Micronutrients, The Most Underrated Nutrients

The fitness and nutrition world is an ever-changing world with constant bombarding of new trends and fads. Calories have always been one of the foundations of dieting. And counting calories has been an approach we have been using for years to accomplish either, fat loss or muscle building. It seems that in today’s fitness and nutrition world, the major focus of the calories topic is macros (macronutrients). Although macronutrients are the only nutrients that carry calories and therefore hold major importance, they are not the only nutrients you need to pay attention to. Micronutrients are just as important, if not more important, given that they are often the neglected ones. Micronutrients also do not carry calories, so they do not affect your caloric intake.

Micronutrients are the vitamins and minerals you get from your food. These are the nutrients that professionals talk about when they refer to ‘healthy’ food choices. They work in the background to function all the different organs and processes inside of your body, including fat loss and muscle-building processes. One of the big problems is that most of our food has been so heavily processed and refined that these nutrients have been removed. Even some of our go-to healthy, simple ingredient foods have been tampered with and nutrients stripped. From GMOs to the soil and environmental factors used to grow or raise our food. This leaves us with nutrient-void food that we consume meal after meal. Leaving our bodies malnourished, constantly hungry, and without these vital nutrients.

An example would be a calorie surplus for building muscle that consists of primarily carbs. This simply will not provide your body with what it needs to build muscle. It requires testosterone, which is synthesized from the cholesterol in fat, along with vitamins and minerals. It requires protein, the material to build the muscle. Many vitamins and minerals are needed to synthesize the muscle. As well as necessary in the creation of the hormones that are needed for the building process to occur. It involves carbs as well, the material that produces energy. The physical energy is necessary for your body to undergo the repairing of muscle tissue.

In today’s mainstream fitness and nutrition advice, we are told to count our calories and track our macros. Why? Because ‘calories in vs calories out’ and that is all that matters. You could say that we have been misled, or to phrase it better, have not been told the full truth. To be clear, this is not incorrect, it is just incomplete and there is more to it, much more. As a result, this can be taken and applied incorrectly. It does not even include micronutrients, sleep/recovery, exercise or even what happens outside of the gym. Furthermore, it does not include other nutritional practices you have probably heard, such as portion control and the meal to meal habits. Hydration and water intake. Eating timeframes, such as how long before we sleep to cut off eating. Fasting periods and when to break that fast. Many people even believe that what you eat does not matter as long as it is under your caloric intake. Or that drinking alcohol is perfectly fine as long as you factor that into your caloric intake and macros.

The reality is that our body is much more complicated than this. Calories in vs calories out is a gross oversimplification of all the advanced processes involved with both fat loss and muscle building in our body. ‘Calories in vs calories out’ is best looked at as an approach to fat loss(calorie deficit) and muscle building(calorie surplus). One that is incomplete and indirect. These more complicated processes involve a lot of physiology and knowledge of how the body works to understand. Such as the process involved in fat storage, which is an energy storage process for our survival. Interestingly enough, when learning about these physiological processes, the word ‘calorie’ will not come up too often. Instead, you will see a lot more organs, hormones and their triggers come into play. Which will give a lot more insight into specific foods, sleep, exercise habits and energy systems that facilitate these processes.

Our body actually stores fat rather easily, for the purpose of energy for later. So that in the event that we are not getting enough from food, we don’t die. Our body does not want to use fat unless it has to. So even though we want it to use fat so we can lose weight, our body wants to keep it until we actually need it. We have to understand how the body works so we can ‘hack’ it to achieve what we want. One interesting fact about calories is that they can be either a fat, carbohydrate or protein. So even in the event that we are in a calorie deficit, who is to say that any of the excess calories that are being utilized are coming from fat?

An example is fasting practices such as OMAD(one meal a day), where you fast all day, then have a small window of eating, and consume one large meal. This is where TOTAL calories stop mattering as much and the calories in your particular meal do matter. The reality is that our body does not run calculations and make conscious decisions at 12am every day to determine whether it wants to lose fat. Fat loss happens in real-time.

The majority of our fat storage happens due to the action of insulin, a storage hormone. This hormone is primarily triggered when we eat carbohydrates. It begins to store these carbohydrates in our liver and muscles. All of the excess carbohydrates are converted to fat and stored in fat cells. So, to keep things simple, it is not a good idea to consume your entire daily calories in a single meal. It is much better to break it into more meals for the simple fact that it stretches your caloric intake over time. In that time energy is being used and carbohydrate stores are being depleted. This allows for more carbohydrate storage before being converted to fat. Another way to look at it, is that you could take the same amount of food and food items and have less be converted to fat by simply breaking it into different eating windows throughout the day. So, even with a calorie deficit, that one meal could be putting on fat every time with the deficit only utilizing protein(from muscle) or carbohydrates(from muscle) for energy.

Another example, for fat loss would be a typical calorie deficit. But because of our body’s adaptability through physiology, it simply just adjusts to the new caloric intake over time. Metabolism decreases, fat loss hormones drop to lower levels and the body becomes more conservative. As a result, energy levels drop and our bodies prioritize the little energy it is being supplied to the higher priorities functions that are needed to keep you alive. Furthermore, your body holds on to fat as it is a necessary form of energy in situations where your body is not getting enough energy from eating. This is for our survival, to provide energy to our higher priority functions such as our vital organs to keep us alive. So rather than utilizing this fat for energy like we want, we are doing the complete opposite.

Just a little food for thought, ask yourself a few questions. If it was THAT simple, then why does it even matter what you eat? Why even bother trying a strict diet that involves changing your food? Why even bother going to the gym? Especially if ‘80% is diet’. What about portion control? Does it matter how much food I consume in one meal? What about carbs? If calories are the only thing that matters, why do I need to cut carbs? Why choose cleaner carbs? Why even bother increasing protein to decrease carbs? What about keto? Replacing carbs with fats as the primary food and fuel source. Why? What difference does it make when calories stay the same? What about vegan or vegetarian? Better choices for carbs as opposed to processed ones? Simple carbs vs complex carbs? Low glycemic carbs? And finally, why does it appear to not be working too well for most of the people attempting to diet? If you think about it, it should work even just a little. But it seems to not be working at all. After the first few weeks, you typically hit a plateau. The whole ordeal is usually very frustrating and filled with failures.

Cutting out entire groups of food is never a good choice. When you cut out entire food groups you are cutting out certain nutrients. Micronutrients. The nutrients you need for proper body functioning. Different foods contain different nutrients. So, we must be consuming a wide variety of foods if we want to get all the nutrients our body needs. It is a good general practice to ‘color’ your plate. This means adding as many different foods as possible to each meal. With respect to caloric control, you would still maintain lowered calories, you would just do so with many different food items.

You can probably see how brown rice and chicken breast for every meal won’t get you to where you want to be. And how meal prepping the same meal for the week can leave you malnourished. You can probably also see how difficult this can be, when you consider that this is done every day and every meal. This can be a really big challenge, it requires a lot of time, cooking and planning. In today’s busy world, this seems almost impossible in a practical way.

This is where supplementation comes into play. Supplements can help you get the vital nutrients that you need and are not getting daily from your food. Particularly a multivitamin supplement can provide you with all the vitamins and minerals that you need. But you have to find a quality multivitamin that is complete. Complete with all the vitamins and minerals. Multivitamins can be sold legally by simply having more than one vitamin. They also are not required to have any minerals. The truth is that most multivitamins on the market are lacking in vitamins and minerals. They either do not have enough vitamins and minerals per dose, or they are just missing many vitamins and/or minerals. So, it is your job to ensure that your multivitamin is complete with all vitamins and minerals. Below is a list of all the necessary vitamins and minerals that your body will need for proper functioning, performance and fitness goals;

Vitamins

Vitamin A(Retinol)
Vitamin B Complex
- Vitamin B1(Thiamine)
- Vitamin B2(Riboflavin)
- Vitamin B3(Niacin)
- Vitamin B5(Pantothenic Acid)
- Vitamin B6(Pyridoxin)
- Vitamin B7(Biotin)
- Vitamin B9(Folate)
- Vitamin B12(Cobalamin)
Vitamin C(Ascorbic Acid)
Vitamin D(Calciferol)
Vitamin E(Tocopherol)
Vitamin K(Phylloquinone)

Minerals

Macro Minerals(Major)

Calcium
Phosphorus
Magnesium
Potassium
Sodium
Chloride
Sulfur

Micro Minerals(Trace)

Iron
Zinc
Iodine
Copper
Selenium
Fluoride
Manganese
Molybdenum
Chromium

Also note, some vitamins and minerals are insufficient or not found in the more common foods we consume. The problem with insufficient amounts, is that it requires unrealistic amounts of consumption just to get the daily amount. The other problem is that when dieting, we restrict calories and food choices(macros), so our diet won’t allow us to consume the amount we need. Below is a list of some of the insufficient and missing vitamins and minerals.

Vitamin D – While fatty fish, liver and egg yolk are sources of vitamin D they are not sufficient sources. Your main source of vitamin D is not obtained through food or diet. The primary source of vitamin D is sunlight. This is usually not as big of a problem for countries that get sunlight all year. But consider how much time you spend indoors and driving, where you are not exposed to direct sunlight. As well as the UV rays that damage skin causing us to limit exposure to sun.
Iodine – Iodine is used by our thyroid which controls our metabolism. But our main sources of iodine are found in fish and seaweed. Seafood is a food item that most people lack in their diets as they prioritize chicken and meats. Seafood also tends to be less bulky than other meats, and contains a lot of bones for its size. So our intake is usually less than other meats and insufficient for nutritional purposes.
Calcium – Calcium is known to be found in milk and dairy products. This is true, however as adults we have a very limited ability to digest lactose. This is due to losing our lactose digesting enzymes with age. This starts at very early ages in our development. While dairy products still contain sufficient levels of calcium, we tend to avoid dairy because of this intolerance to lactose. Ultimately leading to insufficient intake of calcium. However, another good source of calcium is our leafy green vegetables and tofu. Unfortunately, the typical diet also avoids these foods as well. Furthermore, the kidneys will excrete calcium when we need to urinate. Sodium and caffeine are two big culprits for our calcium loss as well as increased protein intake.
Potassium – Potassium is one of our main electrolytes, we just don’t tend to get very much of it. Sodium is our other main electrolyte, and we typically get too much of it. Most of our food and even drinks have excessive amounts of sodium. We like to keep a salt shaker by the table to add to our food, as well as cook our food with ‘salt to taste’. Meanwhile, our potassium sources are primarily bananas, whole grain and milk. Most people don’t eat that many bananas in their diet. Most of our bread and breaded foods are not using whole grain breads, we typically avoid this type of bread because it is not as appetizing. Milk carries the same adult problem with digestion and intolerance and we typically avoid it in large amounts.
Vitamin K – Found in certain animal-based foods like egg yolk, leafy greens, fermented foods and fermented dairy products. It is not found in all animal-based foods, the ones you can find vitamin k in are rather specific like egg yolk and beef liver. Leafy greens are just not a frequent food in most people’s diet, and usually eaten in small amounts. Fermented foods including dairy are simply just foods that we do not consume much of either. These foods include Kimchi, sauerkraut, tempeh, miso, natto, kombucha and other uncommon fermented food and beverages. Fermented dairy is also very specific including cheese, kefir and yogurt. But like all dairy, we tend to avoid it in large amounts due to our lactose intolerance as adults.
Folate – Found in leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables(broccoli, asparagus), lentils and chickpea. These are foods we don’t typically include in our diet on a regular basis as we should.
Magnesium – Found in some seeds(sunflower, pumpkin, chia), legumes, some nuts(almonds, cashews), tofu, spinach. These are foods we don’t typically include in our diet unless we are on a health kick. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) reports that nearly half the population(48%) do not consume enough magnesium. This has been a trend since the early 2000’s.

Some Leafy Green You Could Add To Your Diet

Spinach
Kale
Collard Greens
Broccoli
Brussel Sprouts
Turnip Greens
Cabbage
Callaloo

Purex Nutrition’s Pure Multivitamins was formulated to be a complete multivitamins. Providing you with all the essential vitamins and minerals. Men and women have biological differences that affect their physiology, and therefore require different amounts of vitamins and minerals. Pure Multivitamins has a specialized formula for Men and for Women, making it a wonderful addition to your diet and regimen.