Macromolecules In Food Research Paper

Nutrition is an extremely important aspect of life. For millions of years, life has competed for nutrition and those who lost the competition died. From giving you the energy we need to shaping our appearance, nutrition is a basic element of life and is needed for survival. When camping, nutrition is important because you are expending immense amount of energy hiking and doing recreational activities. Camping nutrition can be divided into three sections, macronutrients, water, and calories. Macronutrients or macromolecules are carbon based molecules that comprise every food we eat. There are three macromolecules that we consume: proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Proteins in foods should make up about 25-30% of your diet when camping. Protein …show more content…
This is important when camping because hiking or any other strenuous physical activity can tear muscle fibers resulting in soreness. Proteins help your body to recover from the tears faster making it vital that you consume an adequate amount. When proteins are digested, proteins are broken down into amino acids. All together there are twenty amino acids available and of those twenty, seven cannot be manufactured by the body meaning you must ingest them. Proteins that have all of the amino acids that can’t be made are called complete proteins. Complete proteins include meat and eggs but can also be made by compounding foods using the N rule. The N rule states that any two proteins in the following list that are touching will be a complete protein (dairy-grains-legumes-seeds). Fats should comprise of about 25% of your diet when camping. Fats are used by the body to create hormones and store energy. Fats are the most dense molecule having 9 kcal per gram. Foods that contain fats include oils, nuts and animal fat. Carbohydrates should consist of about 50% of your diet when camping. Carbohydrates are primarily used as …show more content…
A calorie is a measure energy. One calorie is equivalent to raising one gram of water by one degree celsius. Normally, dietary calories are measured in kcal or Calories, which is 1000 calories. Calories are acquired by ingesting any of the three macronutrient molecules, which then make up the percentages of each macronutrient. When performing physical activities, your muscles use energy which are obtained through calories. Therefore, camping, hiking and biking will require you to eat more calories than when sedentary to maintain the same body composition levels. If you burn more calories than you consume than you will lose weight and vice versa. It is ideal that you eat enough calories when camping due to the lack of medical attention available (no diets when