Things You Didn’t Know About Vitamins
Life is hectic in New York, NY, which is why most people try to stay healthy the easiest way, by taking vitamins, rather than making lifestyle changes. It’s easy to understand. They’re promoted on TV, social media and on the radio. The commercials can be pretty convincing, especially if you want a quick fix for your health. However, there are many things people who take them regularly didn’t know that might change their mind or make them change their regimen.
Have you ever heard of Jack LaLanne?
Jack LaLanne was a health guru that started on TV with a local 15-minute program on fitness in San Francisco. He believed so much in fitness, he paid for the program himself. On the program, he advertised his own fitness products and his gym. It was much like the infomercials of today. However, by 1959, the show went national, with the television executives paying him. He had a lot of first on his show, including being the first person to sell vitamins on TV. He also was the first person to produce a nutrition bar for a snack. If you get weary hearing vitamin commercials, blame Jack.
Vitamin supplements pale in comparison to a healthy lifestyle.
A healthy lifestyle includes diet, exercise, getting adequate sleep, adequate sunlight and hydration. In fact, one study proved it in 2019. They compared groups of people who modified their diet to make it healthier, to those taking supplements. The people with the healthier diet lived longer. Much of the reason has to do with things vitamins don’t have that real food does, phytonutrients. Another study found that many of the beneficial effects from vitamins only came when the vitamin was consumed in food, not in pill form.
You can overdose on vitamins.
There are two types of vitamins, water-soluble and fat-soluble. Vitamin C, for instance, is a water-soluble vitamin. If you take too many, your body flushes it out in your waste, but before that, expect stomach cramps and bloating. If you take too much over a longer period, it can cause kidney stones. Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin and is stored in fat tissues. It can build up, just as vitamin A, K and vitamin E can, causing toxicity. Too much vitamin D can cause bone pain, abnormal heart rhythms, high blood calcium levels, stomach pain, muscle weakness and fatigue, to name a few symptoms. It’s all about how much you take and whether you need it. It’s almost impossible to overdose on vitamins from food sources.
- Not all vitamin products are equal. Some vitamin forms are more bioavailable than others are, meaning the body can absorb the nutrients better. Those that aren’t bioavailable are often flushed down the drain in the bathroom, unprocessed.
- Some vitamins, like vitamin K and vitamin D, are hard to get from food. While you can get vitamin D from sunshine, it’s not always possible in northern locations. Both are necessary for maintaining calcium in bones.
- Covid patients were tested and found that those with a vitamin D deficiency were more apt to develop more severe symptoms. It was also found that people of color, the elderly and obese people had a higher incidence of vitamin D deficiency.
- One supplement that’s important for every woman of childbearing age is folic acid. If the mother doesn’t have adequate folic acid in early pregnancy, it can lead to birth defects.
For more information, contact us today at UpFit Training Academy
Everyone wants to get fitter, but it’s hard to find the time to do that, so often that goal is left to the sidelines. However, there is a way to fit exercise into your weekly schedule. In fact, there are several techniques you can use that will help improve the potential of making exercise a regular function of your day. The first is simple, schedule it. Find a time of day that you normally don’t have anything scheduled and make that your exercise appointment. Make sure you include time to change clothing and shower if it’s in the middle of the day.
Where’s the first place you look for nutritional info on the foods you consume? It’s on the packaging or label, of course. There are all types of information, which includes the amount of sugar the product contains, the amount carbs, protein or fat and the vitamin and mineral content. There’s also a list of ingredients, so you can see whether the food is Frankenstein food made in a lab or free of additives.
I love the small specialty shops in New York, NY. I find many interesting new trends there. Some of those trends follow the latest science and others don’t. It’s gone mainstream with large salt companies joining in on the potential of the health benefits of sea salt over table salt. Is there a difference between the two and if sea salt is better, which one is the best? They are all sodium chloride, NACL, so what is the primary difference and is it healthier or worth the extra cost?
If you love the smell of garlic coming from the kitchen, either used in an aioli sauce or gracing Italian bread and mixed with butter, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll dodge high blood pressure, but it could be a start. The key is what you eat with the garlic laced food. If you’re topping the meal off with a huge bowl of ice cream or snack on multiple candy bars, don’t expect the benefits to be that great. However, if you eat garlic with salmon, berries, pumpkin seed, beans, broccoli or celery as part of your meal, you’ll boost the blood pressure lowering potential.
People are often less concerned about health issues that they can’t see and that don’t affect their daily life, such as high blood pressure. Even though it’s dangerous, if they look good and feel good, it’s often forgotten. Whether it’s about serious conditions like high blood pressure or looking for foods that are anti-aging, you normally find they’re similar. Many of the foods that are anti-aging are also ones that give you more long-lasting energy, so you feel younger, too.
Planning healthy meals is important. However, most people fail to include snacks. That can leave them starved at their next meal, so they overeat or even worse, grab a quick candy bar from the vending machine at work or some unhealthy snacks at the gas station/convenience store. Not only are healthy snacks lower in calories, they’re higher in nutrition and can keep you feeling full and energized throughout the day.
If your goal is weight loss, then cut back on the extra salt. It can help you reach your goals and benefit your weight loss. Salt does add water weight, which occurs because of the excess sodium. Water helps regulate the amount of sodium in your body. If you have too much sodium, the body retains water to dilute the amount of sodium. That causes water weight gain. The easiest way to reduce that gain is by drinking more water or other drinks like tea to flush out the sodium and eliminating added salt from your diet. Salt also plays a more injurious role in your body that leads to weight gain.
In order to achieve your goals, you have to know where you’re at right now and find a way to measure your progress. BMI is a tool that helps you do both. At UpFit Academy in New York, NY, we do use BMI to help calculate both things, but it’s just one way to both identify your present fitness level and track your progress. It’s not necessarily the best way, either. BMI stands for body mass index and it uses both your height and weight to create a ratio that identifies whether you’re underweight, normal, overweight or obese.
Eating fresh fruits and vegetables is important, but having only the freshest of meats, vegetables, fruit and grain products can leave you short if you can’t get to the store, have unexpected company or find the grocery shelves empty. During the pandemic, many people were afraid to leave their homes, particularly elderly people. For those reasons, it’s important to have healthy staples available. These are staples with a long shelf life that you can have on hand for these emergencies.