As a holistic nutritional coach, I always consider food medicine for your body. Unfortunately, the food we eat often lacks enough nutritional value, and we need to enhance it with added vitamins and supplements to increase our energy levels and improve our immune systems.
In this blog, I will cover easy nutrition tips you can use to improve your health.
• Magnesium-rich foods: These include green leafy vegetables (spinach), nuts and seeds (almonds, pumpkin, and cashews), brown rice, beans, and cacao. Magnesium helps with digestive issues and loosens tight muscles.
• Add green superfood to your breakfast shake: It is the easiest way to add a powerful blend of nutritious greens, phytonutrient-packed fruits, veggies, cereal grasses, digestive enzymes, and probiotics to your diet. I like adding Amazing Grass Green Superfood to the shake. If you add a scoop of protein powder (I like Innate Vegan Protein or Costco’s Orgain Organic Protein), you will have a fast and delicious breakfast option. You can find many recipes for easy-to-prepare smoothies online.
• Whole foods multivitamin complex: Good brands are Garden of Life, Patient One, and Innate Response.
• Pharmaceutical-grade Omega-3 fatty acids: They help calm inflammation in the gut. You can use a supplement (good brands are Nordic, Carlson, or Garden of Life) or add a tablespoon of chia and/or flaxseeds to your smoothie. Animal food sources of omega-3 include fatty cold fish like salmon and eggs.
• Taking a high-quality probiotic daily with food: This can help lower inflammation and rebuild the healthy bacteria essential to good gut health. Use at least 20 billion ones. I use Garden of Life’s Raw Probiotics Ultimate Care or Ascended Health active detox probiotics. The food sources of probiotics include fermented foods like sauerkraut.
• Good Vitamin B complex, including vitamin B12 (as methylcobalamin): It helps repair and rejuvenate cells and provides an energy boost. It is needed for proper digestion, immune function, and thyroid function. Food sources include salmon, chicken breast, spinach, whole grains, beans (pinto, black, navy), avocado, pumpkin seeds, flaxseeds, and almonds.
• Vitamin D: The best source of vitamin D is sunshine, but if you don’t spend enough time outside, I suggest adding a supplemental form.
• Vitamin C with bioflavonoids: We need it for immune function and stress hormone production. It is also an antioxidant and essential in the production of collagen. I recommend Patient One or Garden of Life’s Raw Vitamin C and D3.
• Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10): It has a role in producing ATP, a molecule in body cells that functions like a rechargeable battery in the transfer of energy and antioxidants.
• Turmeric (curcumin) supplement: It is used for arthritis, heartburn, stomach pain, diarrhea, intestinal gas, bloating, gallbladder disorders, water retention, and kidney problems. Use a liposomal form of it for best absorption.
• Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA): This is an essential fatty acid for good health. It’s an antioxidant, helps decrease body fat in the stomach area, and helps people feel fuller after eating.
Reading the labels is extremely important. As a general rule of easy nutrition tips, stick with the short ingredient list (no more than 10) and avoid items containing words you can’t pronounce. Even if the ingredient list is short, it may or may not still have harmful additives, so read it carefully before purchasing the product.
You can order these supplements online or with a 20% discount from the retail price through the FullScript website using my patient’s code: pmbc888.
If you take any supplements for pain or other conditions, it’s very important to tell your physician so he can help you avoid potentially dangerous interactions with other medications.
When used with a physician’s knowledge, many supplements are generally safe if not taken in large doses.
You can look up supplements on Epocrates, an online physician resource that lists side effects and drug interactions. If you’d like more information about supplements, here is an excellent online source from the National Institutes of Health: Dietary Supplements Fact Sheets.
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