Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
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nutrient deficiencies
Invite Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Amanda Williams, MPH
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The findings of a long-term study were just released through the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and they are astonishing. In this particular study, titled “What We Eat in America” they were looking at close to 7000 women in the United States through the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey. The researchers conducted this data pooling between the years 2011 and 2016. They had these women who were in this particular study do a dietary recall and dietary supplement questionnaire. They wanted to really see how much of their vitamins they were getting from either supplements or their intake of food alone. I want to get into this in some detail because it really is quite shocking in terms of nutrient deficiencies. I want to talk about some of the findings from this particular study and highlight a couple of different areas as to why we know this is so problematic.†
In this study, the researchers found that among 50% of women of childbearing age had an intake of Vitamin A from food that was less than the estimated average requirement. This is the amount that you need to have in order to just meet the standards and 50% of them did not have a high enough Vitamin A intake.†
Are You Getting Enough Out Of Your Fruits And Vegetables? – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 300. Listen Now >>
Then, when you look at Vitamins C, D and E, as well as calcium and magnesium, those percentages were also very alarming. For Vitamin C, for example, 47% of these women did not have a high enough Vitamin C intake. 97% of these women did not have enough Vitamin D intake in their diet. 92% did not have enough Vitamin E. 49% did not have enough calcium and a whopping 62% did not have enough magnesium.†
What this really indicates is that their foods are lacking nutrients. Clearly, this is a problem. The researchers found that women weren’t even getting the bare minimum of these nutrients through a multivitamin. If women are not supplementing, then this inadequate nutrient intake has the potential for driving metabolic dysfunctions, as well as different chronic disease states. Interestingly enough, the women had entirely too much sodium, but then they lacked in everything else.†
The researchers also looked at these women’s blood markers. What they found from identifying in the blood samples was that there was a substantial portion of those women who were at risk for nutrient deficiencies in B12, Vitamin D, iron and iodine, and if it wasn’t deficient, then it was at minimum insufficient. That’s scary because think about what you need all of those things for. Iron is important, for example, when you think about thyroid function. Same thing with iodine.†
Tune into the full podcast episode to learn more about the findings from this study.
This study and many others indicated that dietary supplementation of these nutrients may be one important way for overcoming nutrient deficiencies in women of various life stages. We see that we’re not getting these nutrients from our food and the foods that we are taking in are not giving us the right nutrients.†
The Unspoken Danger Of Prescription Medication On Important Nutrients – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 262. Listen Now >>
In order to figure out what supplements you should be taking, you can get your blood levels tested. If your level in a particular nutrient is low, then you start supplementing. Then you go back in and retest maybe three months later and if the level is coming up pretty nicely, then you know that that’s probably the correct amount for you. If it’s staying stagnant, then you know that you need a lot more of the nutrient, as well as other nutrients that might help ensure it is being absorbed properly.†
Learn more about how to supplement your diet by listening to the full podcast episode.
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.
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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.†
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.†
Diabesity: The New Epidemic – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 298. Listen Now >>
Learn about the possible causes behind these decreases in nutrient-density by tuning into the full podcast episode.
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.
