You
will feel full longer than if you had eaten the empty, nutrition less
calories in junk food. The best choice is to eat whole, fresh fruit.
Canned fruits are often soaked in high fructose corn syrup, greatly
increasing the sugar content of the fruit. The natural sugars contained
in fruits are more than enough for most people’s cravings for something
sweet. Proteins are made up of amino acids which are the structural
units of the protein molecule. There are approximately 20 amino acids.
Eight of them are considered “essential” because the human body cannot
make them on its own – which is the definition of an essential nutrient.
Link a few amino acids together and you get a peptide. Link a bunch of
peptides together and you get a protein. The shape of the individual
amino acids (and resulting proteins) is unique and highly specific, so I
won’t go into great detail about it here. Suffice it to say, proteins
are an essential part of virtually every function in our body from the
muscles, to certain hormones, to our immune system(s) and a whole lot
more. In particular, the amino acids known as the “branched chain” amino
acids (leucine, isoleucine, and valine) and the amino acid L-glutamine
are of particular interest to active people as they are anti-catabolic
(muscle sparing) and immune enhancing, to name only a few functions and
benefits of these particular amino acids.
The
two fats that are known to be essential to health are Linoleic acid
(LA) which is an Omega-6 fatty acid and Alpha-linolenic acid (LNA) which
is an Omega-3 fatty acid. Both of these fats can be found in various
foods that have not been heavily processed. These two fats are highly
sensitive and reactive to heat, light, and oxygen (i.e. they go bad
quickly), and are totally ruined or lost during the processing of our
foods. The reason poly-unsaturated vegetable oils that line the shelves
of most super markets can sit there for years on end is because they
have been heated, deodorized, and generally processed to the point that
they are the nutritional equivalent of white bread and table sugar.
It
is true that certain fats, such as, saturated fats, rancid fats, and
trans fatty acids (found in margarine, Crisco, and other products) , can
cause numerous health problems from heart disease to cancer and insulin
resistance, to name only a few ills of a diet high in the wrong types
of fat. However, the essential fatty acids (especially the Omega-3 fatty
acids) are anti-lipolytic (stop fat storage), anti-catabolic (stop the
break down of muscle tissue), increase metabolic rate and beta oxidation
(burn calories/increase fat burning), improve insulin sensitivity,
reduce the chances of heart diseases, and a whole lot more (3).