, which is just insane.

Smaller, frequent meals/ 6 meals per day
Another favorite of the personal trainer, bodybuilder and unfortunately some nutritionists. The concept is by eating smaller meals more frequently during the day you are forcing your body to spend more energy via constantly metabolizing food, this is known as the thermal effect of food. It astounds me this is still lingering in the industry when there have been a plethora of studies over the last decade indicating otherwise. Apparently peer reviewed research and carefully designed study protocols just don’t cut it for the majority of morons in this industry. The truth is the thermal effect of food is directly related to the size of the meal, therefore the bigger the meal the more energy burned metabolizing it. So consuming the same daily amount of macro-nutrients split over 2,4,6,8,10 or 12 meals during the day will have NO effect on the thermal effect of food. I think I have made my point on this one.

The body can only absorb 30g protein per meal
This myth makes no sense from a evolutionary standpoint, we as in the human race would have died out long ago if this was the case. I can’t even begin to imagine how this was dreamed up.  Different types of proteins are digested and absorbed at different rates, I am sure you have all heard of fast digesting proteins(whey protein isolate) and slow digesting protein(casein). The digestion and absorption rates are dose dependent, therefore while your body metabolizes protein at a rate of 3-6 grams per hour on average, it will continue to do so until it has metabolized the entire amount. It should be noted several other factors influence digestion and absorption rates eg. fasted state, consuming other macro-nutrients with protein.

Supplementation

Different types of creatine
Creatine monohydrate is the most researched sport supplement available on the market and it’s benefits are numerous as we discussed in Supplements of Use. Keying onto the fact that creatine it is advantageous to almost everyone and in it’s monohydrate form is fairly cheap, supplement companies decided to try and improve the forms available to make them more potent, bio-available, effective and expensive. It should be noted no form of creatine has ever outperformed creatine monohydrate to date, and therefore it is the gold standard of creatine.

Flaxseed for omega 3’s
While I always encourage people to increase their dietary intake of omega 3 fatty acids(within reason) it should be known that relying on primitive forms of omega 3’s like flaxseed oil to reach your EPA and DHA quota is not sufficient. Your body simply cannot break these oils down into the needed constituents, therefore it is always a good idea to supplement with fish oil/krill oil as discussed in Supplements of Use.

Keep an eye on this page as I will be adding more of these as research becomes available.

I must apologize for some of the language I used during this article, I admit I long ago gave up trying to convince moronic trainers, nutritionists and so forth that research does not lie. However when typing some of these flat out stupid claims I could not help but become somewhat annoyed, angered and disgruntled at how stupid these people are. The most pathetic aspect is that they strongly outweigh the educated and caring people in these industries. I hope I have helped you in some way, and beg you, if your trainer/nutritionist tells you any of these things as facts, find a new one.

Guide to flexible dieting(IIFYM)

As promised in my FREE dietary program, I will be explaining flexible dieting aka IFFYM. If you have not already I empower you to read Introduction to nutrition and calories, Calories, Kilo-calories, joules and kilo-joules, as this article won’t make to much sense without first having the fundamental knowledge found in those articles. Okay now you have brushed up on your fundamentals lets get into it.

Flexible Dieting/IIFYM
The easiest way to explain the concept if by using the acronym IIFYM, this stands for If It Fits Your Macros, and suggests that no food is off limits, so long as it fits in your personal macro-nutrient figures(which we calculated here ). That’s right, you can eat donuts, lollies, burgers, pizza, McDonald’s literally anything you want provided it fits within your figures. Now this is generally the place where people think I have lost my mind, arguing you can’t lose weight while eating “bad foods”, to them I say you are incorrect, please sit down, shut up and learn basic human physiology before opening your trap next time. As we have eluded to in several other articles the defining process to weight loss is the energy equation and caloric theory, which states so long as you are consuming less energy via food than what we need to sustain metabolic function and physical activity you WILL LOSE WEIGHT. It doesn’t matter if you eat a diet exclusively of donuts, if you are at a calorie deficit you WILL LOSE WEIGHT. But how is this so? Simple, your body does not discriminate, to it, energy is energy, it can’t differentiate between 50g of carbohydrates from sugar and 50g of carbohydrates from a lightly toasted piece of wholemeal, rye and linseed bread, or whatever it is you clean freaks eat. To your body, it is simply 50g of carbohydrates. This is not exclusive just to carbohydrates, it is true of all macro-nutrients

However where that 50g of carbohydrates comes from can impact on some very important factors for weight loss, things like satiety, micro-nutrient intake, physical health and psychological health. To indulge  a little further lets take my earlier example of consuming a diet entirely of donuts at a calorie deficit, you can imagine how poorly this would effect your physical health. You are providing your body with next to no protein or fats, and copious amounts of carbohydrates, now while it is true you would still lose weight, doing it this way will lead to constant hunger, sickness and disease. This is why we don’t exclusively focus on just calories, we also set macro-nutrient figures, this ensures you are consuming enough of all macro-nutrients to aide your bodies natural physiological functioning.

So the next question is usually, “So I can reach my macro-nutrient figures eating whatever I want, even exclusively from fast-food?” My response is, while a single burger or meal may fit in your figures, you will almost never be able to use the entirety of your figures on fast food, generally your fat and carbohydrate intake will be reached far before your protein…trust me I have tried. That is the beauty of IIFYM, while single or multiple “dirty or unclean” meal(s) can fit within your macro-nutrients, it will most likely mean you must then consume quality meals afterwards to reach your figures.

Now we have spoken a lot about macro-nutrient, lets take a minute to consider we still need to obtain our micro-nutrients or vitamins and mineral and fiber via our dietary intake too. This is why it is crucial you don’t go crazy with the excitement of being able to enjoy what you once believed to be ” bad food”. Instead eat a wide variety of foods, obtain most of your calories from good sources of food, things like fruit, vegetables, lean meat etc.  but also enjoy the freedom of being able to eat whatever you want. After all everybody should enjoy a nice big plate of post training nachos.

Clean Vs Unclean 
Now on the topic of labeling food, and I am not talking about nutritional labels but instead categorizing foods into “good, clean, bad, dirty or unclean”. This is ridiculous for a variety of reasons, foremost it promotes psychological disorders in which people become obsessed with consuming only food they deem worthy of being labeled “clean or good” while being petrified of the food they consider “dirty, unclean or bad”.  God forbid when they finally crack and consume something “dirty” then spend the next few hours feeling guilty and ashamed. Why do this to yourself? Labeling food can only lead to bad places, all food is energy and all food can be consumed, there is no such thing as a bad food, the trick is consuming in moderation, eating only enough to meet your energy requirements. More on this and other misconception in a coming article.

There you have it, the easiest dietary plan you will ever follow. Enjoy your food, ensure you are consuming enough micro-nutrient and fiber and stay within your macro-nutrient figures and watch the person you see in front of you in the mirror change for the better.  I should note I prefer the name flexible dieting as saying/typing If it fits your macro’s is somewhat annoying.

Fueling the body

 

As I am sure you are well aware, there are two components that determine the success of body composition goals. One being exercise in which I have provided you with a FREE Exercise program, and the other being nutrition or dietary intake in which I have provided a FREE Dietary program. This article will focus on what fuels our body and how weight is gained/lost.  As we learned in a previous article called “Introduction to exercise 101“, your body requires a certain form of energy in order to function, ATP. We get this by breaking down the chemical bonds in macro-nutrients(food) to their simplest form through a serious of chemical reactions. But ATP is of limited supply so our body must store other forms of energy that can be broken down into ATP for use at any time. It does this by storing partially broken down carbohydrates known as glycogen in the muscles and liver. However our bodies will eventually run out of these fuel sources too, so we must have yet another source, enter fatty acids(fat)and to a lesser extent amino acids(protein). These sources are used more prominently when exercise duration is extended beyond the anaerobic glycotic stage and oxygen is present. However you are constantly using a mixture of all of these sources to maintain basic metabolic functions. It should be noted that the in a normal circumstances the majority of energy spent by your body on a daily basis is derived from carbohydrates, then to a lesser extent fats, and a minimal amount from proteins. This can be altered by eliminating carbohydrates from your dietary intake and forcing your body to adapt and use fatty acids as the primary fuel source in a process known as ketosis. While it sounds glamorous and a sure fire way to lose weight, I assure you there are much easier ways which will ensure long term success. Now I am not saying ketosis is never a viable option, merely it should be left to the professional athletes and coaches.

Energy Balance Equation 

Now with the basic fuel substrates out the way we can focus on how and why people become overweight or underweight. It all comes down to whether the individual energy needs of the body(metabolism) are being met consistently on a daily basis, if they are your body will be using an equal amount of the energy as you are consuming from food, resulting in no net gain or loss. If you are consuming more energy via food then your body requires to function, then you will be at a  net gain(weight gain) and under consuming the required energy needs of the body will result in a net loss(weightloss). This equation is known as the energy balance equation. The above explanation of the this equation is extremely primitive, the truth is, it is a far more complicated equation then I dare try to explain. For a more in depth explanation visit here

So if we over consume energy(food) we gain weight, and if we under consume we lose weight. So if we could somehow track the amount of energy our body requires on a daily basis to perform all of it’s functions optimally and eat under that amount we would be half way to losing weight….Luckily for us there are several such equations available that output fairly accurate educated guesses. The other half is somehow figuring out how much energy is is certain foods and giving it a value based on such…Again luckily for you this has been done for you in the form of calories.

If you have not already I implore you to read my previous article “calories, Calories, Kilo-calories, joules and Kilo-joules“. As it explains the assigned values given to the different macro-nutrients, while you are at it read “Introduction to nutrition 101” as it explains the basic building blocks of food, macro-nutrients.

Now as I stated above the equation is far more complex then explained here and a variety of variables can lead to the equation not yielding desired results. However I must emphasize this is no fault of the equation, merely they variables influencing the equation, variables such as environment, disease etc. This does not make the equation flawed, nor does it make it not suitable for everyone. This equation applies to every human being alive, as energy systems are governed by the same laws of physics that rule all energy transformations.

calories, Calories, Kilo-calories, joules and Kilojoules

As I have introduced you to macro-nutrients and supplements, I feel this is the next logical step in your learning experience. A calorie is a measure of heat. One calorie is the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of 1g (1ml) of water by 1 degree Celsius. This is measured using bomb calorimeters . Food is placed within a sealed chamber charged with oxygen at high pressure. An electrical current moving through the fuse at the tip ignites the food-oxygen mixture. As the food burns, a water jacket surrounding the bomb absorbs the heat energy liberated. The calorimeter remains fully insulated from the ambient environment so the increase in water temperature directly reflects the heat released during a food’s oxidation. So now you know how calories are measured, interesting stuff. Yet probably information you need’t know but now you do.

calories, Calories, Kilo-calories, joules & Kilojoules

Now this is where the confusion sets in, calories and Kilo-calories are the unit of measurement used in America, joules and kilojoules are used here in Australia. 1000 calories equal one kilo-calorie which can be represented as Kcal or Calories(note the use of a capital C). 1000 joules equal 1 Kilojoule. Now these units of measurement are interchangeable 1 Calorie or a Kilo-Calorie is equal to 4.184 Kilojoules and 1 Joule is equal to 0.239 calories(not the use of lower case c). So to convert Calories to kilo-joules you multiply it by 4.184, and to convert the other way (kilojoules to Cals) you divided by 4.184(or 4.2 for ease). Isn’t math fun….. Now to make this a little easier, both joules and calories(little c) are rarely used in relation to food, the more appropriate measurements used are Calories(big C) or Kilojoules, this makes it a little easier on the math. Now to make the whole system more confusing people use calories(small c) when they should really be using Calories(Big C) or Kcal. As a rule of thumb any time a calorie, even when using a small c is mentioned in regards to nutrition you should take it as Calorie(Big C), including in anything I write.

Macro-nutrients calorie content.

As we discussed in my previous post, macro nutrients make up all food, these are protein, carbohydrates and fats. Each of these macro-nutrients have an assigned caloric value, these have been tested using bomb calorimeters and are as follows.

1 g of carbohydrate = 16.7kJ (4 Cal)

1g of fat = 37.7 kJ (9 Cal)

1g of protein = 16.8 kJ (4 Cal)

1g of alcohol = 29.3kJ (7 Cal)

1g fibre = 6.3-8.37kJ(1.5-2 Cal)

Before we go any further I must state these are only averages of the above macro nutrients, they do vary slightly from food source to food source however not enough for you to be concerned about. Also note the inclusion of fibre, now this isn’t a macro-nutrient per se, it falls underneath the definition of a carbohydrate, I only include it because consuming massive amounts of fibre can affect overall calorie consumption, however the average consumption per day is only small so worrying about counting fibre and the calories it yields is pointless.

I will leave it at that, however I will expand on these ideas in later posts. I will cover differences in calories from different food sources and it’s effect on human physiology, calorie counting, the energy equation and much much more.

Introduction to Nutrition 101

As the article name states “Fitness and nutrition 101” it’s my intention to help you get a better understanding of the aforementioned. I will aim to do this in the most basic way possible, nice and easy to understand, I will also endeavour to keep as much technical/science talk out of these articles, and keep them short and to the point. So here goes.

All foods are made up of a combination of the following Protein, Carbohydrates and Fats, the combination differs greatly from one food to another for example bread is predominately carbohydrates, where a steak is predominantly protein with some fats, even different cuts from the same animal can differ significantly.
Collectively these three classifications of the make up of food are known as Macro-nutrients.
Some foods also contains vitamins and minerals these are known as Micro-nutrients, more on those later.

Protein

Now proteins are made up of amino acids, of which there are 20 that are found in food, of these 20 eight are considered essential meaning they must be obtained from dietary sources(food) because your body is unable to produce them at all or at great enough quantities. Protein or amino acids are the building blocks of the body, they contribute greatly to structural make up of things like muscle, organs, skin, hair and even contribute to the production of some hormones.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates derive their name from their chemical structure, this makes it a little bit trickier to explain them properly without getting technical, so for the sake of simplicity we will split them into simple and complex. Simple being single or short chains, for the most part digested very quickly and with ease. Complex being longer chains, for the most part taking longer to digest if at all(think fibre). Complex carbohydrates can be further subdivided into two groups fibrous and starchy. Fibrous obviously pertaining to consisting mostly of fibre(think most vegetables), and starchy meaning containing a larger portion of digestible carbohydrate(breads, pasta, grains, fruits). Almost all carbohydrates are broken down by the body into the simplest carbohydrate form, glucose, this is the bodies main fuel for aerobic exercise(think continues movement over 2mins).

Please note this is a very generalised and broad definition of carbohydrates.

Fats

Fats are made of glycerol and fatty acids. There are two essential fatty acids meaning just like the essential amino acids they cannot be produced by the body and must be obtained through diet(food). All fats can be divided into four groups Trans, Saturated, Mono-unsaturated and polyunsaturated. Of these four groups both Mono-unsaturated and polyunsaturated are considered “good fats” because they are thought to have a positive effect on human health, while trans and saturated are considered “bad fats” for their negative effects on human health. Polyunsaturated fats can being further broken down into two major groups omega -3 fatty acids and omega – 6 fatty acids, these fats are apart of the essential fatty acid groups as they are derivatives of the essential fatty acids alpha-linolenic acid and linoleic acid. The role fats play in the human body is numerous, predominantly; energy storage and hormone production, as well as affecting many other processes in the body ranging from gene expression to chemical messengers.

Other(Fibre, alcohol, vitamins, minerals and cholesterol)

These are basically the left over constituents found in food that I have not already covered. I will keep these explanations very brief however may come back and extend them at a later date.

Fibre can be divided into 2 groups soluble or insoluble. Soluble mixes with water and expands increasing the feeling of fullness, while insoluble does not, but help with bowel movements and keeps the digestive system clean. Alcohol is in this group by default, it contains no nutritional value except the addition of calories. Vitamins and minerals of which there are numerous can be divided into two groups, essential and non essential again these definitions being the same as those of the essential and non essential fats and amino acids. They play a host of roles in the body including immunity, hormone production, structural, cellular signalling along with a host of other functions and are considered nutritional co-factors for optimal function of the human body. Cholesterol commonly misunderstood and wrongly grouped with fats, plays a vital role in hormone production, structure of cell membranes among many other roles. It is greatly misunderstood and for the most part can be consumed safely for the majority of us without fears of underlying health conditions.

There you have it, my first article relating to nutrition. I did my best to keep it direct and short yet still covering the basics needed for a solid foundation for future health related goals. This is just a introduction so when I get into the more complex articles you won’t be left scratching your head