What Are Macros: An Explanation of Why Macros Are Important to Your Diet
The nutrition term macros has become common and familiar in the last 10 to 15 years. I’m sure when you heard it, there was a high chance that it was associated with bodybuilding or hardcore exercise used for the purpose of piling on the muscles.
Well at least that’s what I thought, until recently when I became highly interested in understanding the concept of macros for my own diet. See, I have been eating according to my blood type for a few years now and only recently have I felt the need to consider the contents of my macros as a person with Blood Type O.
I learned that the concept of macros is easy to understand because it coincides with the idea of a “balanced diet”. And I’m going to take it a step further and throw in the Blood Type Diet to show how each blood type processes the three categories of macros. This customizes the application of macros even more, which is great for health conscious people like you and I.
What Are Macros?
Macros is short for MACRONUTRIENTS. Look familiar now?
Let me break the word down for you.
Macro means large-scale; think “big picture”, “wide view”.
Nutrients are substances we use to survive, grow and live a healthy life.
So, our macros are the big foods groups that we need to eat on a daily basis, which consist of the following categories:
Proteins
Fats
Carbohydrates
I’m sure you’ve heard of these terms before, but you may not know what they look like on your dinner plate. Let’s dive deeper into what these three categories look like in recognizable food form.
Proteins are amino acids that support several different functions in your body including the building of muscle. In food, protein is found in the form of meat, beans, nuts, seeds, dairy and some vegetables.
Fats are broken down into healthy and unhealthy fats. Healthy fats support gut health, control cholesterol, boost brain function and contribute to a sense of fullness. They include saturated fats like the fat in meats, eggs, butter and other dairy foods. They also include unsaturated fats (mono- and poly- unsaturated fats) like plant-based oils, nuts, seeds and seafood. The unhealthy fat to avoid is trans fat which is hydrogenated and added to foods in order to enhance taste, texture and shelf-life.
Carbohydrates are foods that contain sugars, starch and cellulose that are chemically composed of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. These provide energy for the body. Food examples of carbohydrates are fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds and beans.
So you see how important macros are to your health and your ability to function daily.
Macros vs Micros
Now that we have a general understanding of macronutrients, let’s consider their smaller counterparts, micronutrients. These are the smaller nutrients we get from eating the macronutrients, like vitamins, minerals, amino acids and enzymes.
These small-scale nutrients are just as important as the macronutrients and really wouldn’t be available to us if we did not eat our macros, at least not in natural food form.
Sure you can supplement your micros, but who wants to survive on pills and capsules. Put some variety in your life by varying your macros! And yes, it is easy to do.
Because, don’t get me wrong, unless you’re water fasting or deliberately not eating a specific category of macros, all of us are eating all three categories of macros every day.
The Idea of a “Balanced Diet”
I am sure of this because of the influence we receive from the media, our health and nutrition leaders and the food options available at the stores. They usually include some type of protein, carb and fat in each option, even if we don’t know it. This is the “balanced diet” concept that I spoke about earlier, even if the options aren’t considered the healthiest.
So when you go to cook a meal, you’re going to automatically include at least a protein (in the form of meat, beans, nuts or seeds) and definitely a carbohydrate, because we love those, (in the form of rice, wheat, vegetable, beans, nuts and seeds).
I didn’t mention fat because it is the one macro that we generally don’t purposely think about including in our meals, but it usually ends up there anyway.
Like when you add any food in the form of meat, nuts, seeds, butter, dairy and fatty carbs, like avocados, to your meal. That’s the way fat macros sneak into your diet if you’re not deliberate about adding it in.
But if you are deliberate, you’ll make sure to have a special place on your plate for them. Fats like butter (never margarine) and/or olive oil bring that fat macro component to your meals.
Hold the FAt?
But hold on, let’s stop and think about why, generally, we don’t purposely add fat to our daily meals.
Did you come up with a reason yet?
It’s because of the fat-free diet message that we’ve been fed for about 100 years. We’ve been led to believe that fat in your diet means packing fat onto your body. WRONG! (partially)
This idea has been so scrambled and misapplied. Here’s why.
After WWII, research found that foods with saturated fats led to heart disease (in some people). This type of fat is found in foods like red meat and eggs. But the missing link here is the consideration of blood type.
And the research behind blood type has found that people with blood types A and AB are the ones more susceptible to heart disease from eating foods with saturated fats, like red meat.
Moreover, the research on saturated fats and heart disease reveals the general population that these findings were selected from, likely mostly people with blood types A and AB, which was then taken as nutrition advice to apply to the population of the whole country.
But we are not all the same, and thus shouldn’t take the same nutritional advice.
Food choices are all about metabolization. When you eat the right macronutrient foods, your digestive system metabolizes that food, or breaks it down, into micronutrients (it’s all coming together!) so that your body can survive, grow and thrive in health from it.
So that fatty butter that you put on your rice isn’t going to stay as butter after 10 minutes of consumption. The metabolization process starts as soon as you put that food into your mouth, with the enzymes in your saliva beginning to break it down. After 10 minutes, the macros you ate are of a very different form and continue to break down over time.
Now the next question is:
Will metabolization happen the same way for each person?
The answer: NOPE.
Why? Because of your Blood Type.
Macros Based on Blood Type
Based on the research done by naturopathic doctors, like Dr. Peter J. D’Adamo and his father Dr. James D’Adamo, each blood type requires different sets of foods to fill each macronutrient category.
This is due to various factors, including how our bodies react to the food and how our bodies metabolize the food, aka break it down. This topic gets deep and I explain more in this series of articles about lectins here and here.
There are four main blood types: A, B, O and AB. And they vary in the specific levels of the substances needed to break down food into usable nutrients. Here’s what that looks like by blood type.
How Each Blood Type Metabolizes Food
Blood Types A and AB
People with Blood Type A and AB have low stomach acid activity and low levels of the digestive enzyme IAP (intestinal alkaline phosphatase), with Blood Type A secretors having the lowest levels.
This presents a disadvantage when these blood types consume red meat and animal fat like butter since, under these conditions, the food won’t be completely broken down to their micronutrient state to be used. When lots of these animal-based foods are eaten, their undigested molecules become clogged in arteries and stored as fat.
On the other hand, Blood Types A and AB have high levels of the digestive enzyme amylase, which breaks down carbohydrates to the micronutrient state that can be put to great use for the bodies of these specific blood types.
Blood Types O and B
The opposite is true for people with Blood Types O and B. They have highly active stomach acid and a high level of the digestive enzyme IAP (intestinal alkaline phosphatase), with Blood Type O having the highest levels. Since this is the case, they are able to benefit from the micronutrients that animal proteins and fats have to offer.
Their digestive systems can accomplish the task of breaking down animal-based foods to the micronutrient forms of amino acids, iron and vitamin B12.
However, they have lower levels of the digestive enzyme amylase, with Type Os having the lowest of the two blood types. This means that carbohydrates are poorly metabolized, can raise blood sugar levels and become stored as fat if eaten in excess.
As you can see, it is not beneficial for everybody to eat every type of macro in the same serving size, or even at all, because it could provide an adverse effect than originally expected.
Furthermore, it is damaging for you to accept the same nutrition advice given to the general public, because this advice does not consider who you are genetically, ie. your blood type, age, gender at birth and current health conditions. Your health is best cared for by someone who can listen to your concerns and offer applicable solutions that will help YOU specifically.
Need Extra Support Reaching Your Health Goals?
Your health is best cared for by someone who can listen to your concerns and offer applicable solutions that will help you overcome your unique health issues and reach your health goals.
Most people would first think of their primary health care practitioner to provide this care and advice, which is a great place to start. But many important factors slip through the cracks of our general health care system, like the consideration of:
biological factors like your blood type
the application of nutrition as a form of natural health care
and the sheer time, space and energy that will allow you to bravely and comfortably open up about your health conditions, struggles and roadblocks, without feeling rushed
The care of a nutrition health coach is a great place to land when you want personalized support and strategies to achieve your health goals.
Book a free Diet Alignment Coaching Call with me, Nutrition Health Coach Latreil for one-on-one support.
In my next article, I will explain:
the macronutrient composition of certain foods
which blood types benefit the most from these foods
how to count and track your macros
how to achieve weight loss and muscle gain with macros
practical ways to incorporate macros into your diet on a daily basis
