Compare fats and carbohydrates to the relative combustion qualities of oil and gasoline respectively. Both will burn but gasoline is ignited easier and burns quicker. Starches and basic sugars are converted into a more readily useable glucose at a relatively faster rate than fats. In this form, they are absorbed by the blood system and supplied to the muscular tissue to furnish needed energy. There is no question about the energetic effect it has on some people.
Vitamins aid the breakdown of nutrients into usable forms.
Protective ingredients or vitamins are not considered to be a food but they are essential to proper nutrition. Vitamins are a means of triggering the chemical reactions that convert the essential nutrients into useable forms in the digestive process. For example, the automobile carburetor converts gasoline from a liquid into a more usable form of a vapor of gasoline molecules mixed with a large proportion of air. The pistol shooter can be assured of receiving the important elements of nutrition in his diet if certain representative foods of each type are known to him. There are three foods that are the main source of protein in the diet.