Nutritional Deficiencies: Why they’re Still Common & How to Avoid Them
Never before in history has so much food been so readily available. With the click of a mouse, many of us can have nutritious, quick to prepare meals delivered right to our door. And, thanks to the internet, it’s easier than ever to learn about our bodies’ needs and what we should be eating. So nutritional deficiencies should be a thing of the past, shouldn’t they? That’s not what medical practitioners are seeing. In fact, nutritional deficiencies are on the rise.
The Most Common Nutritional Deficiencies Medical Practitioners Are Seeing Now:
Some of the most common nutritional deficiencies include folate which comes from leafy green vegetables; vitamins A and D which come from oily fish, orange fruits and vegetables and sunlight-grown mushrooms; zinc which is found in seeds and fish; as well as iron and vitamin B12 from properly digested fish, poultry and meat.
Since low levels of these nutrients can impact overall health and vitality, the rise in nutritional deficiencies is not only puzzling, it carries important ramifications for public health.
How to tell if you Have a Nutritional Deficiency
The signs of a nutritional deficiency will depend on which nutrients you are missing, however there are some common red flags including:
- Low energy levels
- ‘Foggy’ thinking
- Unexplained food cravings
- Digestive difficulties
- Skin problems (including unusual paleness)
- Hair loss, hair thinning
- Memory problems and concentration issues
- Heart palpitations
- Pale or vivid red tongue
- Small bumps on the back of your upper arms
- White spots, ridges or cracked finger nails
Why are we So Deficient These Days?
What’s behind the prevalence of nutritional shortages? Let’s take a look at some of the causes and how you can address them in your own life.
Soil quality
Did you know that the produce you ate as a child was likely more nutritious than the produce you buy at the supermarket today? It’s true. Modern farming practices have lowered soil quality, and, consequently, the nutrients in the food grown in that soil. Even the depth of the topsoil has reduced, meaning less accessible soil for roots to search for nutrients.
Food quality
Are you getting what you need from your food? Research suggests that the standard diet isn’t meeting most people’s needs. With supposedly healthy vegetables being grown too big too fast using toxic pesticides and fertilizers that feed the plant but do not allow for vitamins and minerals in the finished product, we are often eating plump, beautiful food that is simply lower in nutrition.
The 1992 Earth Summit Report stated that “Soil depletion levels of minerals in Europe (are) now at 72%, over the last 100 years”. That was almost 30 years ago and conventional farming practices have not improved. Thankfully, the organic food industry has boomed in the meantime, so getting your vegetables from a small-scale local organic producer has never been easier.
Fast food
Grocery stores are filled with an astonishing variety of food that can meet any dietary needs. But, let’s face it: sometimes it’s more convenient to get a fast-food meal. Of course, an occasional fast-food treat is fine, but relying too regularly on quick, low quality meals can lead to trouble. As a striking example, an often-overlooked component to dietary health is fibre, which is very low in fast food outlets. We need fibre to keep our gut healthy and cholesterol normal, but many people fall short of their daily needs. Whether families shift towards or away from home-prepared foods will partly dictate whether our nutritional intake improves or declines.
Diet Trends
If you make a drastic change in your diet, you have to keep an eye on your nutrient balance. For example, there are many great reasons to adopt a vegan or vegetarian diet. However, vegans are often short of vitamin B12 or zinc or iron, unless they make a specific effort to get enough of this essential vitamin through specific foods and supplementation. Let’s take a look at the popular Keto Diet: too much fat, not enough fiber and leafy greens delivering essential nutrients can start to affect other areas of your health like your bowels, your energy, your hormone metabolism and more. That’s why it’s essential to talk to a healthcare provider before making big changes to your diet.
Stress and digestive difficulties
It’s both ironic and frustrating: We need more nutrients when we’re stressed, but our bodies actually become less efficient at absorbing those vital nutrients when we’re under stress. And being short of some nutrients can raise our anxiety levels. The result can be a difficult cycle to break.
When you’re going through a hard time, it’s even mote important to focus on eating nutrient-dense foods in a calm state of mind, and to seek out any necessary supplements. However, when we are extremely busy it’s often difficult to even recognize that we need to take the time to look after our own needs.
Absorption Problems and Leaky Gut
Nutrients are absorbed into the body from our gut, but many factors can negatively affect gut health and lead to absorption difficulties. Insufficient chewing (do you know any fast eaters?), insufficient stomach acid and insufficient digestive enzymes are quite common in my patient population. In addition, without enough ‘good’ bacteria lining the gut (part of what’s called our ‘microbiome’), we can have trouble getting what we need from our meals as well as any supplements we take. Factors such as a high-carb diet or stress can lead to an imbalance in the microbiome and inflammation in the gut, hampering the absorption of nutrients.
More drastically, it can also lead to a condition called ‘”leaky gut” where instead of being absorbed through the cells that line the intestine as they should be, food molecules escape the gut in the gaps between those cells, straight into the bloodstream. Leaky gut can trigger an immune reaction and even contribute to autoimmune issues.
Even a seemingly healthy gut can’t absorb all of the nutrients in vitamin pills, particularly when there is stress or even mild digestive imbalances as mentioned above. Intravenous (IV) micronutrient therapy offers a way to ‘bypass’ these problems and fast-track vitamin delivery.
Counterfeit or Poor Quality Supplements
In today’s health-conscious world, supplements are big business. Unfortunately, some less-than-honest people take advantage of our eagerness to fix our health problems. That’s why it’s important to buy any supplements from a trusted, reputable source. It’s surprisingly easy to sell poor-quality, and even counterfeit supplements online. Supplements aren’t subject to the same strict regulations as medications, so it’s important to know who you’re buying from.
Medications
Several commonly prescribed conventional medications can lower your ability to absorb nutrients. Common medications that reduce nutrient absorption include stomach acid inhibiting drugs, anti-diabetes medications and blood pressure medications. If you take any form of medication, be sure to review any possible dietary and nutritional implications with your healthcare practitioner. If you are curious about what nutrients may be leeched by your medications, you can check out this online resource for more info.