#TuesdayTip – Prevent Nutritional Deficiencies to Prevent Illness

Happy & Healthy Tuesday my friends! Today’s tip is all about vitamins! I know…you are thinking “I don’t NEED to take vitamins, I feel perfectly fine!” Just hear me out…and let me share a bit about why vitamins & minerals are so crucial to properly functioning bodies.

Vitamins are required by the body for physiological maintenance and growth. To qualify as a vitamin, a substance must not only be an organic compound from a plant or animal; it must be essential to human health. Our bodies can not create vitamins so they must be obtained from the diet or in dietary supplements.

Vitamins must also function with enzymes. Enzymes are responsible for all oxidation processes in the body and contribute to growth, metabolism, cellular reproduction and even digestion.

Did you know that the origination of the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) came from the need to establish a requirement for the soldiers in WWII?  The recommended levels of these nutrients were designed to prevent deficiency.

Without the proper nourishment our cells will start to function more slowly until proper nourishment is received or the cell actually dies. Vitamin deficiency doesn’t happen overnight and you may not see symptoms for weeks or months. Cells will continue to function but at lower efficiency and will continue to decline or die, which will then effect different tissues and organs.

With the industrialized culture we live in, it is crucial to take a basic multi-vitamin and mineral to give our bodies all the nutrients it needs to function properly. It’s virtually impossible for us to get all the nutrition our bodies need from food alone with; soil & water depletion, food & environmental toxins, shipping & processing, pesticides, lack of calories & even exercise can all cause nutritional deficiencies. According to a 2009 report from the CDC, only 14% of U.S. adults and less than 10% of U.S. teens are eating the recommended minimum of two daily servings of fruit and at least three daily servings of vegetables.

“A growing body of evidence suggests that while the old daily allowances are fine for warding off acute deficiencies, higher intakes may help combat everything from bone loss to cancer.”

Human body weight is equal to only 4 to 5 percent mineral matter, but minerals are vital to overall mental and physical well-being. Minerals partially make up bones, teeth, soft tissue, muscle, blood and nerve cells. Similar to vitamins, minerals spur many biological reactions in our bodies, like muscle response, sending messages to and from our nervous system, digestion & metabolism, and utilization of nutrients in foods we eat. Minerals and vitamins work together in our bodies. For example, phosphorus helps B complex vitamins be absorbed in our bodies and Vitamin C increases the absorption of iron and calcium absorption would not happen without Vitamin D.

So, as you can see it’s critical that we supply our bodies with the proper nutrition and the easiest way to do that is with supplementation. Now, I’m talking about just taking any supplementation either. It has been proved by the FDA that supplements sold by Walmart, Target, CVS, & GNC do not contain the ingredients listed on the label. Instead, some of these supplements that say they contain certain ingredients like Ginko Biloboa actually have 0% of it and instead contain cheap fillers like wheat & soy powders. Our bodies also have trouble absorbing minerals especially if you are purchasing supplements that have cheap fillers for ingredients or are made up with products that our bodies don’t recognize. Vitamins like Centrum & One-A-Day have less than 10% absorption rate, which means if you are taking vitamins like these you are literally wasting your money.

Dietary supplements may reduce the cost of healthcare

According the the CDC, 75% of total health care expenses are spent on caring for people with preventable diseases! For instance, the number of U.S. adults over the age of 55 with coronary heart disease is expected to rise 13%. IF, these same U.S. adults with coronary heart disease would take a multi-vitamin & mineral at preventative intake levels, the risk of having a coronary heart disease related medical event can be reduced by 11.2%. This would save the healthcare system (and your pockets) $26.6 billion over the next 7 years!

A study found that giving the Medicare age population about 1,800 mg of omega-3 fats a day would prevent 374,000 hospitalizations from heart disease over 5 years and the Medicare savings from reduced hospital and physician expenses would be $3.2 billion.

Another study found that 44 million women of childbearing age are not taking folic acid. If only 11.3 million of them began taking just 400 mcg of folic acid on a daily basis before conception, we could prevent birth defects called neural tube defects in 600 babies which would save $3.5 billion in lifetime healthcare costs for these children.

92% of us are deficient in one or more critical nutrients at the RDA level, which is the minimum amount necessary to prevent deficiency diseases – diseases that are the result of not getting enough vitamins and minerals.

This is the only brand of vitamins that I recommend for my friends, family & clients because they have the science and proven studies to back up the science behind them. Even if you don’t purchase what I recommend, please do your research and make sure you are getting the maximum amount of absorption rates from your supplements and that they don’t contain junk fillers and actually have what they say they have in them.

Feel free to contact me if you have questions about nutritional deficiencies.

Stay Healthy my Friends!

XO,

Carrie A Groff
– Healthy, Fit & Barefoot!