Mainstreaming Nutrition

Vitamins, minerals and herbs are healthy supplements you can add to your diet. Unfortunately much of the food we eat is deficient in nutrients for a variety of reasons. This is because of mineral deficient soil that the food is grown in, but also because of overcooking our food. While eating healthy whole foods is the very best way to get your vitamins, taking supplements and using herbs can fill in the gaps of some of those deficiencies. Remember that taking supplements cannot make up for an unhealthy diet.

There are thirteen vitamins your body needs. They are A, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, B12, C, D, E and K. If you go into a supplement store you will see a lot more than thirteen things to choose from. They also sell many other things that are helpful in regaining and maintaining good health. When you research a certain health problem, you will find suggestions for what to use for that particular problem. Lots of vitamins are contained in fruits and vegetables.

Minerals are often the overlooked power house. They are just as essential as vitamins, and they work together. Sometimes you just can’t get enough of what you need from your food alone. The human body can’t produce minerals so we have to get them from our food, water or supplementation. Luckily, you can supplement with minerals to get what you need. Here are just a few so you can identify what they are: calcium, chromium, copper, iodine, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, sodium, and zinc. That is just a small list of some common ones. There are two types of minerals, macrominerals and trace. There are more than sixty minerals present in the body but only twenty-two of them are considered essential.

Herbs can be very powerful. Even though they are considered nutritional supplements, they can be as strong as a drug and have been used in drugs. For example, asprin and morphine are both originally derived from natural sources, tree bark and a plant. Before taking any herbs, make sure there is no conflict between the herb and any medication you are already taking. You should talk about it with your doctor first. Doctors are not always educated in many of the herbs available, but they should be able to help you decide if something is okay for you to use with a little research.

I have begun a quest to get my family more involved with healthy eating as i am sure this is of great importance in any bodies life. I have to admit, with the way the world is set up, this is going to be harder than I ever thought it would be as we seem to be living in a junk food paradise. My daughter is young, and she really doesn’t know enough yet to complain, but my husband is going to be another issue all together. He is the one that is going to make this tough, but his resistance thus far as not been too strong. I’m sure he’ll let me know when I have stepped over the line.

I have found that the best way to get my family ready for healthy eating is to introduce just a few things at a time. That way, things in the home are slowly changing, and they don’t seem to notice as much. One or two things, like some peanut butter and jelly without added sugar is easier for them to deal with than changing everything at once. Healthy eating in this house was next to impossible, I thought, but I am going to keep going until at least half of the things they eat are good for them and they don’t notice to much of a change.

If you want to introduce your family to healthy eating, you may have to be sneaky like I have to be. You should find some good things to change once in a while, but never do it all at once. If your family does not eat a lot of vegetables, you should start your healthy eating campaign by adding them to meals. They aren’t going to like it, and you shouldn’t force them. However, ask them to at least try each thing you present so they can decide on their own what they like. You are going to be surprised that they will all have some veggies that they are going to eat.

Don’t expect healthy eating to take over completely, but you can expect that your family may pick up some good habits without even realizing it. If they don’t get a lot of sugar in their diet at home, they are going to get it away from home, but they may find they don’t like it as much as they once did. Don’t be a tyrant about healthy eating, or you are just going to turn them off. Instead, do what you can, make suggestions, but don’t dictate everything that goes into their mouths. A few years down the road they may make good choices more often than not, and they won’t even realize it was your doing.