Macronutrients explained through the first meal of your day

A bowl of porridge on the table

Picture a bowl of porridge made with milk, topped with a handful of berries and a spoon of chopped walnuts, with a boiled egg on the side. Nothing fancy. Yet each item plays a different role, and together they cover all 3 macronutrients.

The oats and the berries bring carbohydrate

Carbohydrate is the main fuel for your brain and muscles. Oats give the slow, starchy kind together with fibre. Berries add a little natural sugar, plus vitamins and colour. The NHS guide to eating a balanced diet suggests basing meals on starchy foods, ideally wholegrain, and that is exactly what the oats do here.

The milk and the egg bring protein

Protein builds and repairs tissue, and protein contributes to the maintenance of muscle mass. That matters when you eat a little less, because you want to keep the muscle you have. Milk also brings calcium. The NHS page on milk and dairy explains how to choose lower fat versions without losing that benefit.

The walnuts bring fat

Fat carries the vitamins A, D, E and K and supplies essential fatty acids your body cannot make. Walnuts give mostly unsaturated fat. A spoonful is enough, because fat holds about 9 kcal per gram, more than twice the figure for protein or carbohydrate.

The 4th source nobody lists at breakfast

Alcohol is not a nutrient, yet it carries about 7 kcal per gram. A couple of glasses of wine in the evening can supply more energy than the whole bowl above, with none of the protein or fibre. It is worth counting when you look at a full day.

And the small print, micronutrients

Vitamins and minerals are needed in tiny amounts and supply no energy at all. They come along with the macronutrients when the food is varied. Our guides to vitamins and minerals cover them 1 by 1.

Building other meals the same way

Once you can spot the 3 parts in a breakfast, you can do it anywhere. A sandwich on the train from Bicester North to Marylebone has bread for carbohydrate, a filling for protein and often a spread or mayonnaise for fat. Ask yourself which 1 is missing or oversized, then adjust. For most people trying to lose weight, it is the protein part that is too small. Our article on protein needs goes further.

Members of the club eat their breakfast together on site each morning before work, which makes this kind of plate a daily habit rather than a theory.

Needs differ with age, pregnancy, illness and activity. This article does not replace advice from your GP or another health professional.