Micro Over Macro

The fridge is part of our pantry

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So, when it comes to having a power pantry (and realize that any time we talk of our pantry, it includes our refrigerator... they go together), are there some foods that are fundamentally better than others? The short answer? Yes! Last week's post was about eating real food, and that's the place to start: a whole foods, plant-based diet is the best foundation.


But what's the big deal about the whole foods and veggies? Food is food, right? Actually, no, not all foods are created equally, and there is growing research that shows how the food we eat provides extensive information to our bodies. Nutrients actually engage our genetic code

DNA Double Helix (Wikimedia Commons)

and turn certain proteins on and off, with the ability to lead to healthy outcomes or unhealthy outcomes. That sounds like a big deal, and actually it is. The food we eat, and especially the nutritional quality of the food we eat, matters.

This gets into the nutritional concept of macro-nutrients and micro-nutrients. Micro-nutrients are the beneficial proteins, carbohydrates, minerals and enzymes found in plant-based foods like vegetables, fruits, seeds, nuts, berries and some plant-based oils. Macro-nutrients are the animal proteins, carbohydrates and fats found in basically everything else: meats, grains, dairy, starches, sugars, fats. Like I mentioned last week, our bodies crave micro-nutrients (the fruits and veggies); our bodies tolerate macro-nutrients, and will always be trying to overcome the stress those foods create in our bodies.

What does it look like when good nutrients interact positively with our genes and metabolism? I think our bodies heave a big sigh of relief when we eat whole foods and a plant based diet. Conversely, our metabolism stresses out under the burden of animal proteins, dairy, heavy starches, sugars and fats.

A key to having a power pantry is overwhelming our food choices with micro-nutrients and limiting our macro-nutrients. Think of if in terms of ratios. To gain a healthful power pantry, a good goal is an 80/20 split of micro-nutrients to macro-nutrients. So 80% of our calories come from micro-nutrients--healthful, whole, plant-based foods; 20% come from macro-nutrients (meat proteins, starches, grains, animal fats). To maintain good health, maybe you can stretch it to 70/30. A noble wellness goal: 90/10.

By the Way

Real food: thumbs up

Food-like product: thumbs down

It can take a while to wrap our minds around what foods are actually good for us, and which are really man-made food-like products. How do we discern which is which? The whole food is the one that looks as close as possible to how it came from the earth. That's real food. If it is processed, refined, filtered, packaged, then it becomes more of a food-like product. So: romaine lettuce is a whole food; toaster pastries are a food-like product... you get the picture.

In future posts we'll look more closely at things like refined 'white foods', and other man-made food-like products, and chemical additives (sweeteners and flavor-enhancers and such), all of which are helping western culture eat itself to death.

There's benefit in the power of the pantry. Remember our health is in our hands!