Are You Getting the Right Nutrients?

The body needs nutrients for all its functions and systems to work. The nutrients are processed in the cells' metabolism and create energy for the cell's work of producing various proteins and more. For the cells to be able to manage this work, nutrition is required, specifically the right kind of nutrition. Nutrition includes fat, carbohydrates, protein, vitamins, and minerals. Fat, carbohydrates, and protein can be converted into energy, while vitamins and minerals are often used in various enzyme systems to drive cellular processes. However, proteins should first and foremost be used as a source of amino acids to serve as building blocks in the body's protein production. Minerals can also be stored as building blocks in tissues, e.g., calcium in the skeleton.

Why is it important to get the right nutrients?

If we don't eat enough of the right kind of nutrients, the body cannot carry out all the processes required to keep us healthy and alive. It's easy to understand that if we get too little energy, we have less stamina; we become energy-deficient. If we have a lack of energy intake for a long time, we will also lose weight and perhaps become thin. However, if we get too few vitamins or minerals, the consequences are not as obvious. It depends entirely on which process or enzyme loses its function, which in turn depends on which vitamin or mineral is lacking and how much is lacking. Often, there is a certain amount of, for example, a vitamin, so the process doesn't stop completely; it's just insufficient, especially if the demands on the body are tough, for example, during illness or stress. The symptoms of mineral or vitamin deficiency can therefore take a long time to detect. The deficiency continues for a long time, and the symptoms may not even be linked to a specific deficiency. It can manifest as a poor immune system, leading to frequent illness, depression, obesity, slow-healing wounds, problems with thyroid hormones, and so on.

Energy should primarily be supplied by fat and carbohydrates, as protein should mainly be used as a source of various amino acids used as building blocks to form new protein in the body.

It is also important to eat as varied a diet as possible with a wide variety of fruits, berries, root vegetables, vegetables, etc., to promote as rich and diverse a gut flora as possible. The food we eat becomes food for our gut microbes, and different microbes in the gut flora have different requirements for what they want to eat. We should remember that it is these small inhabitants we are feeding when we eat, and our health is entirely dependent on the gut flora being healthy and having as great a variety of the "good bacteria" as possible.

What happens if I never think about what I eat?

How much you need to think about what you eat depends entirely on who you are. We are all different individuals and have different tastes for what is good. Some have no craving for sweets at all, while others love sugary things and may turn up their noses at vegetables. If you are a person who prefers sweets and also has a busy life and finds it hard to make time, it can be easy to neglect healthy food and perhaps just grab something quick, a chocolate bar or a sandwich. In addition, you might never take any extra nutritional supplements. If you then never reflect on the fact that what you are consuming doesn't contain enough nutrients but is mostly a temporary stomach filler to curb acute hunger and raise blood sugar, it can have negative consequences for your health in the long run. Primarily, a deficiency of many vitamins and minerals and probably also a lack of certain amino acids, but likely not a lack of energy in terms of calories. In the long term, this leads to a lack of energy despite a high calorie intake, a weakened immune system, insulin resistance, obesity, high blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases, etc.

Today, it is often not enough to simply focus on eating a varied diet to meet nutritional needs. Modern crops contain fewer minerals than before because our soils have been depleted of nutrients due to large-scale agriculture using large amounts of commercial fertilizer instead of returning the manure produced by the farm's animals, as was done in the past. Commercial fertilizers, for example NPK, contain nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, while other minerals like magnesium, zinc, and sulfur are missing. In addition, the soils are also acidified and lack calcium, which also leaches minerals.

Added to this is the fact that our need for nutrients increases with our lifestyle. Increased stress, environmental toxins and food additives, air pollution, coffee, alcohol, and more, are all factors that consume nutrients such as magnesium, zinc, and vitamin C. Processed foods and ready-made products also contain less of many vitamins and minerals as they have been destroyed along the way.

All in all, this makes it important to focus on eating a varied diet plus taking various nutritional supplements to cover our needs, and not least, to promote our gut flora.

How do I get started with proper nutrition?

If you are not genuinely interested in food, nutrition, and health, it can feel daunting to constantly think about what you eat. It's more about becoming aware of what you eat and what it does to your body, rather than a hysterical compulsion and prohibition.

If you look at the ingredients list on processed foods like sausages, ready-made meals, canned goods, sauces, cookies, and more, you often see a long list of additives, and sugar is almost always included, and quite high up on the list. Hidden sugar intake increases our sugar cravings and changes our gut flora to a less favorable composition. Too much sugar and additives promote the less beneficial microorganisms.

Start here by avoiding foods with long ingredients lists. Buy pure raw ingredients and avoid additives. Take control yourself! It is better to add pure sugar, honey, syrup, coconut sugar, or similar yourself to sweeten food if you want it sweet. From there, you can then start working on gradually reducing the amount of sugar in what you eat. Also, avoid sweeteners; they only keep the sugar craving alive and are harmful to the body and especially to the gut flora. It is possible to reduce sugar cravings and eat more pure raw ingredients, but it can be difficult and take time, so it's important to be motivated!

Eventually, you will be rewarded for your efforts by feeling more alert and refreshed, having more energy, an improved immune system, and thus getting sick less often, and hopefully also feeling better mentally. Then perhaps motivation will come more easily. It's not about a lifetime ban; that can feel far too tough to think about. But is that cookie really necessary today? Wait for another day. Try to find an activity and think about something else; the craving often passes. It's more in your head than in your stomach. Drink plenty of water with freshly squeezed lemon or unfiltered apple cider vinegar; that usually reduces the acute craving.

Certain nutritional supplements are important to add as our food contains smaller amounts. This applies especially to vitamin C, vitamin D, magnesium, zinc, sulfur (MSM), omega-3, selenium, and B-vitamin complex. Extra nutritional supplements also promote a healthy gut flora, for example, vitamin D and B-complex, which in turn increases nutrient absorption and immune function.

Take vitamin C supplements at least three times a day for better absorption; it also reduces sugar cravings, as the vitamin C molecule resembles glucose and uses the same transport chains into the cells. Therefore, do not take vitamin C together with anything sweet, as it impairs absorption because they compete.