Nutrition is a complex and multi-facetted science, so much so that you can actually do a whole degree in the subject under the title ‘dietetics’. Understanding the ins and outs of nutrition and its effects on the body involves developing an understanding of chemistry and biology, the working of the cells of the body and even DNA and physics to a degree. Everything you eat you see has both macroscopic (pieces large enough to see) and microscopic elements that interact with your body and with the individual cells to minute or powerful effect. While you won’t need to know the ins and outs of this precisely (unless you’re an aforementioned degree student studying dietetics or nutrition), it can be useful for everyone to learn the basics of good nutrition, whether just for general health or to help improve your fitness or physique.

The most simple rule that describes the basics of good nutrition is ‘everything in moderation’. While many people think they are eating healthily when they follow a crash course diet or fad such as the Atkins diet, they are actually very often starving their body of everything it needs to function well. Other individuals will try and improve their health by simply eliminating fats or carbs from their diet – living on nuts and berries and lean protein. Again, though this will indeed prevent the build up of fat tissue, it will also leave the body without a lot of the things it needs. Without the essential fats the body won’t be able to utilise the protein in the diet and won’t be as efficient in repairing wounds or regulating blood pressure. Someone on such a diet will likely see themselves begin to develop bad skin, nails and hair. Without the carbs they will likewise find themselves lethargic with no energy to exercise or even perform normal duties. We will go into the benefits of fats and carbs in the basics of good nutrition later, but suffice to say everything we eat has an important role.

Furthermore, by eliminating so much from their diet, they will be telling their bodies that there is a famine. This will cause the body to go into a kind of ‘crisis’ mode and start storing any fat or carbohydrates it does get – making it actually harder to lose weight. Likewise when you then do start eating fairly normally again, the body will react by piling all that weight back on (unless you manage to maintain it for a very long period of time). This is why many people on diets end up fluctuating rapidly in weight which is very bad for their heart and obviously not their intention. That’s not even considering the fact that banning yourself from all the sweet and energetic foods is just plain hard making it less likely that practitioners will manage to stick to it. If you want to improve your health through diet then while adhering to the basics of good nutrition, you should never completely leave anything out of your diet. Make sure you get all the food groups every day – if you want to lose weight just eat less of them. And while it’s okay to limit your fat intake, you certainly should not cease it all together.

We are born omnivorous because our bodies and lifestyles demand that we eat all these different types of food. The human body has evolved to reflect the diet that was available to it in the wild, so to deprive it of these things is actually going against our biology. A good way to think then when planning our diet is to question what we’d have eaten and in what proportions when we were evolving initially.

The general consensus on this is that we would have eaten a lot more fruits, berries and nuts in the wild, followed fairly closely by protein. The reason for this is that we were designed to track and kill larger animals which we’d do over the course of several days. In the meantime we would survive off the fruits and berries available to us in the savannahs, but once we managed to make our kill we’d have several weeks worth of meat to bring back to the cave. This would also serve as our source of fat and various other nutrients.

Today we eat fewer fruit and vegetables which means we get our carbs from other sources such as bread, pasta and rice. While these wouldn’t have been around we would have eaten wheat and potatoes for similarly starchy complex carbs though these would have also been fairly rare – particularly until early man learned to cook. The average Westerner today then could really do with increasing their intake, and eating fewer processed foods and carbs such as cakes and chocolates. A general rule when deciding whether something is healthy is to decide how many processes it’s been through – the fresher it is and less the ingredients have been tampered with – the healthier it probably is. Hence steer clear of microwave meals, tinned meals, sweets and anything that looks unnaturally coloured. These things will likely have had many added colours, chemicals, sugars, salts and fats. Similarly the less something has been cooked the more we get to enjoy the benefits – and if you think about man in the wild most of what we ate would have been raw. While today our immune systems are less able to cope with things such as Salmonella, it only takes a little bit of cooking to get rid of any bacteria so opt to have your meat rare or medium rare when possible. Likewise don’t boil your vegetables until they’re much or you’ll lose a lot of the goodness, this is an often overlooked aspect of basic nutrition.

The way would have eaten would also be different in the wild, and if you think about how we’d track animals for days we’d need a steady supply of energy and to eat when the opportunity arose. So do like the models do and try to limit the amount of food you eat in each sitting and instead spread it throughout the day. This is better for your digestive system and leaves you feeling less bloated but at the same time it will be less likely to stretch your stomach keeping you slimmer and more toned. Furthermore regular snacking will prevent hunger pangs meaning your body won’t begin to cannibalise itself for energy.

So so far then the rules are to eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, lots of protein and fewer processed carbohydrates. At the same time you should ensure to get all of the major food groups and not to eliminate anything too major. Finally you should try to eat as little and often as possible while fitting around your family and work life. These pretty much describe the four pillars of the basics of good nutrition, but exactly why is it that you need all these food groups in the first place? And what exactly are they?

If you remember school you might remember seeing a pyramid containing the five major food groups. If you have a really really good memory you might recall that these five are: carbohydrates, protein, fats, fibre and vitamins and minerals. Each of these plays a different role in the body and are found in a variety of food sources. Understanding the roles of each is crucial in order to grasp the basics of good nutrition, and once you understand the science behind them you should be able to start adapting your diet to make sure your body is getting everything it needs.

Firstly, carbohydrates are the biggest food group you need. These come in two different varieties: complex carbs, which require the body to break them down; and simple carbs, which do not. Complex carbs are the more useful of these two foodstuffs as they give you a longer lasting energy high with less of a comedown and can be found in pasta, rice, potatoes and fruits. Simple carbs a comprised of sugary foods and give you more of an immediate rush.

The way in which carbohydrates work is by providing glucose. This glucose is broken down by the body to provide ATP, or andenosine triphosphate. As the ‘tri’ in the name indicates, this is a combination of three individual phosphates that are held together by powerful high-energy bonds. When these bonds are broken they release large amounts of energy that the body uses to power all of its functions and all of your activities. Any carbs that aren’t used for this process however will be converted into fat and stored just bellow the surface of the skin. These fat cells are the body’s ‘emergency’ supply of energy, and it’s crucial to have some of these hanging around in case your body uses up its ATP supply. Most of your carbs will be used for energy however, and the conversion process itself uses up more energy so don’t worry too much about gaining weight from carbs.

Protein, the other food group that you require in large quantities, has a very different use. While carbohydrates are important for catabolic processes (burning things for energy), proteins are important for anabolic processes (utilising things for jobs around your body). Protein is made up of amino acids – the building blocks of life – and is recycled for use for a variety of jobs around the body. In short when you eat protein you are ‘recycling’ the animal or fish and using it’s very building blocks to maintain your own body. In this case you really are what you eat which is why it’s so important that you get a steady supply of lean protein.

In total there is somewhere within the range of 21-25 separate amino acids, though experts disagree on the exact number and it may well be that more are discovered soon (for a long time it was believed that there were 21). These amino acids are utilised by the body to reapair wounds, aid healthy growth and build everything from tendons and bones to muscle mass (which is why bodybuilders take protein shakes after a workout). If the body doesn’t have access to one of the amino acids it needs then it won’t be able to perform that particular task – and will be too late once it does get it. For this reason it’s highly important that we constantly eat a variety of meat sources rather than just one as no single protein source other than possibly eggs contains all the amino acids.

Fats meanwhile play a variety of different roles which is why its so important that you don’t neglect them in your diet. When we eat animal fats we are essentially eating their fat cells meaning it takes almost no energy for our body to store them as fat in our own body (hence the reason we gain weight this way). This fat is useful however as an emergency fat store as if our body runs out of energy and fat to burn it will turn to our protein stores for energy burning away our muscle and literally cannibalising itself. Other more healthy fat sources are also available from plants and in other food stuffs.

Fat also has a variety of other uses however, particularly in the shape of ‘essential fatty acids’ which play a range or roles around the body and are pretty essential as the name implies. These fatty acids are useful for protein synthesis – meaning you actually turn those amino acids into muscle, lowering blood cholesterol – preventing heart disease and stroke, strengthening cell membranes – fighting against ageing and cancer, repairing wounds, aiding blood clotting and much more. If you get a deficiency in fatty acids you will be able to see the detrimental effects when you develop bad skin and nails and thin hair demonstrating how vital it is. One of the best known essential fatty acids for health benefits is Omega 3 fatty acid, which has great nootropic properties (improving cognition and memory and possibly working as an antidepressant) as well as helping to alleviate joint pain and combat arthritis. Fat is used too freely in a lot of cooking and ready meals today however as well as in many sweets and puddings which is why it’s developed such a bad rep. The key is to selectively make sure you get some fats but that you control their intake. One of the basics of good nutrition is that fat is just as important as any of the other food groups, but again that moderation is key.

That leaves two more food groups that you need to make sure you’re getting in good supply and satisfying the basics of good nutrition. Fibre, found in nuts, legumes, fruits and whole wheat food such as cereal and wholegrain bread, finds its use in the fact that it doesn’t get digested. Insoluble fibre goes through the system largely unchanged, while soluble fibre is transformed or fermented by bacteria. Fibre travels through the digestive and intestinal tracts and clears them out acting like a form of natural irrigation. This helps with bowl movements, digestion, cholesterol and other complications.

Finally, vitamins and minerals, found in most food sources but in particular high supply in fruits and vegetables, serve the body with a wide range of other roles and are involved in almost every biological process. To list all the vitamins and minerals here would make this a ridiculously long article (even more so), but there are certainly a few stars among them. Vitamin C for instance has an incredibly important role supporting the immune system in its battle against viruses and infections and is also a great antioxidant, strengthening cell walls and so preventing age related degeneration and damage to the DNA which can lead to cancer. Vitamin B6 meanwhile acts as a good energy boost and also helps the body to extract further energy from its carbohydrate sources. Vitamin A improves eyesight and also helps protein synthesis and other anabolic functions.

The key minerals similarly play a number of roles in the basics of good nutrition. Calcium for instance is used to build and strengthen bone, teeth and nails and also helps strengthen muscle contractions. Iron is the main compound in haemoglobin and is crucial for transporting oxygen and nutrients around the body. Zinc has been shown to be beneficial for testosterone production and potassium and sodium prevent cramps.

As you can see then, every food group has something vital to offer and understanding why will help you to ensure you follow the basics of good nutrition and get some of each in your daily diet. Likewise it should help you to realise that specific problems with your body can be down to interactions between your diet and your internal make up. Research into nutrients and look at your diet and you should might be able to greatly improve your health, appearance and lifestyle.

So the take home lessons are these: eat little and often, don’t leave anything out of your diet, eat in moderation but don’t starve yourself, eat fresh foods with minimal preparation, avoid processed foods and try to think like primitive man. Those are the basics of good nutrition.