Spring is a time of rebirth when nature and everything around us, including our lives, habits, and thoughts, are renewed. As there is no better time for changes than straight after winter colds (or at the very end of them), we dedicated this entire month to discuss and present various positive changes that, despite being the tiniest ones, can have a massive effect on our health. Food being one of them, we have to carefully oversee what we are putting into our food and ourselves in general. Today we will talk about our inner health and immune system and share with you some tips on how everyone can change their eating habits for the better using store-bought vitamins and what nature itself has given us.
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After the cold and snowy winter, we often start the spring looking like walking zombies with dark patches around our eyes and dull greyish skin. As these problems are visible to the naked eye, some issues lie deeper than our skin’s surface and are strong enough to damage us from the inside and make our everyday lives unbearable. During the cold period, we fuelled our organisms with greasy food to get warm and pushed healthy eating practises to the side. Therefore, we lacked bright sun and greenery and vitamins, minerals, and nutrients to boost our well-being to never seen before heights and improve our life quality. There are many ways to prepare for the upcoming spring and summer seasons, leisure in the fresh air and activities and take care of your body to fill it with useful nutrients and other beneficial substances.
However, we should remain sceptical as some of these ways are shortcutting methods used to make ourselves healthier without putting any efforts into the process. Yes, we are talking about food supplements and vitamins which sometimes do more harm than good and basically lead us to use even more significant amounts of them. Here at Biomedicanna, we trust in nature and science, so we create and sell natural products – drops, paste, and cosmetics, and advocate for choosing organic measures to enrich our organisms with nutrients and vitamins that they need the most. To reach our goal and fulfil the promises, let’s distinguish misconceptions from the truth regarding store-bought vitamins, eating and healthy spring!
Which Vitamins and Minerals are the Most Essential?
Vitamins are something we may not see that much as we need them only in tiny quantities. However, that does not change the fact that we need them – our organisms do not produce them or produce insufficient amounts. Therefore, we need to get our daily vitamin dose from somewhere else. Vitamins and minerals are organic compounds found either in the food, acquired as a store-bought medicine or in other artificial ways, which we will address later. No matter how we chose to get vitamins we need every day, they are essentially quite different and have varying purposes, so it depends on us to keep vitamin levels up. Despite complete differences, vitamins are usually grouped into two packs – fat-soluble ones and water-soluble ones. As the category names suggest, the previous ones are kept in our bodies for several weeks or months as the latter cannot be stored and need constant ‘refills.’
As simple as ABCs, some vitamins are named by a letter. Starting with the very first letter, Vitamin A ensures healthy skin, strong teeth and eagle-like eyesight; they are mostly responsible for the body’s growth and development. B group vitamins allow us to absorb iron better, ensure a healthy nervous system, smoother metabolization process, and are responsible for fuelling our organisms as they are necessary for producing energy. Vitamin C is mostly known as perfect for strengthening the immune system, but it also helps our bodies produce collagen, heal wounds, and act as an antioxidant. Moving further, Vitamin D is essential for bone tissue and protects us from soft bones; thus, it protects us from often visits to the ER. Vitamin E, similar to Vitamin C, has excellent antioxidant abilities and prevents us from getting various infections and diseases, and improves overall blood circulation. Last but not least, Vitamin K regulates blood clotting – once we lack this vitamin, our blood thinners, and we are more susceptible to severe bleeding.
Next, we have vitamins, whose names are a bit more specific, yet their benefits are equally essential to how we feel and function as human beings. Calcium is necessary for having healthy teeth and strong bones as this mineral is stored in them to support their structure. Besides, calcium also supports our nervous system and helps the nerves carry the receptors’ messages to the brain and back. Iron is crucial for our blood as it helps form red blood cells responsible for carrying oxygen throughout or bodies. Even if iron in human’s organisms may sound like a strange combo, it also ensures healthy connective tissue and strong muscles. Zinc adds much to our immune system and helps wounds heal faster while also being responsible for creating proteins and ensuring their structural integrity. Magnesium helps regulate blood pressure and sugar levels, so besides contributing to smooth nerve and muscle function, it also helps dilate blood vessels and prevent clotting.
Of course, our blogs are too short of discussing each of the vitamins and minerals evenly and in detail, but the bottom line is clear from afar – we need them all to stay alive and well, so here is not the place to pick favourites.
Which Vitamins and Minerals to Choose, and Which to Avoid?
We have just explained that our bodies need all different vitamins and minerals to ensure our wellbeing and health. It is natural to lack some nutrients or substances, and we all just need to be aware of when to refill and when to stop. Here matters not only the amounts but also the ways of obtaining what we need. We have also mentioned that almost all vitamins and minerals can be found in certain food products, yet the more popular solution to this problem is taking a shortcut and buying them in the form of pills or tablets. Artificial measures are characterized by higher amounts of the required substance, which results in reaching the necessary levels of one or another faster. Nevertheless, ‘with powers come responsibility,’ or to paraphrase – with vitamin pills come certain dangers.
Besides being a severe choking hazard, various pills and supplements can easily irritate our oesophagus and other parts of the food tract, causing an unpleasant feeling in our chest area and stomach. If one decides to continue using this type of medicine, specialists advise switching to other forms such as liquid or chewable formulations.
Next, we can never be sure of what is written on the labels, so let’s address this issue a bit more critically. Many ingredients of pills or mineral supplements seem harmless because companies use scientifical names instead of easily understandable and commonly used ones. It puts users into tricky situations because most of the time, we then do not know what consume in real life. Customers often face the same problem as they acquire vitamins from not approved sellers. Also, we may not know whether certain ingredients are compatible with some prescription drugs, do not cause any allergies, or are as natural and botanical as the label states.
Finally, we are in danger of consuming more than we need – vitamin deficiencies are harmful, but overconsumption is far worse. For example, very high iron levels can be fatal; too much calcium can lead to having kidney stones, while magnesium and zinc can cause digestive problems. We, of course, may consider this problem to be caused by wrong labelling and usage instructions. Still, for some part, the people themselves dig a hole for self-diagnosing and using specific vitamins or mineral supplements without consulting the professionals first and not even knowing whether they lack one vitamin or another.
We can see that shortcuts are not always the better decision out of two – in most cases, artificial measures to reach needed vitamin and mineral levels in our bodies cause us more harm and severe health problems. Luckily, the other solution is no harder to follow as it includes indulging ourselves and eating foods that are both delicious and healthy.
Which Food Products to Eat to Get Vitamins We Need?
We talked a lot about healthy eating in our previous blogs, yet this topic is extensive and deserves another talk. A balanced diet must include foods from all food pyramid levels as they also indicate which foods have more good nutrients and vitamins necessary for the smooth functioning of our bodies. At the very bottom of the food pyramid are whole grains, followed by vegetables and fruits – these food groups are the ones we need to eat several times every day. Next, there is dairy products, meats and fish, various nuts and seeds, and, at the very top, there are sugary, fat and processed products. While the previous have specific amounts of vitamins and minerals, the latter does not usually come packed with them.
First, such vegetables and fruits as carrots, sweet potato and cantaloupe melons are excellent sources of carotene and Vitamin A, so a nice dinner can quickly turn into a Vitamin A feast. Various B group vitamins are usually found in whole grains, bananas, lentils, beans, potatoes, etc. As there are at least eight different vitamins in this group, you should check which food products have specific vitamins before going shopping next time. Oranges and lemons are long known as incredible sources of Vitamin C. However, some fruits as kiwi, grapefruits and cantaloupe, and vegetables such as red and green peppers and broccoli should also find their way into one’s everyday ration and weekly menu. Vitamin D production is stimulated by spending time in the sunshine, yet everyone can acquire this vitamin from eggs, oily fish, and mushrooms when it comes to food. When lacking Vitamin E, you should occasionally snack on almonds and other nuts and seeds as vitamin’s levels in these food products are the highest. Specialists help patients solve Vitamin K deficiency by advising them to eat lots of kale, spinach, broccoli and other leafy green vegetables.
When it comes to acquiring necessary minerals, calcium’s best source are dairy products: milk, cheese, yoghurt, etc. Even though iron’s top sources are seafood, vegetarians and vegans can obtain this mineral from cereal, beans, spinach, and pumpkin seeds. Similarly to iron and Vitamin E, magnesium can be acquired from nuts, spinach, and beans. Lastly, zinc deficiency’s solution is by far the most pleasant as you can eat dark chocolate to get this mineral; besides, beef, oysters, beans, and cereals are great zinc’s sources as well.
Vitamins, nutrients and minerals guarantee our wellbeing, health, and long life. When this process gets disturbed, it is up to us to weigh both advantages and disadvantages and choose natural, organic measures to keep substances’ levels norm. Science allows us to take shortcuts, but one must only choose this way when it is an absolute necessity. In other cases, we wholeheartedly encourage everyone to better chose healthy food full of vitamins and minerals. Nature gives us everything that our bodies may ever need; we just have to be aware of what we need and how can we achieve it. We created our CBD Oil Drops with the exact idea in mind – let’s not waste resources around us and use them to achieve the best version of ourselves.