Making sure you are getting proper nutrition can be a challenge when you consider how our foods are processed. Though we hope our choices are healthy, you have to wonder what the addictives, preservatives and the entire chain of getting our food from field to table are like these days in this modern world.
However, women need to be especially careful about eating more foods with these six essential nutrients to stay healthy or supplementing them.
Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine) is found in baked sweet potatoes, bananas, skinless cooked chicken breasts, Brewer's yeast, cod, toasted Wheat germ, raw carrots, halibut, and flounder. Without enough B6, you will be restless, moody, and unable to sleep well since it helps your nervous system work.
Vitamin B12 is found in Brewer's yeast, tuna, sole, haddock, whole milk, plain, low-fat yogurt and hard-boiled eggs. Without enough of this crucial nutrient, you will feel exhausted, irritable, unable to stay alert, and may even experience numbness for even a slight deficiency since this vitamin regulates the central nervous system.
Folate or folic acid is found in cooked asparagus, raw spinach, cooked lentils, Brewer's yeast, orange juice, and cooked broccoli. A deficiency of this nutrient can affect the brain and your reflexes since it centers around the spinal cord and acts like a switchbox of the central nervous system. A lack of this vitamin can mean you get cold, numb legs, weight loss, severe constipation, and insomnia. Pregnant women especially need to have enough of this vitamin in the first few weeks to ensure proper brain and spinal cord development of the baby.
Vitamin D3 is found in egg yolks, canned sardines, and cod liver oil. Your bones, teeth and muscles will weaken if you fail to get enough of this vitamin. This nutrient is important for protecting against autoimmune diseases, breast and ovarian cancers.
Calcium is found in milk, almonds and tofu. Without enough, you are at risk to develop PMS, fragile bones and high blood pressure.
Iron is the last important nutrient you need and is found in chickpeas, shrimp, sunflower seeds, Blackstrap molasses, almonds, raisins, lentils, turkey, lima beans, peanuts, chopped spinach, haddock, cod, peas and soybeans. A deficiency of this nutrient will result in you having a lack of energy, anemia, and an inability to concentrate because it works with brain function.
Although there is a debate over the value of vitamin supplements, I personally believe in taking them as a precaution since you do not the real value of the foods you eat these days.
