9781422287866 Building a Healthy Diet with the 5 Food Groups

BUILDING A HEALTHY DIET WITH THE 5 FOOD GROUPS 24

Starches and fiber are made of long chains of sugars. For this reason, they are sometimes called “complex sugars.” They can be found in lots of different foods, like pasta.

of three other nutrients. We call them macronutrients. Macro means big. We need bigger amounts of macronutrients to be healthy. Macronutrients give us energy. Think of a car. You have to put gasoline in the car or it won’t go anywhere. Macronutrients are like gasoline, but for people. They provide the fuel that keeps us going, so we can walk, work, play, and even breathe and pump blood! One of the macronutrients we need is carbohydrates (or carbs). There are three differ- ent kinds of carbohydrates: sugar, starch, and dietary fiber.