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Essential Vitamin and Minerals |
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Furthermore, these experts will say, "if you take extra vitamins or minerals you or wasting your money." I'd like to analyze each of these contentions. Are the experts right in saying it is possible foremost Americans to get enough vitamins and minerals in their regular diet? According to the Surgeon General's Reports on Nutrition and Health, we are eating too much fat. We are also eating too little fiber. The combination of low fiber, refined carbohydrates and fat is contributing to increased risk of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes along with weight gain. Externally, our beauty can be affected as well. It has been said time after time, "beauty is just a mirror of what you put into your body." If the Surgeon General doesn't think the regular American diet is all that healthy, and, in fact, links our diet to poor health, then why are experts still down - grading vitamins and minerals?
Let's analyze what experts consider a
good diet and see if it will supply adequate amounts of vitamins and minerals needed for
good health and beautiful skin. What exactly is an adequate supply of vitamins and
minerals? If you look on the label of any supplement, you will notice that beside the
amount of any nutrient, there is a figure for the USRDA (the United States Recommended
Daily Allowance). The USRDA for adults is a figure arrived at after much debate between
scientists and politicians. Under some conditions it might be possible to get 100 percent
of the USRDA levels of vitamins and minerals in a revised well-balanced diet, (which
hasn't been changed since your grandparents' days). But is this diet what we want or need
for optimal health?
We are not eating the same foods as our great-parents ate, nor are we living the same lifestyles. Our earth's environment is different as is our work environment. Foods are often picked before becoming ripe, unless you grow your own fruits and vegetables as your grandparents and their parents once did. When we eat food picked before it is ripe, it decreases the nutrient content of that food. Many of today's foods are processed with extra ingredients as fillers and preservatives - compare this to foods your grandmother prepared fresh. An example is a loaf of bread which, in your grandmother's day, was prepared with only wheat, water, butter, baker's yeast and some sweetener to help the yeast rise. Today, a modern loaf of break contains over 100 ingredients including preservatives, coloring agents, insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and chemical residues from various packaging and cleaning procedures. These multiple ingredients may complicate digestion and increase the risk of the development of allergies. Certain additives to the food chain have increased our need for certain vitamins and minerals. An example of this is the hydrazine residues left by fungicides used by farmers. Fungicides are taken into the plant along with the food products and become part of the food we later eat. It has been shown that hydrazine compounds are in competition with and increase our need for vitamin B6. What other chemicals have found their way into the food, and what needs have they created that are not met by an adequate diet? Here are some other comparative nutrient values in today's American diet: Green peas, cooked and garden fresh will lose 83 percent of their value and canned peas will lose 94 percent of their nutrients before they are eaten. A similar reduction in vitamins and minerals happens to other foods as well. Forty percent of vitamin A, 100 percent of vitamin C, and 80 percent of vitamin B, and 55 percent of vitamin E can be lost during cooking of a frozen entree. This is not conceding what can happen once we eat foods. |
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Vitamins |
Best sources |
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Retinal and beta-carotene, are necessary for smooth and healthy skin. Vitamin A keeps skin elastic and prevents dryness, wrinkling, and unnatural aging. Deficiency may result in flakiness, itching, roughness, pimples, accumulation of dandruff, and splitting and peeling of the nails Vitamin A is also a free - radical fighter. | carrots, winter squash, rutabaga, and other yellow or orange vegetables; broccoli, kale, and other dark green leafy vegetables. |
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maintains healthy skin, mouth, eyes, hair, and muscle tone. Helps the function of the nervous system, and the maintenance in the gastrointestinal tract, good for energy and the metabolism of carbohydrate/fat/protein. | |
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Aids in transport of oxygen and is essential to carbohydrate metabolism. It protects eyes, skin, and mucous membranes. Deficiency produces lining and wrinkling of the lips, oily skin on the nose and chin - with the appearance of tiny fat deposits or white heads - and fissures at the corners of the mouth and eyelids. Oily hair may also result from deficiency. | whole grains, beans, and leafy green vegetables. |
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Asorbic acid, cooperates with protein in the formation of collagen and elastin, both essential for soft, well-toned shin; contributes to healing of wounds and broken bones; aids in red blood cell formation; protects against capillary wall ruptures, bruising, and scurvy. It is essential to the strength and elasticity of blood vessel walls and healthy cell membranes. Deficiency can result in collagen deterioration, with wrinkles, flabbiness, skin discoloration and other signs of unnatural aging. The need for vitamin C, increases as the dry skin, wrinkles, and loss of elasticity, may actually be the result of scurvy, or vitamin C deficiency resulting from over consumption of animal food, salt, and a lack of fresh vegetables and other foods in the diet. | broccoli, mustard greens, kale, parsley, watercress, turnip greens, cabbage, dandelion, and other leafy green vegetables, strawberries, cantaloupe, cherries, apricots, and other fresh, seasonal, temperate climate fruits. |
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Important in healthy bones, teeth, skin, and muscles and is needed for calcium absorption. Protects against rickets. | sunlight, fish liver oils. |
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Tocopherol, prevents oxidation of unsaturated fatty acids, vitamin A and C, and other substances in the body: lowers serum cholesterol and facilitated blood circulation. It is believed to keep skin healthy and youthful by slowing the aging of cells resulting from the interaction of oxygen with other chemicals in the body. | green leafy vegetables, unrefined vegetables oils, whole grains, soybeans and other beans. |
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(fatty acids) - Growth promoting factor; necessary for healthy skin and hair. Helps maintain resilience and lubrication to the skin and hair. Deficiency can result in acne, dandruff, dry hair, diarrhea, eczema, varicose veins, and weak nails. | wheat germ, vegetable oils, and sunflower seeds. |
| Name | Minerals |
| Calcium | Necessary for the development of healthy, strong bones, teeth, and blood. It also plays a part in muscle growth, muscle contraction, and nerve transmission. Research |
| Chromium | Chromium stimulates the activity of enzymes involved in the metabolism of glucose for energy and the synthesis of fatty acids and cholesterol. Research |
| Iron | Helps transports oxygen in the blood from the lungs to the tissues, which need oxygen to maintain the basic life functions and healthy hair, skin, and nails. Research |
| Magnesium | Helps promote absorption and metabolism of other vitamins and minerals and is needed to maintain healthy bones, arteries, nerves, teeth, hair and skin. Research |
| Potassium | Is needed to help regulate water balance within the body and is necessary for normal growth of the nerve system, and keeping the skin healthy. Research |
| Selenium | Is a antioxidant and appears to preserve elasticity in the skin and hair. |
| Zinc | Is essential for general growth and proper development and healing of the skin, nails and hair. Also important in healing wounds and burns. |
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