Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
DAIRY~THE OPTIONS AND BENEFITS By: Allie Might, FMC, INHC, ATT Dairy is that food group that seems to be one of the easiest to consume and the most indulgent. This group is commonly associated with calcium and strong bones. It has a wide variety …
Seasonal Allergies! Dr. Claire Arcidiacono, ND Achoo! Achoo! Is it a cold? It is just dusty? Nope! Its allergy season! And along with allergy season is all the symptoms of allergies. Having symptoms of allergies tend to come during what is known as allergy …
VEGETABLES~GREENS AND BEYOND
By: Allie Might, FMC, INHC, ATT
Vegetables and greens always seem to be the most difficult for people to eat enough of on a daily basis. As I’ve talked to people over the years on this subject, I’ve noticed a few common reasons seem to come up. Let’s take some time together to get to know our vegetables and greens, as well as address some common reasons why many aren’t getting their daily recommendation.
Let’s start at the beginning….just how much vegetables and greens do we really need in a day? According to the guidelines from the USDA, an adult should consume 2 1/2-4 cups a day. This varies slightly, as greens usually need 2 cups to actually count as the 1 cup serving size. For instance, a salad consisting of 2 cups of kale, 1 carrot, 1/2 cup tomatoes and 1/2 cup of mushrooms would give you 2 1/2 servings for the day. I’ve heard many people count this as 4 servings because there’s 4 types of vegetables represented in the salad. This is definitely one way that causing some confusion and keeps some people from getting the correct daily recommendation.
Another misconception seems to involve cooking styles. We know that certain ways of cooking vegetables can be good, such as steaming, roasting or lightly sautéing. This helps to drastically cut down the fat from oils. According to an article from Harvard Medical School titled ‘How Much Will Fried Foods Harm Your Heart? We see that this way of food preparation may be a cause of increased inflammation in the body. This increased inflammation can be a contributing factor in heart disease, increasing the chances for such issues as heart attack or stroke. Keep in mind, even though it is a vegetable, once it gets battered or coated and fried it is more of an indulgent treat then a nutritious vegetable.
Vegetables are so important because of the nutrients they supply. MedicalNewsToday highlights some of these that include, but are not limited to, vitamins and minerals such as A, some B’s, C and K, folate, potassium, manganese and magnesium. Vegetables and leafy greens are also a good source of fiber.
I’m often asked which vegetables are the best. I always say there are no bad vegetables or leafy greens out there to avoid. Try focusing of the ones you already like and can tolerate well. I also like to recommend trying a new vegetable each week. For example, try traditional vegetable like tomatoes, zucchini and carrots with greens like kale and spinach. Maybe experiment with a cruciferous vegetable such as Brussel sprouts or cabbage (green or red). Remember, you can’t “overdose” on vegetables and greens so once you are consistently getting in your recommended serving outlined by the USDA, try to challenge yourself to get 5-9 cups a day. I find that this bulks up my meals in a healthy way without feeling “stuffed”.
GREENS HX: In order to help increase vegetable intake each day, adding a greens powder to make a healthy green drink is a good option. This contains a wide variety of vegetables, green and herbs allowing for an earthy taste with a dash of oregano. It even has some probiotics in the formula so this is great not only for nutrients, but to help with detoxification, healthy immunity and maybe even offer some increased energy…which is always a good thing.
BEETS HX: While beets are delicious, sometimes they can be difficult to cook. In order to get all the benefits to the circulatory system that beets offer, a good alternative is to incorporate this in a powder form. It can be added to water, smoothies or plain yogurt.
HAPPY GUT GREEN SMOOTHIE
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 cup Ice
1/2 cup Raw Organic Coconut Water
1 teaspoon Raw Honey
1 scoop Greens Hx
1 capsule Probiotic Hx
Add all ingredients to a blender, along with the contents of the Probiotic Hx (discard the empty capsule). Blend together, pour into a glass and enjoy!
PRO TIP: In my experience, if you find that you experience digestive distress when eating vegetables or greens, try cooking them and avoid raw. This can help cut down on gas developing in the gut, particularly for those that are exploring new produce or are increasing their daily intake.
www.myplate.gov/eat-healthy/vegetables
www.uhhospitals.org/blog/articles/2023/11/raw-vs-cooked-vegetables
www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/how-much-will-fried-foods-harm-your-heart
www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323319#summary
FRUITS~NATURE’S TREAT By: Allie Might, FMC, INHC, ATT Fruit is one of those groups that we all know and love. In my experience, it’s always that food that most people don’t seem to have problems getting into their daily diet. However, let’s explore this …
MY PLATE~OUR DIET GUIDELINE AND FOUNDATION FOR HEALTH By: Allie Might, FMC, INHC, ATT March is National Nutrition Month so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to go back to basics. We all remember when we were growing up and learning about …
Immunity Hx
Dr. Claire Arcidiacono, ND
I wanted to do my product highlight on what I consider to be the cornerstone of immune heath. In fact Immune is in its very name, Immunity Hx! Immunity Hx is a combination of vitamin C, vitamin D3 and Zinc! Immunity Hx has 500 mg of vitamin C, 2000 IUs (50mcg) of vitamin D3 and 30mg of zinc. Each of these nutrients has numerous studies showing how they can benefit our immunity.
Let’s start with vitamin C. Vitamin C is called an essential nutrient because it is a key nutrient for different pathways in our body yet our body is unable to make it. In other words we must get vitamin c in either our diet or in supplement form. In fact in western populations studies have found that vitamin c deficiency is common and in fact is the fourth leading nutrient deficiency in the US. Vitamin C deficiency may be caused by poor diet, drug or tobacco use, alcohol use, various chronic disease and even by pollution. There are four aspects of our immune system that are positively affected by vitamin C. These are the epithelial barriers, phagocytes, lymphocytes and inflammatory mediators. Please see the attached Table for all the ways vitamin c affects these parts of the immune system. (1)
Table 1
Role of vitamin C in immune defense.
| Immune System | Function of Vitamin C | Refs. |
| Epithelial barriers | Enhances collagen synthesis and stabilization | [30,31,32,33,34,35] |
| Protects against ROS-induced damage 1 | [36,37,38,39,40] | |
| Enhances keratinocyte differentiation and lipid synthesis | [41,42,43,44,45] | |
| Enhances fibroblast proliferation and migration | [46,47] | |
| Shortens time to wound healing in patients | [48,49] | |
| Phagocytes (neutrophils, macrophages) | Acts as an antioxidant/electron donor | [50,51,52,53] |
| Enhances motility/chemotaxis | [54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63] | |
| Enhances phagocytosis and ROS generation | [64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71] | |
| Enhances microbial killing | [54,55,57,58,70,72] | |
| Facilitates apoptosis and clearance | [71,73,74] | |
| Decreases necrosis/NETosis | [73,75] | |
| B- and T-lymphocytes | Enhances differentiation and proliferation | [62,63,76,77,78,79,80,81,82] |
| Enhances antibody levels | [78,83,84,85] | |
| Inflammatory mediators | Modulates cytokine production | [75,77,86,87,88,89,90,91,92,93,94] |
| Decreases histamine levels | [56,61,95,96,97,98,99,100,101] |
1 ROS, reactive oxygen species; NET, neutrophil extracellular trap. Note that many of these studies comprised marginal or deficient vitamin C status at baseline. Supplementation in situations of adequate vitamin C status may not have comparable effects.
Vitamin C has been found in studies to help fight different viral infections. (2) Other studies have found that vitamin C can cut the length of a cold in half. Additionally other studies have found vitamin C can help to prevent pneumonia. Studies have even found that vitamin C can help with tetanus. (3)
The next nutrient in Immunity Hx is vitamin D3. While most people think of D3 as just being for bone health there really is much more that D3 does for our health. Studies have indicated that having low vitamin D can increase the risk of infections. Vitamin D3 is interesting because unlike vitamin C it can be made by the body. (4) However, in my clinical experience reading over blood work I have found many people to have lower than optimum D levels that would suggest they would benefit from a D3 supplement. A number of studies have found an association between low levels of D3 and higher rates of infections such as the flu, vaginosis and HIV. (4) In one study vitamin D supplementation was found to decrease rates of seasonal influenza in school children. (5) Studies looking how vitamin D3 works have found that vitamin D3 is able to stimulate antimicrobial genes to activate. Thus vitamin D works to stimulate antimicrobial proteins and helps the body to fight off infections. (6) Overall vitamin D is an important supplement for our overall immunity. (4)
The last nutrient in Immunity Hx is zinc. Several studies have found that using zinc within 24 hours of catching a cold can decrease the length and severity of the cold symptoms. (7) Zinc like vitamin C is considered to be an essential nutrient for our health. Zinc deficiency like vitamin C is more common than we would expect and in fact it appears that as many as up to 2 billion people in the developing world may have a zinc deficiency. (8) Zinc deficiency has been found to affect multiple parts of the immune system. When zinc is deficient there’s parts of the immune system that are comprised and we become vulnerable to disease. (9) Overall studies have concluded that zinc is essential for our immune system to work to prevent illness. (1)
Overall the studies on vitamins C, D and zinc have one major thing to say. And that is these nutrients are all important for building our immune system and thus they all help us fight pathogens. Personally I like the Immunity Hx because it contains all 3 important nutrients in 1 supplement!
Our next blog will be something you may have heard of, Asthma!
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