Nutrition rules >>>> Why are proteins, fats and carbohydrates needed?

Why are proteins, fats and carbohydrates needed?

When it comes to proper nutrition, nutritionists say that nutrition should be balanced. But what exactly should be balanced in the diet?

A living organism draws useful substances to maintain the performance of all systems and organs from the external environment: it consumes oxygen from the air it breathes and the chemicals necessary for carrying out biochemical reactions from foods and liquids that are suitable for nutrition. In the process of digestion, all consumed food is broken down into individual compounds that have both simple and rather complex chemical formulas, which then take part in various chemical processes, become participants in the synthesis of new compounds, combine, modify and ultimately bring them to such a form in which can be used by various cells of the body in their structural and metabolic processes.

Substances not used by the body are removed outside its limits, but some of them tend to accumulate in various organs, disrupt their functions, and poison the body with decay processes.

The body needs proteins, fats and carbohydrates to build cellular structures and metabolic processes. Carbohydrates and fats are the energetics of the body. The most interesting thing is that carbohydrates and fats can compete with each other for primacy in their assimilation by the body. Fats are a source of some vital vitamins. In addition, fats act as structural elements of the cell membrane, form adipose tissue, not only for the purpose of energy reserves, but also as a shock-absorbing structure that protects organs from injury. Protein - this is a building material from which various tissues of a living organism are composed (skin, muscle tissue, hair, nails, organ tissues), as well as participants in various biochemical metabolic processes. The structural components of protein are amino acids, a third of which cannot be synthesized from the initial substances by the body itself and requires input from the external environment. Carbohydrates along with fats and proteins support the immune system, endocrine processes, and the nervous system.

On average, the optimal ratio of proteins, fats and carbohydrates can be represented as a proportion (1: 1: 4). These numbers change depending on what kind of activity a person is engaged in, how physically or mentally active he is. For people of predominantly intellectual work, the formula looks like this (1: 0.8: 3), and the more seriously the brain is involved in the work, the more carbohydrates a person needs. Proteins and carbohydrates are needed even more by athletes and people involved in hard physical labor (2: 1: 5). For life in low temperatures, the amount of proteins and fats entering the body daily is extremely important. Accordingly, the formula will change in the direction of increasing proteins and fats (2: 2: 4) or (2: 2: 3).

Proteins, fats and carbohydrates are needed in strictly defined quantities. Lack or excess of these components very quickly changes the state of the body for the worse:

causes weakness and drowsiness,
inhibits thought processes and impairs memory,
reduces muscle mass and causes muscle weakness,
spoils the condition of the skin and hair,
changes the structure of cartilage and bone tissue,
reduces the speed of immune reactions,
provokes disruptions in the synthesis of hormones,
disrupts enzymatic activity,
hits the cardiovascular system,
endangers all metabolic processes in the body,
causes toxic damage to organs and tissues.

For this reason, no matter what diet is chosen as a treatment or weight loss (gain), the diet should always contain food containing all three components (proteins, fats, carbohydrates). The question of choosing a diet is only in the difference in the combinations of these substances, but not in the rejection of any of them.