Section 4 explains macronutrients and how they are broken down through the process of digestion. Students will have a chance to practice reading labels and figuring out calories from different types of macronutrients using an interactive calculator. This section explains how carbohydrate, a macronutrient, turns into glucose and affects the role of sugar in a healthy diet.
What Are Macronutrients?
Components of food that provide calories are macronutrients. These include fat, protein, and carbohydrate. Although alcohol also provides calories it is not considered a macronutrient because alcohol should not be a large part of caloric intake.
Fats
Fat provides nine calories per gram; protein and carbohydrate provides four calories per gram.
Dietary fat provides more than double the calories provided by carbohydrate and protein. Each gram of fat provides nine calories, and carbohydrates and protein four calories per gram.
The dietary guidelines for Americans recommend limiting saturated fat to 10% of total calories. The mixed dishes food category is the major source of saturated fats in the United States, with 35% of all saturated fats coming from mixed dishes, especially those dishes containing cheese, meat, or both. These include burgers, sandwiches, and tacos; pizza; rice, pasta, and grain dishes; and meat, poultry, and seafood dishes. The other food categories that provide the most saturated fats in current diets are snacks and sweets, protein foods, and dairy products.
Trans fats should be avoided. Trans fats can be found in many processed foods such as fried foods like doughnuts; and some baked goods including cakes, pie crusts, biscuits, frozen pizza, cookies, crackers; and stick margarines and other spreads. You can find the trans fats amount by looking at the Nutrition Facts panel. However, products can be listed as “0 grams of trans fats” if they contain 0 grams to less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving. You can also identify trans fats in foods by reading the ingredient lists and looking for “partially hydrogenated oils.”
Protein
Americans consume 15-20 percent of their energy in the form of proteins. This amount is not an issue for people with diabetes who have no renal impairment. However, when the kidney function is impaired, dietary protein restriction might be recommended. The source of protein does not affect the kidney function. Thus, a healthy diet should include plant derived and animal derived proteins, choosing lean/low fat sources whenever possible.
Carbohydrates
The recommended range for carbohydrate intake is between 45% to 65% of the total caloric intake. Carbohydrate is an important source of energy and nutrients and restricting carbohydrate intake to less than 130 grams per day is not recommended because of the absolute requirement for glucose by the brain. The American Diabetes Association recommends including carbohydrates from fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and low-fat dairy to provide variety and nutrients. To achieve optimal blood glucose levels, a consistent carbohydrate intake at meals and snacks from day to day is necessary. In those with diabetes who take insulin, the insulin from injections and pumps should be matched to the carbohydrate intake.
Most food contains all three macronutrients.
The exception to this includes foods that are all fat, such as margarine, oils, butter; and foods that are all carbohydrate, such as sugar, syrup, hard candy. Foods that are mostly protein contain some fat as well, if they are from an animal source (i.e., chicken), or some carbohydrate as well, if they are from a vegetable source (i.e. legumes).
A review is given of how digested food turns into glucose. The primary source of glucose is carbohydrates. If a carbohydrate food is eaten with a fat or protein, for instance peanut butter (protein and fat) with a cracker (carbohydrate), the blood glucose rise is slowed down.