Selenium is a trace mineral required for good health. We should not be complacent about the small amount of this essential nutrient needed because not having enough of it has serious consequences.
Selenium is required for antioxidant protection, DNA repair, thyroid hormone activation, immune system enhancement, production of prostaglandins, muscle function and protection against cancer. Read More »
One nutrient deficiency can have a drastic effect on your health. We will illustrate by using zinc, but every nutrient is similar in that it is necessary for multiple body activities. What applies to zinc applies to all nutrients.
What is Zinc?
Zinc is a mineral that is involved in numerous aspects of cellular metabolism, being essential for activation of almost 200 enzymes that have vital roles in the body. When enzymes do not get activated, they cannot perform their necessary functions which, in turn, damages health. Zinc promotes healthy skin, hair, immunity, fertility, and growth.
What Does Zinc Do In The Body?
What Can Go Wrong When Zinc is Deficient?
Here is a list : Read More »
There are a number of nutrient deficiencies associated with Celiac and other autoimmune disorders. These occur not only BEFORE diagnosis, due to flattened villi and malabsorption, but AFTER diagnosis as well. It’s up to us to choose healthy, naturally gluten-free foods (like fruits, veggies, lean protein and brown rice) in order to feel the best we can. Even then, we may still have deficiencies.
I was diagnosed about 5 years ago. Although I have experienced dramatic improvements in my health, sleep quality, and energy level, I have still been dealing with some “weird” symptoms that I wasn’t sure were going to go away. These include eye floaters (which I’ve noticed for about 2 years now), shakiness and rapid pulse especially during the first half of the day, and carbohydrate intolerance. (Eating high carb meals have been giving me headaches). So…. I was VERY excited when I heard that Gluten Free Works was going to be offering . I couldn’t wait to try it out.
When I got my results back, I was AMAZED at how many nutrient deficiencies I still had after being Gluten-Free for this many years. I came up deficient in:
VITAMIN A (this explained the eye floaters)
CHROMIUM (I had never heard of chromium before now, but this explained my problem with carbs. I have since read that a deficiency in Chromium leads to DIABETES… so I’m glad I figured this out now, rather than later ;)
SELENIUM (had never heard of that one either) Read More »
The impact of nutritional deficiencies on health should be common knowledge among the medical professional community. All doctors, nurses and other medical professionals should be able to quickly and accurately identify and diagnose functional nutritional deficiencies in patients and correct those deficiencies. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
Medical teaching institutions do not focus on nutrition, so many medical professionals are not equipped to recognize the signs of nutritional deficiencies until the patient is extremely sick. In most cases, the patient is able to function, just not at his or her potential. He or she may have weight issues, skin, hair or digestive problems, anxiety or difficulty concentrating. This is called a functional nutrient deficiency.
Read More »
In Part 1 of this article about nutrient deficiencies in the gluten-free population, I posed four critiques and questions that I promised to answer in today’s part 2. Without further ado, here we go…
Critique #1 questioned the small sample size of the research. I can’t do anything about that, and there’s not much to be said about it, so let’s move on.
Next, I think it’s easiest to address critique #3: How did nutrient deficiencies in the gluten-free population compare to Americans as a whole? To answer that question, I pulled data regarding nationwide averages from the USDA’s Community Nutrition Mapping Project. If I amend yesterday’s table that showed the percent of the gluten-free population who are deficient in given nutrients, and add to it a column for the national averages, this is what you find:
| Nutrient | GF Deficiency | Nationwide Deficiency |
| fiber | 74% | 92% |
| calcium | 82% | 69% |
| thiamin | 59% | 19% |
| riboflavin | 25% | 11% |
| B6 | 35% | 26% |
| folate | 85% | 40% |
| B12 | 29% | 20% |
| iron | 41% | 11% |
These numbers change the perspective a bit, I think. It’s not simply that the gluten-free population is nutrient deficient. When you compare us to the national averages, it gets slightly more complex. In some cases, such as folate, riboflavin, thiamin, and iron, we’re two or more times as deficient (as a group) than the nation. However, in other cases, such as B12, B6, and calcium, we still have greater rates Read More »
I was recently reading a press release from Nature’s Path Organic about two of their new cereals. The press release made a familiar argument: the cereals “provide gluten avoiders with whole grains… unlike many gluten-free cereals which forfeit nutritional benefits…” The implication is that many gluten-free cereals (and other gluten-free processed foods, by extension) are more highly processed in order to improve taste and texture. But they do so by sacrificing nutritional quality.
There is some truth to this logic. Foods made from whole grains are inherently healthier than heavily processed foods, and I’ll use our good old enemy – wheat – to demonstrate. I compared whole grain wheat flour (less processed) with white, unenriched wheat flour (more processed) across a range of nutrient measures. Not surprisingly, the wheat underwent a profound loss in Read More »
Getting enough of the nutrients we need is the most important component of getting well and staying healthy. If the foods in our diet are deficient, then we must turn to supplements to make up the difference.
But what do the ingredient labels mean? What are the correct amounts we should be taking? Do vitamins really expire?
Nature Made, a producer of vitamins, minerals and herbal products designed to promoted good health, answers your questions. Read More »
Editor’s note:
In the following medical research study, healthy participants were enrolled to examine the effects of vitamin D on insulin production and use in the body. This research shows that:
1) Vitamin D plays an important role in insulin sensitivity in the body, and deficiency of vitamin D hampers production of insulin hormone by beta cells in the pancreas.
2) People with vitamin D deficiency are at risk for developing type 2 diabetes mellitus. Type 2 diabetes mellitus is characterized by lack of insulin sensitivity in body tissues and inadequate production of insulin hormone in the pancreas. Read More »
Potassium is a mineral that is easily absorbed by the digestive tract. This micronutrient is essential for life because of the vital functions it performs in our bodies. Normal nerve conduction, muscle contraction, fluid balance, acid-alkali balance, blood pressure regulation, digestion, protein production, and metabolism require the action of potassium. For example, in metabolism potassium is required for the movement of sugars, amino acids, and other molecules into cells.
Potassium is an electrolyte that takes part in electrical conduction and chemical reactions in opposition to the electrolyte, sodium. In bodily fluids, potassium is the major cation (positively charged ion), while sodium is the major anion (negatively charged ion).
About 98% of the body’s potassium is contained within muscle cells, while Read More »
Editor’s note:
In this study, researchers investigating the absorption of copper in untreated patients who had damage to their duodenum found anemia in 3 out of 10 of these patients that was due to copper deficiency. They gave all the study subjects a solution of copper to drink that was equal to a daily dose then tested their blood level. Read More »
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