By using the food pyramid as a guide, you can get your vitamins and minerals in the diet. Whilst supplements can be taken, they are not essential, or even preferable.
 |
| Food Pyramid |
You can get supplements only to provide the vitamins and minerals listed on the bottle. But food supplies a lot more - antioxidants, phytochemicals that are beneficial to the body, and probably even things that scientists haven't discovered yet. It's also affordable to get your nutrients this way. A bottle of multivitamins may not be expensive, but if you were to factor in all the other things, such as antioxidants and essential fatty acids, the cost would be quite high.
The Base Of The Food Pyramid
This is a new category - water! Whilst it obviously doesn't contain vitamins, it is essential to life, helping to flush wastes out of the body and prevent dehydration. Dehydration can cause fatigue, irritability, and a whole host of other things related to your body running under its optimum levels.
Level 1 - Grains
All grains and grain products are not created equal when it comes to nutritional value. The food pyramid recommends you get about 6 servings of grains a day.
Their suggestions are fortified cereals, bread, rice, and pasta. However, if you want to get enough vitamins and minerals in your diet, you'd do well to eat more whole grains.
This includes whole-grain bread, as compared to bleached bread it does have a higher nutritional value. Bleached bread is stripped of about 40 nutrients and only 4 are added back in.
At least with whole-grain bread, you get more of what was probably in the original bleached bread.
However, to really maximize the vitamins and minerals in diet sources, go for whole grains like brown rice, basmati rice, millet, fresh corn, quinoa (available from a health food shop), amaranth, oat cereals, and bran.
White rice is stripped of vitamins and minerals (they are in the outer layers, which are all removed), so it's a bit of a waste of time nutritionally.
Turns brown rice into white rice to give you an idea of what is processed for the vitamins and minerals in the grains.
67% of vitamin B3
90% of vitamin B6
50% of the manganese
60% of the iron
all the dietary fiber
all the essential fatty acids
Good quality whole grains have a lot of nutritional value and can help ensure you get your vitamins and minerals in diet sources, as well as providing dietary fiber.
Level 2 - Part 1: Vegetables
If your goal is to get your vitamins and minerals into dietary sources, then vegetables are incredibly important.
Almost every vitamin can be found in the range of vegetables available. The food pyramid recommends we eat about 3 servings a day, although many people eat more as most vegetables are low in calories and have a low glycemic index.
Starchy vegetables such as potatoes and sweet potatoes are an exception to this general rule, although they still provide nutrients.
Vitamin A - Sweet potato, carrots, tomato, spinach and others
Vitamin A - carrots, sweet potatoes, spinach, collard greens and others
Vitamins B - all legumes and green, leafy vegetables, including lettuce, bok choy, and fresh herbs
Vitamin C - tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage, red bell peppers, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, kale
Vitamin E - Spinach, olives, mustard greens, lettuce and collard
Vitamin K - Parsley, brussel sprouts, peas, cabbage, spinach, and carrots
Level 2 - Part 2: Fruit
The Food Pyramid recommends 2 servings of fruit a day. To maximize your vitamins and minerals in diet intake, think about:
Vitamin A - apricots, nectarines, cantaloupes, mangoes
B Complex - oranges
Vitamin C - oranges, strawberries, cantaloupes, and kiwi fruit
Vitamin E - blueberries
As well as vitamins and minerals, fruits contain antioxidants and important phytochemicals. Phytochemicals are molecules that help the plant in some way, perhaps conferring it's characteristic color. But they also have benefits for people. And the whole fruit contains a lot of soluble dietary fiber which has an important role in the body too.
Level 3 - Part 1: Dairy
Dairy provides the calcium component of vitamins and minerals in diet sources. 3 servings per day are recommended by the Food Pyramid. Other benefits of dairy include:
Vitamin A - through fortification of milk. Mozzarella cheese also has some vitamin A.
B complex - In milk and ice cream.
Vitamin D - milk
Vitamin K - milk, yogurt, and ice cream
Level 3 - Part 2: Meat, legumes, fish, chicken, and nuts
Meat provides some vitamins and minerals in diet sources, as well as protein, which is essential for muscle health, and our hair.
Vitamin A - liver
B complex - liver, lamb, venison, shrimp, fish, and chicken
Vitamin E - this is in many foods in this category, including sunflower seeds, almonds, and other nuts.
The Food Pyramid recommends eating 2 servings a day but emphasizing chicken and fish.
Level 4 - Fats, Oils, and Sweets
Obviously, sweets don't really have many vitamins and minerals to speak of. But good quality fats provide essential fatty acids and play an important role in the health of the body. Good quality fats include unrefined, unprocessed coconut oil, flaxseed oils, and fish oils.
You can see the updated food pyramid here.
0 comments:
Post a Comment