Nutrients - Macro or Micro

Which is more important, your macro nutrients or micro nutrients? Well if you ask a health professional, they're all important. There seems to be a lot of buzz around tracking your macro nutrients and while this is great, micro nutrients shouldn't be neglected.

We have all heard of the macro nutrients: Protein, Carbohydrate and Fat. They are the categories of the building blocks that make up our foods. A lot of food are made up of a combination of the three.

The weight loss industry will tend to generalise foods into one of these categories, based upon the majority of the food analysis.

There have also been many fad diets concentrating on cutting out or drastically limiting one of these macro nutrients which can be quite dangerous.

Even the most strict Atkins convert will eat some carbohydrate, even if it is in the form of dairy carbohydrate. Dukan allows some vegetables and even suggests fibre but did you know these are still carbohydrates? We need fat for our cell membranes and even cholesterol for hormone production and of course protein is necessary for our musculo skeletal tissue, organs, hair, skin and nails.

Modern diets such as IIFYM or weight watchers instead use a restriction or increase of calories whilst maintaining a variety of the macro nutrients. Even clean eating pertains to this concept.

However, any of these diets can be quite restrictive in terms of micro nutrient outcomes either due to repetition of only a small number of foods or eating highly processed foods with limited nutrient value within the confines of macro targets.

So, nutritionists and dietitians alike will generally suggest eating a variety of foods, in a form that's identifiable to their original form while sticking to your macro goals for your given outcomes. This includes not limiting intake of any type of food (unless there is a diagnosed food allergy or illness (Coeliac, Crohns etc)).

If you are limiting your diet to a rigid plan, perhaps consider asking a professional to analyse your diet in terms of micro nutrients as well as macro nutrients and comparing them to the Nutrient Reference Values as outlined by the NHMRC Healthy Eating Guide. (National Health and Medical Research Council)