Nutrition - Building Materials

THE BUILDING BLOCKS

As you are probably aware, the phrase - you are what you eat, is most definitely very true indeed. As you will have read in the earlier sections of the website - your body is in a constant state of breaking down and repairing and growing. All of your body's cells are turned over (replaced) in a six month period. What you eat and drink today is going to produce the cells that are you in the future. The quantity and quality of what you eat now are what produce immediate and long term effects on your body, mind, and health. Your DNA instructs your body to grow in a certain way based upon the genetic blueprint from your parents. But what are you built from? Well, essentially you are built up from the main macronutrients that are water, protein and fats. Some people would argue that carbohydrates are an essential macro nutrient although, as you are probably also aware, carbohydrates are nearly dispensable and interchangeable as an energy source. You cannot live, function, grow and survive without water, protein and fat. You can live and survive and even function optimally, without carbohydrates, based upon your genetic metabolic type.

Your body is made up of mostly water. Every cell is water based. Your skeletal muscle is 70% water. Water is critical for life and your survival and optimal functioning. Water is the most important macro nutrient used everyday to support life. Without water on a daily base you will indeed be dead. Both the quantity and quality of the water your consume will affect your immediate functioning and your long term functioning. Many people have noted that when they increase their water levels to the recommended levels they feel cleaner, have more energy and just have a sense that everything is functioning more smoothly. And of course this is quite logical, since every cellular reaction within your body takes place in a water based environment. Dehydration is a serious offence against your body and its ability to function and grow. It is critical to understand this and make this a serious part of your nutritional regime.

The main building material for the body to create and regenerate new cells, when cells are damaged and die, is of course protein. Protein is made up of tiny building blocks itself, these are named amino acids. Amino Acids have many functions in the body. They are vital for growth, repair and brain functioning. When we talk about building muscle, you are actually building up the muscle fibre proteins in your body. Where do these come from? Well, they come from your diet in the form of proteins that you digest. Proteins are dairy based products, certain vegetable products and grains/pulses, but mostly any meats. Every animal and plant has a very unique genetic blue print for the amino acid sequence of their cellular structure. Your muscle tissue is for example 70% glutamine. The quantity and quality therefore of your protein in your diet is of key consideration. Ion Exchange Whey protein has the most similar make-up to human muscle tissue and so it is absorbed very rapidly and is primed for assimilation into human muscle. On the flip side, if you are to consume tuna fish protein, this is far removed from the genetic makeup of human muscle. There will be less amino acids that are critical and more amino acids that are not as much in demand. Tuna, would be great for other tuna fish to eat to build tuna fish muscles. It is not the ideal food for building human muscle. Logically, the best food source to construct and anabolise into muscle would be the flesh of another human being. This would be a perfect source of identical amino acids for which to build your body. Of course this is frowned upon greatly and is of course cannibalism. So you should choose your protein intake wisely as this is what is really going to produce your bodily cell growth (ie your biceps and pecs!). 

Whilst fats are primarily used as an energy source, the body also requires a small amount of unsaturated fats for cell membranes and for certain organs of the body. These unsaturated fats are vital for brain functioning, cell repair and the production of the very highly important hormones in your body. Hormones are those critical little chemical messengers that send signals around your body to tell it to do things. Like testosterone hormone instructs your body to build up muscle proteins (anabolism). This makes fats, not only essential for life and energy and insulation for heat, but, critical in your bodies functioning and development. These unsaturated fats are found in flax oil, extra virgin oils, trout, mackerel and sardines to name but a few sources.

Vitamins and minerals, commonly called micro nutrients, are the body's equivalent of a car's spark plugs and chassis. Micronutrients are the tiniest of required elements to make the human body function and survive. Inadequate amounts of the correct micro nutrients leads to disease and death. For example, scurvy is a shortage of vitamin C. You must remember that many hundreds of years ago, before polluted soils, damaged crops, and genetically manipulated meats and things, humans derived a healthier and better source of micro nutrients from the earth and their diet. It is naive of people to say well people a thousand years ago didn't need to take multi vitamin and mineral supplements. This is true. But the world thousands of years ago was not polluted and radiated and full of toxic waste and genetically manipulated food stuffs for breeding, and storage conditions. And thousands of years ago, we know for fact that people just didn't live very long, disease was rampant and mortality rates were high. Only the genetically strong survived. Even then, you would not be seeing any Arnold Schwazennager physiques roaming around in those medieval times. This is what people are not thinking about. The world adapts and people have to adapt with it - not live in the past, or what should be right. Yes, we probably should be able to get the micronutrients we want from our diet and foodstuffs - we should be able to do many things we can't. The reality is, the state of our food chain is poor and degraded and getting worse. You have to do the best you can to survive and improve. Whilst Micronutrients are found in just about every food we eat, for a sports person it is virtually impossible to get sufficient levels of all of them for optimum progress.

Below, is a table outlining example quantities of macronutrients as building materials for the training athlete:-