Multivitamins and Minerals: The vital minerals and vitamins in our daily food today are minimal. It has become increasingly challenging to meet all the body’s nutritional requirements. Multivitamins are critical for metabolism, growth as well as development. They help ward off diseases, boost immune system response and improve overall moods. Lack of Vitamins often results in deficiency diseases that lead to irritability as well as tiredness.
Since the human body does not make these vitamins, people have to rely on dietary intake. Eating a wide variety of healthy foods from all five groups (grains and legumes, meats, eggs, and fish, dairy, fruit and vegetables) every day is the best way to get your vitamins and minerals. Also, the best way to get all the vitamins you need is in a high-quality liquid multivitamin.
Essential Fatty Acids: Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs) are the "good fats", and the “necessary fats” that the human body cannot synthesize. They have to be obtained through a good and balanced diet. Good fats compete with trans fats and raise the High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) or "good cholesterol". Important EFAs include Omega-3, Omega-6 and Omerga-9.
EFAs support the cardiovascular, reproductive, immune, as well as nervous systems. They help the human body to manufacture and repair cell membranes. EFAs produce prostaglandins, which work to regulate the heart rate, blood pressure, blood clotting, fertility, conception, and inflammation. They support the body in fighting infections. EFAs also make for proper growth in children. Foetuses and breast-feeding infants also require an adequate supply of EFAs through their respective mother's dietary intake.
EFA deficiency is common. Over- processed diets are Omega-6/3 deficient, which is known to cause depression and other mental health symptoms, along with serious health conditions, such as heart attacks, cancer, insulin resistance, asthma, lupus, accelerated aging, stroke, obesity, diabetes, arthritis, ADHD, and Alzheimer's disease, among others.
Antioxidants: Antioxidants protect the body cells against free radicals, which result from poor dietary habits, exposure to pollution, sun damage, smoking, drinking alcohol, and other lifestyle habits. Whenever a body function makes use of oxygen, free radicals are produced. These free radicals cause oxidative damage to the body, which the antioxidants slow down, balance, or prevent. Otherwise, oxidative damage can lead to health problems including heart disease, macular degeneration, diabetes, cancer etc.
Antioxidants are present in foods as vitamins, minerals, carotenoids, and polyphenols. They are often identified in food by their distinctive colors such as the red color of cherries and tomatoes; the orange for carrots; the yellow for corn, mangos, and saffron; and the blue-purple of blueberries, blackberries, and grapes. The most well-known components of food with antioxidant activities are vitamins A, C, and E; β-carotene; the mineral selenium; and more recently, the compound lycopene. Sources include fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, meat, chicken as well as fish.
Probiotics: These are the beneficial bacteria that reside in the entire digestive urinary and reproductive tracts and provide the following benefits:
• Suppression of growth or invasion by bad bacteria or pathogenic bacteria
• Improvement of intestinal barrier function
• Modulation of the immune system.
An imbalance in probiotics may be caused by various medications such steroids, antibiotics, and birth control pills. Traveling also causes probiotics imbalance. Taking probiotics as a dietary supplement has several potential benefits. They include:
• Managing lactose intolerance
• Prevention of colon Cancer
• Lowering Cholesterol levels
• Lowering blood pressure
• Improving Immune Function and Prevention of Infections
• Treatment of Helicobacter pylori infections
• Reduction of antibiotic-associated diarrhea
• Reduction of Inflammation
• Improved Mineral Absorption
• Prevention of Harmful Bacterial Growth Under Stress
• Improvement of certain irritable bowel syndrome symptoms
Bone Nutrients: Bone nutrients are the raw materials needed to replenish bone minerals that contribute to the continuous renewal and remodeling that our bones undergo. This maintenance of bones may be interrupted by poor diet, lack of physical activity, general aging, and hormonal changes. Bone nutrients include calcium, magnesium, vitamin D-3, boron, strontium, and zinc. All these nutrients can be found in several
different kinds of foods readily available.
* Note: Image(s) by the courtsey of http://www.learnwell.org.