When trying to eat healthy and exercise, you may end up cutting out crucial ingredients, resulting in nutritional deficiencies. This may lead to experiencing fatigue, hair loss, shortness of breath, poor concentration, pale skin, heart palpitations, or general body weakness. Read on for nine ways you can prevent nutritional deficiency.
1. Eat magnesium-rich foods
Magnesium is crucial for the proper functioning of the body. It removes toxins from the body and prevents cell damage from heavy metals and harmful environmental chemicals.
A magnesium deficiency could result in cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, and diabetes Mellitus. Low magnesium intake could cause poor sleeping habits, weight gain, stress, and anxiety.
A magnesium deficiency is rare as this nutrient is readily available in brown rice, milk chocolate, and coffee. However, individuals suffering from fat malabsorption diseases such as pancreatic illnesses and bowel inflammatory are more susceptible to the deficit as magnesium is absorbed via the small intestines and colon.
To prevent magnesium deficiency, you should consume foods with minimal processing, such as whole grains, nuts, leafy vegetables, and legumes. Be sure to avoid excessive fiber consumption as it interferes with magnesium absorption, especially when you are at risk of magnesium deficiency. Visit here to get leads on essential supplements that could help boost magnesium levels in your body.
2. Consume calcium-rich foods
Calcium facilitates the development of strong teeth and bones, prevents certain kinds of cancer, regulates muscle contractions, and protects you from heart diseases and osteoporosis. A calcium deficiency exposes you to many health risks, especially when you have kidney diseases, lactose intolerance, or estrogen deficiency. Be sure to include leafy greens such as kales and spinach, yogurt, milk, legumes, seafood, and fruits in your diet to curb calcium deficiency.
3. Get sufficient vitamin D
Vitamin D is crucial for skeletal growth and strong bones and teeth as it boosts calcium absorption in the body. Vitamin D deficiency is common among the elderly and individuals with fat malabsorption or renal diseases. There are two forms of vitamin D, including D2 and D3.
You can get D2 from plant foods. D3 often comes from animal foods such as eggs, liver, and fish. You could also get a healthy amount of vitamin D from basking under the sun for at least 15 minutes. Be sure to get at least 5,000 to 10,000 IU of D3 for a month if you are diagnosed with vitamin D deficiency.
4. Eat potassium-rich foods
Eating meals rich in potassium facilitate cardiac and skeletal muscle contraction, help maintain proper pH balance, and electrolyte and lower blood pressure. Severe illnesses, diarrhea, vomiting, or medication could result in potassium deficiency. You should consider taking foods rich in potassium to boost its levels in the body.
Be sure to include either nuts, legumes, sweet potatoes, leafy vegetables, okra, mushrooms, seeds, or asparagus in your meals to provide potassium in the body. Consider investing in potassium supplements if you live in warmer climates or are highly active, as you may lose potassium from the body through sweat.
5. Boost iron levels
Iron is an essential micronutrient that helps strengthen the immune system, boosts the production of red blood cells, and fights fatigue. An iron deficiency could lead to contraction of anemia and general body weakness. Women, kids, and individuals who have gone through kidney dialysis, gastric bypass surgery, or poor eating habits are more vulnerable to iron deficiency.
To prevent iron deficiency, women should consume 5 to 8 grams a day and 27 grams per day when pregnant, men 8 to 11 mg/day, and 8 to 15 mg/day for younger or older adults. Some foods you need to add to your diet to increase iron levels include poultry, nuts, beans, bread, egg yolks, garden cress seeds, pasta, dried fruits, and dark leafy greens.
6. Eat a fiber-rich diet
Fiber lowers the risk of contracting type 2 diabetes, curbs insulin spikes, slows down fat absorption, and improves digestion. However, most people fail to include fiber in their meals for fear of increasing calorie and sugar intake in the body to avoid adding weight. This leads to fiber deficiency.
To prevent fiber deficiency, men and women should ensure that they consume 38 grams and 25 grams of fiber respectively in a day. You can get soluble and insoluble fiber from fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, oatmeal, and brown rice, to mention a few.
7. Consume omega-3 and other healthy fats
Lack of essential fatty acids in the body results in reduced satiety, imbalanced blood sugar levels, inflammation, and poor immunity. Foods rich in fats and omega-3 reduce depression, triglycerides and improve brain health. You could get omega-3 fatty acids from oil, krill, fish, and sea algae oils. Other sources of healthy fats include avocados, coconut oil, fatty fish, almonds, olive oil, and seeds.
8. Eat food rich in vitamin B12
Vitamin B12 helps the body perform enzymatic reactions to develop energy. You should ensure that your meal constitutes at least 2.4 ug per day and 6-9 ug per day for senior adults. Elderly persons are more vulnerable to vitamin B12 deficiency due to the decrease in the production of hydrochloric acid. Some sources of vitamin B12 include poultry, eggs, salmon or codfish, milk, almond, and ready-to-eat cereals.
9. Stay hydrated
Dehydration leads to constipation, dry skin, reduced energy, bloating, and slowed metabolism. Be sure to drink 64 to 100 ounces of water per day to eliminate dehydration. You could also take other healthy beverages such as coffee and tea in moderation to remain hydrated.
Endnote
The best way to prevent nutritional deficiency is by indulging in a balanced diet. Familiarize yourself with the above tips to prevent nutritional deficiencies for a healthier you.
