B12 Deficiency
According to the CDC, vitamin B12 deficiency ranks sixth in the most common nutritional deficiencies in the USA. B12 has had a lot of attention because it is very common for vegetarians, vegans, and the elderly population to have B12 deficiency. Weakness, numbness/tingling in hands in feet, loss of balance, depression, the tongue can become red and swollen. [1] Also, confusion, mind fog, and forgetfulness may be symptoms of B12 deficiency. [1] B12 is used to produce blood cells, DNA, and for proper nerve function. [1]
Vegans must get B12 through supplements because B12 is found in animal products only.
Medications can affect B12 deficiency. Aspirin, antacids, and metformin is a common culprit that can cause B12 absorption problems. [1]
According to the NIH, liver, eggs, clams, trout, salmon, tuna, beef, milk, yogurt, ham and chicken are all good sources of B12. [2] When making your smoothies look for almond milk that has been fortified with B12 and you can also add yogurt to your smoothies. Also, some cereals have been fortified with B12. Tip: look for methylcobalamin over cyanocobalamin because cyanocobalamin is made in a lab and methylcobalamin is naturally occurring.
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Further reading:
- http://www.doctoroz.com/episode/americas-b12-deficiency?video_id=1847956079001
- https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminB12-HealthProfessional/
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VITAMIN C DEFICIENCY
Going along with our exploration of vitamin and mineral deficiencies common in the US, we are ready to explore vitamin C. Some hail vitamin C as one of the most important vitamins to keep our body healthy. There is a lot of hype about vitamin C, we know it helps us fight colds but what else does this vitamin do for us?
We don’t naturally make vitamin C and need to get it from our diet. Vitamin C is considered water soluble, which is thought as easy to secrete through urine if we have too much of it in our body. Vitamin C is important in making collagen which is crucial in making many and repairing many types of body tissue. [1] It also helps maintain bones and teeth. [1] Vitamin C is also a known antibacterial, antiviral, anti-fungal, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and even helps to detoxify the body. [2] That is a pretty amazing list of qualities!
Antioxidants are vital for maintaining health because they neutralize free radicals. Basically, free radicals are dangerous because they have an unpaired electron. This causes them roam the body, stealing electrons from healthy cells, turning the healthy tissue unstable and results in a cascade of damage to healthy cells. Antioxidants, such as vitamin C give an electron to the free radicals before they cause damage to your bodies tissue. Sun, smoking, smog, charbroiling, cellular metabolism, and many other sources cause free radicals to enter the body. Because of this neutralizing affect of vitamin C to free radicals, the science community is exploring if vitamin C therapy could help prevent diseases caused by oxidative stress, such as cancer, heart disease, and macular degeneration.
If that is not enough reasons to be sure we are getting enough vitamin C add this to the list: vitamin C is also known to help the body absorb iron. To find out why iron is important check out this blog.
Vitamin C can be found in the following foods. Raw is always better than cooked or processed.
Vitamin C sources:
- citrus fruit
- green peppers
- watermelon
- papaya
- grapefruit
- cantaloupe
- berries
- kiwi
- mango
- broccoli
- tomatoes
- Brussels sprouts
- cauliflower
- cabbage
- apples
- asparagus
- melon
- kale
- peppers
- pineapple
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K2, THE COMPANION TO VITAMIN D
The benefits of vitamin D have already been discussed here. We know that vitamin D is important for bone, muscle, and nerve health but we have to be careful because vitamin D helps absorb calcium but calcium can also be absorbed in places we might not want calcium build up. One of the places we want to avoid calcium absorption is in your artery walls.
K2 seems to be a director of sorts. It tells the calcium where to go, vitamin D is so good at helping the body absorb calcium but K2 is vital to make sure the calcuim goes to the right place.
One example I can tell you about happens in football players. There is a common injury called a quadriceps contusion (bruise). That is why they have pads there. Well, if a player keeps getting hit in the quad, eventually the inflammation response will linger. As a side affect of uncontrolled inflammation is that the body might lay down some calcium in that area. It is just something the body does, it thinks it is helping resolve the issue. The same thing can happen in your artery walls. Plaque can build and inflammation sets in, calcium forms on the wall and the artery wall can stretch properly because the calcium deposits.
K2 helps the body direct calcium deposit in the places we should lay down calcium and not in the places we shouldn’t.
If you eat beef, drink milk, or use butter opt for grass fed. It has more K2. Also, always get K2 when ingesting vitamin D and calcium.
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ONE THIRD ARE DEFICIENT IN VITAMIN D
According to the Centers for Disease Control, 32 percent of adults and children are deficient in vitamin D. Vitamin D is not only important for bones, as it helps calcium absorption along with K2 but it also needed by muscles, nerves, and the immune system. [1] Vitamin D actually acts like a hormone, it is a unique “vitamin”. It is a fat soluble vitamin which means you can take too much of it. There is also a lot of conflicting information on recommended amounts of Vitamin D. It is best to talk to a doctor to find out if you are low and to find out how much is recommended for you. From everything I have learned we need to be very weary of supplements because they are man made and we don’t know the quality or the bioavailability (how easy we absorb that specific supplement). Also, there are two forms of D- D2 and D3, it appears that D3 is much more bioavailable. Many vitamin D sources don’t specify what kind of vitamin D is present.
Humans can make vitamin D from the sun. There are a lot of factors that go into how much sun you should get. According to the Vitamin D council, you should expose yourself to sunlight but only half of the amount of time it would take your skin to get pink. Factors like time of year, distance from the equator, darkness of skin, and amount of skin exposed all play a factor in how much Vitamin D you will produce. However, it’s pretty clear that if your skin is getting pink or you start tanning that you are probably overexposed and you don’t need to spend that much time in the sun to get the vitamin D. You might even be setting yourself up for skin cancer.
When making smoothies, look for OJ that is fortified with vitamin D. They have been able to test that your body does absorb the vitamin D found in fortified OJ- specifically “1000 IU/240 mL orange juice for 12 wk”. [2]
I am an advocate of getting vitamins naturally through food, unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a lot of great food sources of Vitamin D.
These are the ones commonly recommended:
Cold Water Fish: Salmon, Mackerel, Tuna, Sadines, Harring, Cod
Grass-fed is better: Beef, Beef Liver, Milk, and Butter
Egg yolks
Fortified cereal, OJ, Milk
Mushrooms also have smaller amounts of Vitamin D
Interesting enough vitamin D has a companion, K2 that should be taken with it to prevent calcification in places you might not want calcification, like your artery walls. See that blog here.
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Iron Deficencies
Iron is the pick this week. Iron levels are often low in women who are child bearing age. For these women, iron is the second most common deficiency, following behind B6. Children and adolescents are also prone to iron deficiency.
Iron helps transport oxygen in the blood and in the muscle. Iron is also vital for some important enzymes to function. Low iron levels, it is one of the most common reasons we suffer from low energy levels.
The problem is it can be dangerous to just grab a pill to fix low iron because iron can be hard to eliminate from the body if you take too much. This can cause iron overload. So we must be careful when using an iron pill supplement. Because iron can cause a toxicity, you should consult a doctor and have your blood work read to determine if an iron supplement is for right for you.
I have described in previous blog that when we consume nutrients from actual food sources we receive a symphony of nutrition. It turns out vitamin C helps us absorb iron. There are also different forms of iron and it is thought the type of iron found in meat is more easily absorbed than when found in plant sources.
To help insure I get iron, I add spinach in my eggs, kale and spirulina in my smoothies, bok choy in my stir-fry, and lentils in my soup.
Animal sources of iron: beef, pork, eggs, shrimp, oysters, and chicken
Plant sources of iron: spirulina, lentils, quinoa, sweet potato, beans, green beans, kale, spinach, whole wheat bread, dates, prunes, artichoke, peas, bok choy, parsley, strawberries, many dried fruits, nuts and seeds, cacao, tomato paste, and soy
A more complete list of iron sources:
http://www.redcrossblood.org/learn-about-blood/health-and-wellness/iron-rich-foods/
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Nutritinal Deficiencies in the US- B6
I am going to be highlighting one nutrient every week. I thought it would make since to start with the most common deficiencies first. Through the years of studying nutrition, I have discovered that when our diet lacks certain required nutrients, the deficiencies can manifest outwardly in our bodies. Whether we feel tired, mentally and/or physically or our hair and nails don’t grow correctly or it is even possible for body systems to shut down if they lack the proper nutrients.
According to the CDC, B6 is number the one most prevalent deficiency. So what does this vitamin do for us…let’s find out!
According to the National Institutes for Health, vitamin B6 is needed for metabolism, which is important for energy production, it also helps with enzyme reactions, and assists your body making immune cells that you need to fight infections. You can think of it like this: If your body was a city the roles of B6 are required for your power company (making energy from food), the managers of your power company (co-enzymes assist with the reactions that make energy) and your military (guarding us from invaders). Vitamin B6 also helps with oxygen transportation in your body by helping make hemoglobin.
So now you can see this vitamin is vital to our bodies and it is pretty unnerving that many of us are walking around with less B6 than we require. So what can we do about it?! Many people might rush want to go to the pharmacy and head to the vitamin isle. The problem is that most of these vitamins are made from synthetic sources.
Why would we allow our vitamins to come from a lab when mother nature has made them perfectly presented in the foods we eat?! Perfectly presented- what exactly does that mean? Mother nature has done some pretty great things for us to help us with nutrition. When we eat a food it is often designed that we don’t overeat it. Imagine eating a bunch of bananas, eventually you will stop eating because you will get too full and your appetite will go away. Vitamins don’t have those safe guards built in. It is easy to intake amounts of supplements your body is not designed to ingest when you take them in an isolated pill form. Isolated, that word is also important. Often times we know that certain nutrients are best absorbed when consumed with other nutrients. Often these pill forms don’t provide those nutrient combinations. Even worse, some supplements are not presented correctly, the chemical structure of the synthetic supplement doesn’t resemble the structure of the naturally occurring nutrient. Often our bodies don’t know what to do with these synthetic supplements and may not even absorb them.
How much B6 do we need, according to the Mayo clinic:
“The recommended daily intake of vitamin B6 is as follows: 1.3 milligrams in men and women ages 19-50; 1.7 milligrams in men aged 51 and older; and 1.3 milligrams in women aged 51 and older. The maximum daily intake of vitamin B6 in adults and pregnant or breastfeeding women over age 18 is 100 milligrams.”
What foods should I eat to help me get the B6 I need?
Sources that can be added to smoothies: banana, carrots, avocado, spinach, prunes, and prune juice.
Sources you can eat: potatoes (regular and sweet), plantain, bran, tuna, salmon, grass feed beef, turkey and garlic.
The prune juice or carrot juice can be used as the liquid portion in your smoothie. Also, when you drink a smoothie you are taking in a symphony of nutrients that your body needs to function properly.
Let’s get blending! Look for a high a B6 content smoothie recipe in the smoothie resources area soon!
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What Base Should I use for my Smoothies? (Part I)
Today we have so many options of liquids to use in our smoothies. The liquid portion is vital because we need liquid to allow the blades to move freely and breakdown the fruits and vegetables we have placed in the blender.
Here are some of the liquids I have used, they each have their own advantages.
ORANGE JUICE: This one is a good one for beginners. This will help the overall taste of the smoothie become sweet. Be careful using this one if you have a propensity to suffer from acid-relux. Oranges are acidic by nature. Obviously, if you are using a protein powder that has a flavor that may conflict with OJ, such as chocolate, this might not be a good option. In general, there are chocolate, mocha, coconut and other similar “themes” and also a fruit based flavor targets you can use for smoothies. OJ is a good one if you are trying to get a fruity taste. I buy the not from concentration 100% juice OJ option. Beware not all OJ is created the same, spend the extra couple dollars and get a good one. You are worth it! OJ is high in vitamin C, which is a great antioxidant! Folate, thiamine and potassium are also found in OJ.
Prune Juice: I have actually only recently started to use this one. It provides a nice fruity flavor. I had heard about the benefits of prune juice for years. Mainly hearing that prune juice was good for digestion. It was not until I was studying about both vitamin B6 and iron deficiencies that I discovered prune juice is high in both of these nutrients. It is also a good source of potassium. I have now added this juice into my smoothie regimen permanently. For nutrition: iron, B6, manganese, potassium and fiber.
SOY MILK: This is one I used for many, many years. It was actually my go to for my smoothies. Sadly, there has been some controversy recently about ingesting large amounts of soy. Some people believe the estrogen found in soy negatively affects our bodies, men and women alike. One claim is that the estrogen in soy can interact with our own estrogen receptors and can promote breast cancer. I stand by the moderation is key theory and I am not quite willing to accept the dangers of soy as fact- I have switch to primary almond milk just as a precaution. As far as taste, I have always had luck with soy. It goes in every kind of smoothie I can think of. I am pretty “hardcore” and go with the organic, non-GMO, unsweetened option. There is a sweetened soy milk that you might want to buy if you plan to drink it outside of your smoothie. For nutrition here is what we have: a good source of protein, vitamin K, folate, iron, manganese, phosphorous and copper.
ALMOND MILK: As I mentioned. This is my new go to for my smoothies. It lasts a long time in the refrigerator, it has a great taste in smoothies and goes with almost anything. Be aware almond milk however, is not a good source of protein. Also, buy the organic, non-GMO variety. I go with unsweetedned but like I said with the soy, if you plan to drink outside of smoothies, you might want a flavored one. For nutrition: almond milk is a good source of vitamin A, D, E and calcium.
Be sure to check back for:
What Base Should I use for my Smoothies? (Part II) where we will go over cows milk, coconut milk and other juices– their benefits and draw backs.
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We Live in a “Food Desert”
What does a food desert even mean?!?! It is a phrase that has been born out of Americas obsession with fast, convenient, and cheap food. Corn is a crop that is subsidized by the government. The reason, as it was explained to me, is partially because corn can be harvested and then preserved to last for years after the harvest. When people are investing in a crop they want to make sure the investment yields the most product as possible. If we grew spinach, we might not sell it all in the week or so window we have to sell it before it spoils. If you have corn you can dehydrate it and make things like cereals and other products that have a very long time to sell before it goes bad. The thing is, the process of preserving the food takes away from the nutritional content. When you heat something, the molecular bonds bonds break and change configurations in the process. Sometimes the food producers will add synthetic vitamins into the processed and preserved food because they know they have ruined a significant amount of the natural nutritional value in the food. There is a lot of concern that these synthetic vitamins do not react in your body as a natural, food based nutrient would.
Also, chemical preservatives are used in our conveniently prepackaged and ready to eat foods. I will go in depth more about this in another blog because this is a very interesting and hot topic where there is a lot of concern and much confusion too. Ultimately, I believe, that our body is delicate and the least amount of foreign chemicals we put in our body the more natural state our body will remain in. The whole point of this topic is to simply highlight that day in and day out we eat these foods that are lacking proper nutrition because they are convenient. Our body has a very long list of REQUIRED nutrients, also antioxidants are so vital to preventing disease states and can be found in fresh fruits and vegetables. When you make a smoothie it is so easy to get these very nutrients and antioxidants that your body NEEDS. A five minute smoothie in the morning routine can literally add quality of life for years to come.
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