I could write a whole book on fat, protein or carbohydrates. I won’t and don’t want to.
You know why? Because, there are already a bunch of them out there. To be honest,
too much attention is paid to the little details with the macro-nutrients. I told you I would
say things in a different way and provide a different perspective and that’s what I will
keep doing. Well the truth is, the most important parts of being healthy or losing weight
are the smallest things, the micro-nutrients. Read that again, reference this section
OFTEN and take a moment to do some quick internet research about these micro
nutrients. They will save your life!
Micro-nutrients have many different categories. In fact, these tiny parts of nutrition get
so little press and attention by health experts that I challenge you to do a “google
search” and come up with any coordinated information about micro-nutrients. Perhaps I
will run a series on The Body Blog in the near future to promote micro-nutrients and put
as much information in one place so the rest of the world can access it. Anyway, in this
section I want to give you as much information as I can BUT I won’t. I’ve found the
more information people learn about 1 aspect of nutrition they tend to focus on that as a
quick fix. If I spend this whole section talking about vitamins, then what you’ll do is
forget about a lot of stuff except that you need more vitamins. Inevitably, you’ll just go
out and purchase a multi-vitamin and think I’m full of it because that won’t get you
where you want to be. If you need significantly more of something I am about to go
over, I will tell you at the end of this book when I recommend what to purchase or
consume for your WWD.
Micro-nutrients include: vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. Phytochemicals
include some names that you may or may not have heard of: polyphenols,
phytonutrients, trace minerals, bioflavonoids/flavonals, plant sterols, adaptogens and
chlorophyll. I tried to put the most well known ones first so you didn’t get overwhelmed.
If you have been eating a diet with cooked foods, fast food, foods from cans, boxes or
bags chances are you’re not getting any or nearly enough of the above nutrients which
are so critical to your health.
One other important point is that there are so many different micro-nutrients! “Scientists
have identified about 10,000 of them so far, estimating about 10,000 that have yet to be
discovered.” -Dr. Joel Fuhrman
Vitamins. Probably the most well known micro-nutrient include Vitamins A,B,C,D,E,K.
Vitamin A is important for skin health, eye health and the health of many other organs.
Your body makes Vitamin A from carotenes in the foods you eat. Beta-carotene, the
most common, is present in large quantities typically in orange and yellow colored
foods. Pre-formed Vitamin A (from vitamins or animal foods) can be toxic in high doses,
but when consuming whole foods, carotenes don’t pose a health threat, even in large
doses. If you go crazy on a diet of all carrots, it’s conceivable your skin could turn
orange which is about the worst case scenario. The WWD will be high in carotenes
because you will be building new, healthy cells like crazy to replace the old toxic ones.
Vitamin B. This is a whole family of vitamins including thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2),
niacin (B3), pantothenic acid (B5), pyridoxine (B6), biotin (B7), folic acid or folate (B9),
cobalamin (B12). They have a role with the activity of enzymes typically crucial to
turning food into energy. We commonly hear that if we are sluggish or low in energy
that we need to take a B vitamin supplement. Eh, hold your horses, it’s not that simple.
Energy will come naturally from eating nutrient rich foods, not by adding one specific
nutrient. Remember, we’re here to get completely healthy not learn how to supplement
with one specific vitamin. However, with the B vitamin niacin, there is evidence that you
can use it to naturally balance cholesterol levels. (20)
Vitamin C. In my opinion (and that of many experts) this is the most important vitamin
to increase the dosage in turning around your health. Also known as ascorbic acid, this
powerful vitamin can kill cancer cells. It helps strengthen the body’s immune response
and aid in cell’s DNA repair. It is a powerful anti-inflammatory agent and it promotes
increased circulation, two things that are vital in detoxing and repairing with this
program. Vitamin C has virtually no known toxicity but describing the benefits could
take another book! It is important to get Vitamin C from foods though and they include
many brightly colored fruits and vegetables. Interestingly, the vitamin C poster child,
oranges are not even that high in Vitamin C when compared to other foods. We will be
eating a lot of foods rich in Vitamin C with the WWD.
Vitamin D. While technically not a vitamin, it’s a hormone that is produced in the skin
when exposed to sunlight. It has been revealed in recent years as one of the most
crucial factors in body functions and healing. Organs not operating at peak capacity
can lead to disorders such as diabetes. Low Vitamin D levels have been linked to many
modern diseases and cancers. In fact from analyzing world health charts it is apparent
to me that the less sun one gets, the more susceptible they are to cancer (including skin
cancer!). Vitamin D is understandably harder to make in the winter months without the
sun, so a supplement is absolutely critical. If you put on sunscreen in the summer, it
actually hinders or prevents Vitamin D production so deficiency is a year-round concern.
Vitamin E. This is an important nutrient because of the role it plays in protecting your
body from oxidizing. Yes, oxygen is important, but it can also play a part in deteriorating
your body from the inside out without the proper nutrients such as Vitamin E in place. I
have not seen any significant research to date that shows any substantial benefits of
intentional Vitamin E therapy (high doses). It clearly works best as a protectant when
consumed in vitamin-rich foods. Something of note though is that for years, cheap
vitamin manufacturers have been selling Vitamin E supplements that are actually not
the form our body uses, but a motor oil byproduct. Gross and a waste of money.
Vitamin K. An interesting vitamin. Perhaps that is why vitamins jump from E to K. It is
present largely in green, leafy vegetables, something we get far too little of. Vitamin K
is known to help blood clotting but also aid in the absorption of calcium, one of the most
important minerals in our diet. Helping to prevent hardening of the arteries, Vitamin K
can also be a huge aid in the beginnings of your new diet. Most of us who haven’t been
eating a diet that is advised by this book have arterial damage in the form of plaque,
hardened arteries, and other such heart disease risks. Your body can make Vitamin K
in your intestines, but getting it through whole food ensures that we have an ample
supply.
Here is the most important thing about micronutrients. Our bodies are EXTREMELY
adaptive. They have adapted to the nutrient deficient diets we feed them by running on
far lower levels than are optimal. Sometimes we can even synthesize these nutrients
inside our bodies with basic resources. However, the quickest way to become truly
healthy and lose weight is this: Instead of relying on our bodies to spend time getting
creative and converting resources, if we just give them an over abundance of the good
stuff, all that wasted time can be spent on detoxifying and burning that excess fat away.
That’s what we really want. So help your body help itself!
Minerals. Plants absorb them through the soil when they grow. Modern farming
practices have depleted the soil of a large quantity of minerals and so the food we eat,
even if we eat a good amount of fruits and vegetables, is most likely deficient in these
important nutrients. Just like macro-nutrients and micro-nutrients there are macrominerals
generally referred to as electrolytes and micro-minerals called trace minerals.
As you may have guessed you need more electrolytes on a daily basis than you do
trace minerals.
I will spend time covering the macro-minerals in a bit of detail, but the trace minerals
you will get enough of if you are eating a nice variety of raw/fresh fruits and vegetables
and consuming the super foods I’ll mention later. When it comes to electrolytes, having
an ample supply is crucial for maintaining fluid balance and hydration in your body.
Remember, we need to flush out the toxins from your cells, which means we need to be
hydrated and in proper balance in order to replace toxic fluids with fresh ones.
Calcium. You will NOT be getting this from milk or dairy products. In fact, milk actually
draws calcium from your body in order to neutralize it, because it’s so acidic! Data links
increased calcium excretion in the urine with consumption of animal products. Milk and
dairy products have a lot of phosphorus in them which hinders calcium absorption. Milk,
also low in magnesium, hinders our body’s ability to utilize the calcium we do absorb.
We will be changing our mindset and understanding that the best way to get calcium is
from vegetables period. Calcium is an essential mineral for building strong bones,
optimal muscle and nerve function, but also helps regulate the permeability of cell
membranes. In other words it helps preserve your cells ability to flush out toxins and
receive new nutrients.
Magnesium. SO important when you are trying to turn around your health and your
weight. If you have been bombarding your body with toxins for years or overworking it
because of excess weight, magnesium will be your body’s best friend. It will help your
liver and pancreas start to repair and return to normal functioning. (10) Magnesium is
present in most of the protein functions in the body. Remember the protein messengers
that are formed by the amino acids? Imagine if your body was a huge mailroom and all
the letters going out were protein messengers. Can you picture the chaos that would
ensue if a few of the mail sorters went on strike? Do you know someone (maybe
personally) who this may be happening to? Yes, magnesium will be an integral part of
getting healthy and losing weight. Just our luck, there are several ways to work high
quality magnesium sources into our WWD in a delicious way! Magnesium will also help
maintain optimal levels of potassium.
Potassium. Usually we think of bananas right? Potassium is required for normal
muscle and nerve cell functioning. It regulates intracellular osmotic pressure. Basically,
your cell’s ability to communicate with one another and receive nutrients. As you can
see, all these micro-nutrients work in harmony. Some are responsible for similar and
complimentary tasks. If you are overweight or ever get sick you are undoubtedly
deficient in some or all of them. Potassium helps to get rid of excess salt in your
system. If you have a potassium deficient diet, that may lead to high sodium levels
which have a multitude of dangerous effects.
Sodium. Sodium is not inherently bad. It is a necessary macro-mineral and important
for your fluid balance and also is necessary for proper muscle and nerve function. It
helps essential fatty acids (EFAs) convert to phospholipids. Basically, it aids in your
body building new cells. Remember we want new, healthy cells built with the proper
amount of nutrients to replace our unhealthy nutrient deficient cells. Kind of like
replacing that old gas-guzzling car with a new electric car. Sodium can be dangerous
though because conventional salt is so over abundant in our processed food supply.
Table salt is actually toxic to our body because to process it, our body has to draw from
stores of other minerals. Ingesting table salt is like eating a McDonald’s burger. It may
give you what you need to survive, but it doesn’t make you healthy. Salt in its natural
form (sea salt) contains sodium and 84 other trace minerals that are natural to your
body and its ability to effectively use sodium. We will be cutting down and out table salt
and replacing it with sea salt which we will use with moderation.
Phosphorus. This mineral is important because it helps us build new cells and is a
crucial component of DNA synthesis. One of the primary ways we can help prevent
cancer is by ensuring that our body has enough of the right supplies to build new cells
and replicate DNA with. Phosphorus is found in pretty much all foods so we will be
getting plenty. Often people think they need meat to get enough of this nutrient. Not so.
In fact meat and animal product consumption leads to an over abundance of
phosphorus in our systems which can contribute to osteoporosis.
Manganese. This is different than magnesium and why I separated the two. We need
this important mineral to aid in Vitamin C absorption. It also contributes to the activation
of certain enzymes around the body associated with metabolism and growth of certain
tissues which will be central to our success with the WWD. Manganese will help your
body utilize the EFAs that will become so therapeutic with this diet in replacing old cells
and improving brain function.
You may be wondering at this point when I am going to get to antioxidants. That’s all
we ever hear about in the media. “Gotta get more antioxidants!” Yes, you do. Here is
the simple explanation of what anti-oxidants are: They are micro-nutrients that
neutralize free radicals. Many of the micro-nutrients are anti-oxidants. Normal
processes in the body produce free radicals as a by-product. They are completely
natural.
Also, free radicals bombard our system from outside sources including chemicals in the
air, the water, our food, trans-fatty acids from frying food, and many others. If you
remember middle school science, atoms consist of a proton and neutron core with an
electron cloud surrounding it. Free radicals are unstable atomic structures that can
literally rip our cells apart. Anti-oxidants are like the antidote to these poisons. They
donate an electron to the unstable free radicals and neutralize them.
The unhealthier our diet is, the more compromised our lifestyle, the more free radical
damage we impart upon our fragile bodies. This leads to getting sick, low energy, premature
physical aging, developing diseases and cancers. (Sarcastically) Luckily, there
is a new market of “magic bullet” health tonics that claim to be free-radical fighters. You
may come across the term ORAC which stands for Oxygen Radical Absorbance
Capacity. You have a bunch of different companies claiming they have a concoction of
different juices and extracts that will neutralize free radicals to a higher and higher
degree. They do...in a test tube. While I can say with confidence that these “miracle
juices” are not unhealthy for you, their claims can be overblown. In a test tube they may
be able to neutralize an incredible amount of free radicals in a controlled environment.
When it comes to real life and your body though, it’s very hard to tell their effectiveness.
I personally think a better idea is to put your money into raw fruits, vegetables and nonpharmaceuticalized
super foods.
I say all that to say this: there is so much we don’t know about micro-nutrients because
they are so small and there are so many of them. If we’re talking about a possible
20,000 different phytochemicals in food, half of which we haven’t even discovered there
is no way we know for sure how much one single lab-formulated product will do for us.
That being said, I personally consume an effervescent vitamin supplement frequently.
Why? Same reason I have car insurance. Just in case.
Anti-oxidants are anything that neutralizes a free radical, so they include all of what we
are talking about, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. It’s a generic term, not one
that refers to a specific food or specific vitamins.
Phytochemicals are perhaps the most mysterious of all the micro-nutrients, but also the
most important. Like I said, the smaller the nutrient, the more important it becomes for
your health and losing weight! We need powerful microscopes to see these things and
DNA testing to see how they affect us. Thank goodness that modern technology has
advanced enough that we understand their importance even if we don’t know how many
there are! I will take this section to give you enough information to convince you of their
importance, but not so much that you get confused. I want you to feel confident that
you can do this, not confused to the point of frustration.
I guess it would be easiest to start with trace-minerals. These are tiny minerals that are
absolutely essential to the processes that go on inside your body. However, unlike the
macro-minerals we don’t need large amounts of them. Food processing generally strips
many of the nutrients away including trace-minerals. So in the case of sea salt, even
though trace-minerals only make up 1/10th of the weight, they are so important for the
processing and utilization of sodium in our body. Trace minerals are present in many
fruits and vegetables so if you are good about implementing food groups in the WWD
then you will get plenty.
Phytochemicals I’ll put into one big grouping. Why? Because, once again, if I describe
too much in detail what benefits have been found by each one, inevitably someone will
think the answer is to just go out and buy that isolated compound and all their wildest
health fantasies will come true. Phytochemicals are tiny compounds in plants that work
together like a symphony. Like Dr. Fuhrman mentioned earlier, we don’t even know how
many there are. These are the most misunderstood when it comes to nutrition and
reversing disease.
Basically, these tiny nutrients work together to neutralize free radicals, deactivate
cancer cells and our mutated DNA, repair our cells and help form healthy new ones
while disposing of the old toxic cells. They stop the damage that’s already been done,
help to reverse it and make sure it doesn’t happen again---provided we keep feeding
our body a stable supply of them. Best part is that they have no side effects! I
challenge anyone to show me one prescription drug that can do the same.
Polyphenols represent the larger category of many anti-oxidants and other micronutrients.
Plant sterols work with your body to inhibit the absorption of bad cholesterol
and reverse heart disease factors. Foods containing them include whole grains, nuts,
seeds and legumes. Flavanoids and bio-flavonoids are sometimes referred to as
Vitamin P. They are often responsible for the bright colors that we see in fruits and
vegetables. As powerful anti-oxidants they help to enhance the effectiveness of Vitamin
C and are anti-inflammatory themselves. If your dinner plate resembles a preschooler’s
art project in terms of color then you are on the right path getting healthy and
losing weight.
Chlorophyll and adaptogens get their own segment to end the micro-nutrients with.
Chlorophyll as you remember from science class is the substance inside plants that
absorbs the sun’s energy and turns it into food. In other words, it is the beginning of the
food chain, thus the essence of all life. I have seen a lot, read a lot and a lot has been
speculated about chlorophyll. This is what I personally believe: Chlorophyll seems to
be a powerful agent in finding and eradicating toxins from our bodies. They are like
bouncers at a night club going around breaking up fights and escorting the trouble
makers out of the club. Green sea plants like algae, chlorella and others are especially
high in chlorophyll but pretty much any green leafy vegetable will give you some. Trust
me, you want as much of this stuff in your body as possible when you begin to detoxify!
If you want to compare losing weight and getting healthy to a construction site and
building a high-rise apartment complex, adaptogens are like the foreman. Everyone
has their specific jobs but when chaos ensues they help to calm the situation and get
everybody back on track and doing their jobs. Adaptogens are quickly becoming some
of the most sought after substances on the earth. Few plants have them and the ones
that are found to contain them have been prized by their native cultures for centuries.
It’s only now with a globalized economy that we have access to these amazing plants
containing adaptogens. They are plants like maca, and medicinal mushrooms. To be
classified an adaptogen a plant must: be non-toxic to the body, increase the body’s
resistance to physical, chemical or biological stress and normalize the body’s
physiology. We don’t even know all there is to know about them, just that they’re
amazing for our overall health.
With the WWD we will be focusing on getting as many micro-nutrients as possible. Of
course your basic caloric needs will be met in the process. Can you see now that
refining foods takes many of these key players out of the equation when it comes to
your health? There are thousands, even tens of thousands of these micro-nutrients in
our food that are lost in processing and even cooking food. Eating good food and
utilizing the nutrients in a symphony and when we take instruments out of the orchestra
it just doesn’t sound the same.
Are you beginning to see how simply focusing on calorie consumption to lose weight
and get healthy has been a grave mistake and bad advice from our doctors, trainers
and family members?
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