March 16, 2021

Are You Getting Enough Out Of Your Fruits And Vegetables? – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 300

vegetables

Invite Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Amanda Williams, MPH.

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We all know that fruits and vegetables are very good for us, but one of the little catches with fruits and vegetables is that they may not be as nutritious as they once used to be. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t have them in our diets. Certainly, I am a big believer in strong adherence to the Mediterranean diet, which has a high abundance of fruits and vegetables. But we also realize that many fruits and vegetables, especially the ones in this country, are nowhere near as nutrient-dense as they once used to be. I want to talk about that today and give you a couple of ideas as to how you can skirt around that.†

The change in nutrient density

A study by the University of Texas Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry that came out close to 20 years ago in the American College of Nutrition journal looked at the changes in the food composition in 43 different garden crops. They had the soil composition from 1950 and compared that through a comparative analysis to the crops and soils in 1999. They wanted to evaluate any possible changes in the nutrient content within these different crops.†

What they found was really quite astounding. They found a decline not only in protein content, but also in things like calcium, phosphorus, iron, B-vitamins and ascorbic acid. They noticed anywhere from 6 to 38% reduction in these nutrients. That’s really a huge shift. The fruits and vegetables that our great-grandparents or our grandparents were eating many years ago had a lot more nutrient value to them than what we are exposed to now. We need to realize and understand that things like magnesium, zinc and B-vitamins have been impacted by the overgrowing and the overproducing of certain foods in this country. This is why many Americans have magnesium and zinc deficiencies, in addition to other nutrient deficiencies. If we’re understanding that we’re not getting exposure to nutrients at that same level, we have to make adjustments to make sure we are helping to boost these nutrient levels in our bodies.†

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Learn about the possible causes behind these decreases in nutrient-density by tuning into the full podcast episode.

The importance of fruit and vegetable supplementation

Supplementation has become very important when we think about trying to cover the gaps caused by the reduction of nutrient density in our fruits and vegetables. Supplements themselves are not technically a replacement for food, but they can certainly give us that edge to make sure that we don’t fall into that category of insufficiency or deficiency. There are a lot of different things, including magnesium, calcium, B-vitamins and chromium, that people are lacking.†

Chromium is a big one. Food sources for chromium include things like whole grains, fruits and eggs. Chromium deficiency in the United States is really widespread. This is because of mineral-depleted soils. You don’t really think about this because chromium is a trace mineral and it is in the earth, but we forget that overproduction of fruits and vegetables impact chromium levels. Chromium has become basically a bare substance in our soil, which is a problem because chromium itself is an essential component when we look at the management of blood glucose. We already know that diabesity and all of these other problems, such as cardiovascular disease, are very prevalent in this country. We can look at something as simple as mineral-depleted soils and chromium deficiency as a factor to this.†

So how do we bring these nutrients back in? We can look at something like our Reds Hx. This is a really great way to address this concern. This formula is packed with this really high-potentancy, antioxidant-rich fruit and vegetable extract. It’s these dark-pigmented fruits and vegetables, which are some of the strongest antioxidants to really optimize our overall health. When we look at all of the different extracts that are contained in the Reds Hx, the ORAC value of this product is incredibly high. This is a great way to kick your day off because it is a very tasty blend and it partners up nicely with yogurt.†

Eat The Rainbow of Colors For Good Health – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 261. Listen Now >>

Tune into the full podcast episode for more details on the importance of supplementation.

Thank you for tuning in to the Invite Health Podcast. You can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts or by visiting www.invitehealth.com/podcast. Make sure you subscribe and leave us a review! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at Invite Health today. We’ll see you next time on another episode of the Invite Health Podcast.