Is Your Diet Robbing You of Vital Minerals & Vitamins?

Retaining our Vital Minerals & Vitamins

In a world ‘gone crazy’ with fast, pre-cooked, pre-packed and preservative-laden foods, we need to be thoughtful of what foods are friendly and those we may need to avoid.
Together with foods, there are many prescription medications that can also interfere with and strip the body of essential minerals and other nutrients; we will address these in our further communications.
Let’s just look at a couple of the major food groups for now:

Too Much Fibre

Excessive consumption of fibre (especially from grains) can interfere with the body’s ability to absorb nutrients as the fibre binds with minerals & vitamins and naturally excretes them.
Many cereals are also laiden with various sugars, sweeteners and other additives to make them ‘taste good’ and also to comply with the Food Standards regulations (notably in Europe) where fortification (the adding of nutrients) is required.
Vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds & legumes are preferable sources of fibre; it is also prudent to ensure hydration (water) is always kept up.

Too Much Protein

Too much protein (either from meats or protein powders) creates an acidic environment by producing ammonia, a by-product of the breakdown of the protein. To compensate for this, the body will utilise its alkaline minerals such as calcium.
Long term, protein rich diets combined with other acidic foods such as salt, sugar, coffee etc, can have adverse effects on the bones (osteoporosis) due to the long-term leaching of calcium.
If protein intake is high, to help flush out waste products i.e., ammonia, an increase in water intake is advisable.

Sugars

Agave nectar, brown sugar, cane crystals, cane sugar, caramel, crystalline fructose, dextrose, evaporated cane juice, fructose, fruit juice concentrate, glucose, honey, invert sugar, lactose, maltose, malt syrup, molasses, raw sugar, sucrose, syrup.
Sugars are one of the most common additives found in day to day foods and they should be avoided wherever possible.
Robs your body of: Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium, Selenium & Vitamin C.
Found in: Fizzy drinks, dessert items, sweets & chocolate, frozen fruits and vegetables and also in many other popular items such as sauces, marinades, soups and many other foodstuffs.

These are just a few of the basic, but important reasons why mineral supplementation is vital for long term health and wellbeing.