5 Reasons You May Be Deficient in Critical Vitamins And Minerals
Micronutrient Deficiency—sounds scary, doesn’t it?
Well, if you are not currently taking steps to avoid it, then it can be a little bit frightening. Whenever your body isn’t getting enough essential micronutrients (vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids) it cannot perform optimally.
It might start as just a few sleepless nights, or poor nail or hair strength. But when the deficiencies in vitamins and minerals that are causing these problems are not corrected, in time they can lead to the numerous health conditions and lifestyle diseases plaguing America today including: cancer, obesity, diabetes, or osteoporosis (which Mira was diagnosed with at age 30, and reversed in only 2 years).
Here are 5 reasons you may be deficient in Essential Micronutrients…
1. Statistics Say You Are
That’s right! The USDA actually reports that, statistically speaking, you have a greater than 90% chance of being deficient in your vitamins and minerals.
2. You Exercise
While it is true that exercise is good for the body, it is also important to know that vigorous exercise depletes the body of essential micronutrients (think Gatorade pouring out through pores of athletes in those commercials). Electrolytes (a fancy name for micronutrients) are depleted rapidly, while antioxidants (such as vitamins A, C, E, CoQ10 and alpha lipoic acid) are utilized more quickly, in order to reduce the cellular oxidative damage caused by exercise.
3. You Follow a Diet Plan
Did you know that while most diet programs succeed at getting you to lose weight, they also have the potential to leave you more micronutrient deficient than before you started? So, while you succeed at losing a pant size or two, you may be increasing your risk of a deficiency-induced slower metabolism, increased food cravings, or even a heart condition or diabetes.
Our recently published study in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition revealed that 4 popular diet plans, even when followed and analyzed down to the last grain of salt, leave dieters on average 56% deficient in their essential vitamins and minerals. And if programs written by world-renowned nutrition specialists can’t fill your micronutrient needs, then what do you think the chances are that you fill them without even trying? Not good.
4. You Crave Salty or Sweet Foods
Does that little voice in your head ever call out for a sweet or salty treat? Well, the Crave Cycle may be to blame! When you eat something sweet and sugar goes into your body, the sugar blocks the absorption of essential minerals, including calcium and magnesium. And scientific studies have proven that a deficiency in these two micronutrients actually causes sugar cravings! That’s right, the act of eating sugar literally makes you want more sugar.
If your body cries out for salty snacks over sweet ones, research shows that salt cravings are often due to a calcium deficiency. When you eat something salty the sodium temporarily increases calcium in the blood, which tricks your body into thinking the calcium deficiency is over. However, while this may temporarily satisfy your salt craving, the secreted bone calcium leads to an exacerbated calcium deficiency and further salt cravings. This viscous Crave Cycle is a definitely a deficiency indicator.
5. Life Can Be Stressful
Stress is something that most, if not all of us have in our lives more often than we would like. As it turns out, stress depletes the body’s resources of water-soluble micronutrients such as the B vitamins, vitamin C and all of the minerals.
Do any of those 5 factors affect your life?
If they do (and they likely do) then you may well be deficient in some of your essential micronutrients. Improving your diet, changing a few lifestyle habits and taking a properly formulated multivitamin would be a very wise solution, so that these nutritional gaps don’t create lifestyle conditions and diseases in your body.
To find out more, we suggest you take our FREE 50 questions Micronutrient Sufficiency Assessment Quiz. Knowing whether or not your body is getting the essential micronutrients it needs to perform optimally is the first step towards becoming the vital, vivacious, healthiest YOU that you can be! What are you waiting for? Take your FREE assessment here now!
Mira Calton, CN and Jayson Calton, PhD
Mira Calton, CN and Jayson Calton, PhD work side by side as the founders of Calton Nutrition. The Caltons are among the world’s leading experts on the topics of weight management, lifestyle medicine and micronutrient deficiency. Their high success rate working with adults and children to achieve sustainable weight loss and reverse health and disease conditions has made their consultancy highly sought after by celebrities, athletes and top corporate executives around the world. It is their belief that becoming micronutrient sufficient is the first step towards preventing and reversing many of today’s most prevalent health conditions and diseases.