food is very crucial for our bodies to function and to create energy. this page talks about the basics of nutrition - macronutrients, micronutrients and what happens when we eat food

click on the left small triangles to expand the topics below.

macronutrients

micronutrients

everything we eat affects our blood sugar levels and the goal is to keep them stable i.e. avoid high variability

• in the main page, I mentioned that our blood sugar levels are a good proxy to understand how our metabolism is functioning
• majorly, our blood sugar levels are affected by the kind of food we consume (they are also affected by exercise, stress levels etc.)
• insulin is a hormone that is responsible for ensuring that the glucose we get from the nutrition is being sent inside the cells for them to use this for energy production
• high blood glucose means high amount of insulin is required to transport it inside the cells
• but, cells have a certain capacity for glucose and once this is full, they no longer accept the glucose or rather open their walls to let glucose inside them
• this means, free glucose is roaming in our blood and high secretion of insulin is happening to put this glucose inside the cells, but cells are not accepting it. this situation is called insulin resistance
• body needs to put this glucose somewhere, hence, with the help of insulin, it converts the glucose into fat and dispose it off around different organs and in the blood in the form of triglycerides. so that it can be used in future as an energy source
• now, if this is happening persistently, then our body is just storing fat and not getting a chance to use this fat
• this increases fat accumulation, which affects the functioning of different organs and our cells, leading to metabolic health issues
• thus, it is very important to keep our blood sugar levels stable

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eating zero sugar ≠ zero glucose in the blood.

carbohydrates are broken down into glucose.

simple carbohydrates and ultra-processed foods are digested quickly and end up in the blood as glucose, raising blood sugar levels quickly

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simple carbohydrates lead to high variability in sugar levels, whereas fats and proteins don’t

• when we eat food, it goes to our stomach and then to our intestines.