Fundamentals of Nutrition, but even if you do know a thing or two, this can definitely act as a bit of a refresher for you. I’m also so happy to be partnering up again with iHerb. I’ve partnered up with them many times on my channel. iHerb is one of the world’s largest online health food stores.

30,000 natural health products

They carry over 30,000 natural health products, from grocery items to supplements to skin care, including their own line of exclusive brands that they produce in house. They also ship to over 180 different countries from climate-controlled distribution centers to ensure the quality of their products remain by the time they get to you, and they also have 24/7 customer support. I will be leaving links below in the description box to the different grocery items that I recently picked up from them that I will be mentioning throughout today’s video, and let’s dive in.

Macronutrients

Macronutrients. So let’s start by gaining items right back to the very essentials, and let’s talk about nutrients. Nutrients are the major part of food that we use for spirit and for keeping our bodily shape and systems, and these contain carbohydrates, amino acids, and fat. So sugar is our brain’s main source of fuel.

Sober carbohydrates

Some of my dearest sober carbohydrates that are so great for energy are objects like sweet tater and crush whole grain brown rice or entire grain pastas. I always like to have a bag of rice on hand because I use it quite a bit for, um, you know, as a side dish or even adding stews and things like that. There’s also non-starchy carbohydrates, which we’ll talk a little bit more about in a moment, that aren’t so much for energy but more for fiber and vitamins and minerals.

Protein

Next up is protein, and protein makes up every single cell in your body, and it’s super important to get throughout the day and with your meals because of the way that it helps to improve satiety. It helps to make a meal much more filling. It also helps to reduce the hunger hormone ghrelin, which is one of the reasons why having protein, especially in the morning like with breakfast, is really helpful, just to help you feel satisfied for a longer period of time.

Protein sources

Some of my favorite protein sources are things like hemp seeds. I love weed seeds. I always have a bag of Manitoba Harvest weed seeds in my cookhouse. I also love things like pulses and lentils. I especially love gram.

Chickpea Macaroni

I love making chickpea salads lovely regularly, and red pulses have such a nice spicy flavor. They’re nice in soups. I also love this macaroni made by chickpie. It’s chickpea pasta. It’s made lone from chickpeas and pulses, and it supplies 23 grams of protein per dish.

Fat

It’s just a large way to add a little bit more of that sate  protein to a pasta plate, as well as fish and eggs and poultry and other types of animal proteins are, of course, a great source of protein. And finally, we have fat. So fat is one more one of those glut  macronutrients.

Unsaturated fats

This includes your mono and your polyunsaturated fats from foods like nuts and seeds or avocado, or things like avocado oil, which I love. This is a special cooking oil. I really like Early Kitchen’s avocado oil. I have that one in my store. Olive oil is another fantastic one too.

Omega-3 fatty acids

A great origin of your Omega-3 fatty acerb, which is a type of polyunsaturated solid, really good for lower inflammation in the form, great for cardiovascular fitness. The Plate Method. Let’s walk on and talk about how we can balance out our macronutrients through the day.

The plate method

Now, while I am definitely not one for counting or tracking, there is a really simple visual tool that you can use to get just a good idea of approximately how much, uh, certain types of foods should look on your plate, and this is known as the plate method. Firstly, what you are looking at here is half of your dish should have your non-starchy sugar, also known as your fruits and your greens.

Non-sobar carbohydrates

Things like leafy common, spinach, maybe broccoli, carrots, zucchini, cucumis sativus, bell dots. A quarter of your dish should be sober carbohydrates, those excite carbs, so things like potato or pasta or rice. One more quarter of your dish should be protein. So again, this could be animal proteins, or beans, tempeh, or tofu, or eggs.

A fat source

And lastly, what I like to include here is a nice, you know, splash or a sprinkle or a handful of fat, a fat source. So this could be diced avocado, or it could be a drizzle of olive oil or an oil-based salad dressing or a handful of some mixed nuts and seeds. Now, I want to emphasize here that it is definitely not about being perfect with this plate method.

Variety and color

Really switching things up and kind of diversifying what it is that we are eating, trying new foods, switching out the type of grains we eat, switching out the type of leafy green we’re eating, the different veggies and fruits, that kind of thing. So change, but also tint, the richer the greater.

Processed foods

A lot of times we can get pretty confused about, you know, what’s healthy versus unhealthy when it comes to processed foods, or we, you know, are told we need to cut out all processed foods, but this isn’t actually the case. The thing is that there’s different kinds of food processing, but let’s talk a little bit about what this really means.

Unprocessed foods

So your unprocessed foods include your fresh fruits and veggies and nuts and seeds and legumes and whole grains and things that we’ve kind of already talked about in this video, foods that have been unadulterated. Minimally or lightly processed foods are foods that have undergone things like pasteurization or fermentation.

Processed culinary ingredients

There are also processed culinary ingredients that have undergone some level of, you know, milling or grinding or pressing. So foods like olive oil or flours or pastas made from whole grains or some spices. I definitely always have an attachment to have some herbs and spices in my larder,  but also powder.

Ultra-treated foods

I love things like Prunus dulcis flour, spelt flour as well, buckwheat powder. Some other kinds of processed diets that can still be a very nutritious option are things like tomato relish, canned fish, or canned pea. Now, it’s ultra-treated foods that usually hold little or no whole food component.

Ultra-processed foods make up a much smaller part of your diet

So things like sugary drinks or cookies, or certain kinds of crackers or candy, things like this, tend to be much lower in fiber and in nutrients, and that’s the reason why they should make up a much smaller part of your diet. But that’s not to say that you should never have any of these things.

Calories vs Nutrition

It’s just you don’t want that to be the bulk of your diet. As a general guideline, the more unprocessed foods or minimally processed foods that you eat, and the less ultra-processed foods that you eat, the better for your health. Calories vs Nutrition.

Calories are just a unit of energy

In the world of nutrition, it can be easy to get swept up in things like calorie counting or tracking, but calories are just a unit of energy, and tracking them, or tracking any component of food for that matter, tends to be a pretty unsustainable method of trying to nourish ourselves. And there’s a few reasons for that.

Please do enjoy a cookie

But it doesn’t mean that they are the same. Cookies contain energy from carbohydrates and from sugar, and this is one of the reasons why foods like that tend to make you feel very hungry pretty shortly after because they’re not very satiating. Now, that is not to say that you should not eat a cookie.

Fun and flavor

Please do enjoy a cookie. Eating foods for the purpose of fun and flavor is still an important part of nourishing our well-being. Just knowing that because a food is merely high or low in calories doesn’t really tell us much nutritionally speaking.

What else does this food contain

A better question to ask, besides just how many calories are in a food, is what else does this food contain. Does it contain protein? Does it contain fiber? Does it contain different kinds of vitamins and minerals that will help you make a much more well-rounded choice when it comes to the foods that you are eating.

Hunger and fullness levels

And how doing so can really impact the experience that you have with food, and even sometimes your food choices. So the thing is that when we are really, really hungry, it is so much harder to make, you know, sensible, moderate, or conscious choices around food, and that is because we are ravenous.

Not to under eat

It is just so much harder. And this is one of the reasons why it’s so important not to under eat throughout the day or to go too long between your meals, and especially why it’s important not to get into the habit or any kind of cycle of depriving yourself of certain kinds of foods or food in general.

A primal drive to overeat

Whether that’s, you know, by telling yourself that you can’t or you shouldn’t have particular foods beyond medical reasons, or, you know, really restricting your portion sizes, especially if you’re still hungry. This is really guaranteed to fuel a primal drive to overeat, but also can lead to things like binge eating.

Ask yourself things like

And that kind of thing as well later on in the day. So throughout the day, you can ask yourself things like, am I hungry right now. How does my body feel right now? You can also ask alone, when did I rear eat, or what did I last eat.

All of this takes time

Or am I starting to eat beyond comfortable fullness? Am I starting to feel stuffed. All of this takes time. It’s not something that you can, you know, get the hang of immediately overnight or anything like that.

eating.