LiveLikeTim
Inspirational Life Wellness
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| Health & Weight Loss Types of Essential Nutrients Deficient Food & Supplementation |
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| Essential 3 Pak |
Types of Nutrition |
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4 Main Categories |
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Proper nutrition is more than just eating vegetables or taking a multivitamin. Sure, those things help, but you need to supply your body with a lot more nutrients than just what they can provide. Our bodies are sophisticated factories that can manufacture and produce an astounding array of compounds like proteins and chemicals that even Dupont would be envious of. However, there are 4 main types of nutrients that your body can’t synthesize and needs to get from outside sources:
Most people are familiar with vitamins and minerals, but few people know much about essential fats or essential proteins. I’ve written a brief introduction to the 4 types of nutrients below. Vitamins A vitamin is a term encompassing a large range of chemical compounds that are used for a million and one critical functions in the body. Vitamins are mostly obtained through fruits and vegetables in the diet, and while eating with lots of plant life can help, these days your diet isn’t enough (more on this soon). For some odd reason the public has been scared into thinking that vitamins can be “toxic” if taken in large amount and therefore should be avoided. Malarkey! Hogwash! Only HUGE amounts of certain vitamins (A & E) over extended periods of time will make you sick, and even then you just need to stop taking it for a few weeks and you’re back to normal. Pretty ironic since prescription drugs kill over 750,000 Americans every year and less than 10 people have been killed by vitamin overdoses in the past two decades! (No wonder you see so many commercials about class action lawsuits because of prescription drug side effects.) Nobody is Prilosec or Aspirin deficient, but 100% of healthcare patients are nutrient deficient. To me it’s not worth the risk (or constipation, depression, and rectal itching side effects) of the unnatural prescription drugs when I can take life supporting natural supplements and get a better result. Nature cures nature. The prescription drug experiment is failing miserably before our eyes and the nutritional resurgence is underway! One last, VERY IMPORTANT point – the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA, aka Ridiculous Daily Amount) listed on food labels is the minimum amount needed for a person to avoid serious medical complications. It is NOT the optimal amount needed to be healthy and should not be used as a guide to nutrient intake. The RDA was established by looking at medical conditions, such as rickets caused by vitamin D deficiency, and analyzing the smallest amount of vitamin D needed by the majority of the population so they don’t show signs of rickets. The RDA was established decades ago and is woefully out of outdated. For example, a healthy dose of vitamin D is closer to 1000 times more than the RDA. In other words, don’t think that your morning bowl of Total is really getting your 100% of all the vitamins you need to be healthy. Minerals Minerals are natural elements found in the environment. You probably remember many of them from the 8th grade when you learned about the Periodic Table. It’s easiest to think of minerals like tiny bits of different rocks. Unless you’re a health nerd like myself you don’t need to know the difference between vitamins and minerals. They do basically the same thing, kinda. You just need to know that you need them and they are really important to your health. Minerals are like dimmer switches of the body, if you get enough you push the switch up and your body glows brighter. It is important to know that the form of the mineral determines if it can be absorbed and utilized by the body, otherwise you could go out and eat a mouthful of dirt to get all your minerals. Since you’re not a plant (unless Carrot Top is reading this) your minerals must be combined with something to be useful. Plenty of supplements contain lots of minerals, but unless those minerals are in the right form they are useless to your body. Mineral balance is nearly as critical as the amount of minerals you take in. Your body tries to keep minerals at certain ratios for proper functioning. For example, calcium:magnesium should be in a 2:1 ratio but most people are significantly out of whack with an 18:1 ratio. Some minerals like calcium are easily stored by the body, while minerals like magnesium are quickly eliminated. To correct the ratio you’d have to go on a pretty hardcore magnesium supplementation routine to get the body back in balance (see the Phase One: Essential Nutrients Routine). Several studies have been conducted and on average between 60-85% of Americans are deficient in most minerals. Keep in mind that those studies were based on governmental RDA recommendations, not healthy levels of intake, so you can bet nearly 100% of us are mineral deficient. Is that why we are thought of as dim by the rest of the world? Essential Fats/Oils Think of essential fats/oils (essential fatty acids is the proper term) like the oil the Wizard gave the Tin Man help him move again. This nutrient is famous for a toolbox full of bodily skills, but the most widely regarded is the reduction of inflammation. I’m not talking about the swelling you get from bumping your head, I’m referring to internal inflammation. Many doctors point out that inflammation is a serious medical issue, especially for heart disease, America’s #1 killer. There are two types of essential fats - Omega-3 and Omega-6. Omega-3 has become popular lately, and for good reason! Most people get enough Omega-6 in their diet, but Omega-3 is a pansy and gets destroyed easily. Our ancestors used to eat the food close to the time they caught or picked it, so they got plenty of Omega-3 in their diet. Since Omega-3 is damaged because of time, heat, and processing the boxed, cooked and transported food of today contains almost no Omega-3s. It’s so fickle that it’s even difficult to get an undamaged Omega-3 supplement. Most of the products out there are rancid and cause more harm than good. Plus, they make your burps smell like a third world fish market. Essential Proteins You caught me, I’m really talking about amino acids, not protein. Proteins are the lumber that builds your body’s palace. Nearly all tissues are made of proteins. When you eat protein (like chicken, eggs, fish, beef, or koala bear) your body breaks the protein down into the amino acid building blocks and then reassembles the amino acids back into proteins that your body needs. There are 22 amino acids and your body can synthesize all except for 8 of them, which must be obtained through food. Think of the 22 amino acids like the letters of an alphabet and the 8 essential amino acids are the vowels. Just like putting together consonants and vowels to make a word, your body puts together non-essential and essential amino acids to make proteins. Without the vowels of an alphabet your words would sound like the slurring of a drunken sailor. Likewise, you need all 8 essential amino acids to build the right types of proteins for your body’s tissues. Since the Standard American Diet is meat rich many people get enough of all 8 essential amino acids. Issues arise only when your body demands proteins when they aren’t available, such as when you exercise heavily or if you eat a vegetarian diet. Amino acid supplementation is key in those instances. |
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