Eat More – Vitamins and Minerals
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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – According to recent research 61% of us look at nutrition labels. Some just look and wonder – what is all this information? Others check out the amount of calories, fat, trans fat, sodium or sugar in a food. Few look at the bottom of the label to consider the amount of vitamins and minerals in the food. Two vitamins (A and C) and two minerals (calcium and iron) are required on every nutrition label. Some companies add more but these additions are voluntary. What can these 4 nutrients tell you?
The vitamin and mineral values are given as percentages of your Daily Value. If a food contains 5% or less of the Daily Value it is considered a poor source of the vitamin or mineral. If it is between 10% and 20%, then it is a good source. Over 20% the food is an excellent source. You’ll be surprised to see how often 0% is listed on many foods. Keep these percentage guidelines in mind when you go grocery shopping.
What are vitamins? They are substances that are vital to life, but are needed by the body in very tiny amounts. They help you absorb, digest, and use the fats, carbohydrates, and proteins found in food. Vitamins A and C are both strong antioxidants.
Vitamins can be destroyed or have their shape changed. Cooking food at high temperatures, in a lot of water, or for a long time, will reduce the amount of vitamins in food. This can happen to vitamin C. But, your body can also change a vitamin’s shape to make it more useful in certain situations. This happens with vitamin A.
Vitamins are divided into two groups — fat soluble and water soluble. Fat soluble vitamins (like vitamin A) are carried into the body by foods containing fat and are stored in your fat tissues waiting to be used. Water soluble vitamins (like vitamin C) are absorbed directly into the blood and travel freely around the body through the bloodstream. As the blood passes through the kidneys, if high amounts of a water soluble vitamin are detected, the vitamin will be filtered out of your body in urine.
Excellent sources of vitamin A include: eggs, milk, broccoli, butternut squash, peppers, sweet potato, tomatoes, apricots, mangos and watermelon.
Excellent sources of vitamin C include: cabbage, peppers, tomatoes, cantaloupe, kiwis, oranges, pineapple, strawberries and watermelon.
Smokers take note. You need extra vitamin C each day. Smoking depletes vitamin C because the vitamin is used up when it works to remove dangerous free radicals caused by smoking.
Unlike vitamins, minerals cannot be destroyed in cooking or have their shape changed in your body. The calcium in seashells, milk, and your bones is the same. Iron is iron, whether it’s in a cast-iron frying pan or in your red blood cells. And, your body absorbs more of a mineral when you need more. Growing children absorb calcium more efficiently than adults. If you are anemic (low iron stores), your body will absorb more iron from food than when your iron stores are adequate.
Minerals, like vitamins, are divided into two groups — major minerals and trace minerals. If your body needs more than 100 milligrams a day (like calcium), the mineral is classified as major. Trace minerals, like iron, are needed in amounts less than 100 milligrams a day.
We’ve all heard that calcium builds strong bones and teeth and protects us against osteoporosis (adult bone thinning), but it does much more than that.
Calcium: helps blood clot, helps nerves work normally, helps your muscles work and your heart beat, helps lower high blood pressure, aids in weight loss, relieves PMS (premenstrual syndrome), protects against complications in pregnancy, lowers the risk for periodontal disease (a leading cause of tooth loss), and protects against infertility
Did you know — Depending on your size and weight, your body contains up to 3 pounds of calcium, more than any other mineral.
Calcium rich foods can be divided into 3 groups depending on how efficiently the mineral is absorbed by your body.
Excellent sources include – milk, firm tofu, dark green leafy vegetables, broccoli, canned salmon and sardines with bones.
Good sources include – ice cream, soft tofu, and light green leafy vegetables.
Fair to poor sources include – cottage cheese, silken tofu, beans, almonds and sesame seeds.
Iron is a trace mineral. You have less than a teaspoon of iron in your body and 80% of it is in your bloodstream. The rest is in your muscles and enzymes. The cells in your intestines act as iron’s gatekeeper. If you are low in iron more is absorbed. When you have enough, less is absorbed. Your body is also extremely good at recycling iron. When old red blood cells are broken down, your body recycles 95% of the iron to make new blood ones.
Good sources of iron include: beef, chicken, clams, eggs, fortified breakfast cereal, oysters, peanuts, pork, red wine, baked beans, spinach and blueberries.
We hoped you’ve learned a lot over the last few weeks about nutrition labeling and making good food choices. For those of you who want to know more about food labels look for a new, informative and readable book: Read It Before Your Eat It, Bonnie Taub-Dix, MA, RD, CDN, Plume, $15.00.
© NRH Nutrition Consultants, Inc.
Jo-Ann Heslin, MA, RD, CDN is a registered dietitian and the author of the nutrition counter series for Pocket Books with 12 current titles and sales in excess of 8 million books. The books are widely available at your local or on-line bookseller.
Current titles include:
The Calorie Counter, 5th Ed., 2010
The Ultimate Carbohydrate Counter, 3rd Ed., 2010
The Complete Food Counter, 3rd ed., 2009
The Fat Counter, 7th ed., 2009
The Healthy Wholefoods Counter, 2008
The Cholesterol Counter, 7th Ed., 2008
The Diabetes Carbohydrate and Calorie Counter, 3rd Ed., 2007
For more information on Jo-Ann and her books, go to The Nutrition Experts
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