ARE YOU IN THE RED?
If you’re like most Americans, you haven’t been eating as healthfully as you could.
The standard American diet gets 45 percent of its calories from fat and another 35 percent from sugar. In other words, 80 percent of the calories we consume provide none of the nutrients that our bodies need. Incredibly, despite our dietary excesses and an epidemic of obesity, as a nation we are underfed.
One interesting study examined the incidence of vitamin deficiencies in a randomly selected group of hospital patients. Using the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) as the standards, 88 percent of the 120 patients came up short in at least one vitamin. Many showed multiple deficiencies. Only 12 percent tested at “normal” levels.
Diet is not the sole force behind the national plague of nutrient deficiencies. Other factors include the following:
- Alcohol consumption (depletes B vitamins, vitamin C, most minerals, and antioxidants)
- Allergies and infections (deplete vitamins A and C and zinc, among other nutrients)
- Exposure to air pollutants and other toxins (depletes antioxidants)
- Smoking (depletes antioxidants)
- Stress (depletes all nutrients, especially B vitamins and vitamin C)
Some people simply require more of certain nutrients than the general population does. Children and older adults tend to need a bit extra, as do pregnant women. Others with increased nutritional demands include those who diet and those who exercise strenuously.
Then, too, some foods that we eat because we think they’re healthful have actually been stripped of their nutrients before they get to our plates. Whole wheat loses 75 percent of its B vitamins, minerals, and fiber when it is milled into flour. Likewise, rice loses most of its vitamins, minerals, and fiber when it’s polished to turn it from brown to white. Even the soil that these and other plant-derived foods grow in is often nutrient-depleted.
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