If you are body-conscious, you probably work out on the regular and keep close tabs on your calories. However, exerting yourself while limiting your energy intake has a dark side: Increased nutritional demand combined with decreased nutritional intake may help you manage your weight, but in the process, you may end up nutritionally depleted.
While most people get plenty of macronutrients in the form of fats, carbohydrates and protein, they are often deficient in micronutrients like vitamins, minerals, enzymes and amino acids.
The most common types of nutritional deficiencies include:
- Vitamin B12 and B-Complex deficiency
- Vitamin D3 deficiency
- Deficiencies of calcium, magnesium and zinc
- Iodine deficiency
- Vitamin A deficiency
- Iron deficiency
In particular, B12 and iron deficiencies are common in vegan diets, because those nutrients are found most abundantly in meats and other animal products. Symptoms of deficiencies in B12 and iron include fatigue, weakness, impaired brain function and a weakened immune system.
Other causes of nutritional deficiencies include:
- Too little exposure to unfiltered sunlight
- A diet high in processed foods
- A diet low in fresh fruits and vegetables
- An unhealthy gut biome
- Microwaving and/or overcooking foods
- A highly restricted diet
- Digestive health issues
- Medications that interfere with nutrient absorption
Even if you eat a well-rounded and whole foods diet, stress, sleep deprivation and physical activity can impose nutritional demands that exceed your nutritional intake.
Tips to Avoid Nutritional Deficiency
- Follow the Rainbow: Nutritious foods come in an array of colors that often reflect their nutrient content. For example, oranges and red and yellow peppers are great sources of Vitamin C; carrots and sweet potatoes provide a rich supply of beta carotene; leafy green vegetables are full of minerals and vitamins A, C and K. The more colors on your plate, the wider array of nutrients you are getting (provided they are not artificial colors, of course).
- Savor the Sun: Vitamin D plays an important role in bone health and in a number of metabolic processes. Exposing your bare skin (without sunblock) to natural sunlight is the best way to get enough Vitamin D, which is manufactured by your body. While excessive sun exposure can lead to skin damage, sensible exposure of 15 to 20 minutes a day is enough to stimulate Vitamin D production to meet your nutritional needs.
- Keep Fluids Flowing: Water is considered the most essential nutrient, yet many people go through life in a moderate state of dehydration. Drink plenty of plain filtered water every day to meet your body’s fluid needs. As a rule of thumb, drink one once of water for every two pounds of body weight daily.
- Baby Your Biome: Your digestive tract is full of beneficial bacteria that help to break down and digest food, and keep your intestines healthy. Antibiotics in the form of medications, or in foods treated with antibiotics, can destroy your gut biome by killing healthy bacteria, interfering with your ability to absorb nutrients from food. Avoiding antibiotics and eating plenty of raw fruits and vegetables can help. Foods like yogurt and cottage cheese with natural bacterial cultures, and fermented foods like sauerkraut and kombucha can help restore and maintain a healthy gut environment.
- Stay a Drip Ahead: One efficient way to get all the micronutrients you need is to have periodic IV micronutrient infusions. Delivered by IV drip, a micronutrient cocktail bypasses your digestive tract, sending potent micronutrients directly to your cells via your bloodstream. A micronutrient cocktail can quickly restore nutritional balance so your body can function at its best.
Get an IV Vitamin Drip in NYC
To avoid malnutrition and improve your health, visit Advanced Cryo NYC, located in the heart of SoHo. We offer a variety of micronutrient cocktails to meet your specific needs. Our friendly clinicians will help you select the cocktail that is right for you and set up your IV. Then just relax in our spa-like clinic while potent micronutrients are infused, drip by drip. While you wait, be sure to ask about our growing menu of exciting treatments for health, wellness and beauty.
