Improve Your Metabolism

Did you ever stop and think, should I be eating more broccoli or kale? Or maybe a plant based approach, oh wait… walnuts are healthy right! And I know I should be eating more avocados.

Eeeek .. does it feel like your brain is firing off like this all day long or around meal time?

If you’re health conscious, looking to improve a hormonal imbalance (especially if you have PCOS) or want to lose weight, you might find your head spinning with all the nutrition information out there.

You might also be finding yourself focused on counting the calories, hitting the gym or saying no thank you to the donuts in the break room. 

Not that these aren’t helpful approaches, but it’s key to take a total body approach. This is something I preach all day long!

Why? Because without a total body approach, reaching your goals and maintaining success may not come easy.

I’ve seen over and over again how the micronutrient status of the body can directly impact health goals.

Micronutrients are in the broccoli, walnuts, kale….etc. BUT what specifically does your body need more of? That is what’s key.

I am going to outline for you a few top micronutrients that are important for metabolism. 

In fact, you may have never even considered these as important components to your health journey!

So let’s dig in

Top Three Micronutrients For Metabolism

Vitamin B12 

Most people might be familiar with vitamin B12. It’s mostly known for its super power to promote energy. Therefore, this vitamin is essential for energy production in the body. If you’ve ever made the mistake of taking a B12 vitamin past 2 pm you probably never did it again!

But, you also know if you’re fatigued and your moody, it can be extremely challenging to maintain health or find the motivation to move through what’s necessary to reach your health goals. And yes, your micronutrient status can play a huge role in your mood and motivation!

What is Vitamin B12?

Vitamin B12 is incredibly important for the heart, brain and hormones. In addition with the help of folate, this vitamin has the ability to form red blood cells and DNA.

Vitamin B12 plays a major role in lowering homocysteine levels. When elevated, it may be related to dementia, heart disease and even depression.

Depletion

86.5% of vegetarians have been shown to have a vitamin B12 deficiency. So when following a plant based diet, it’s important to work with a health professional to ensure all micronutrient levels are within normal ranges.

If your gut microbiome is compromised, not only can it be more challenging to lose weight, but you may also not be absorbing your vitamin B12 properly. In addition, HCL or hydrochloric acid is necessary for vitamin B12 to be absorbed. How can HCL become compromised? A poor diet, stress, autoimmune conditions or prescription medications. 

To learn more about supporting your microbiome for weight loss & a healthy metabolism, check out the article here.  

Restore

Aside from working with a provider who can monitor stores and offer supplementation, you can try diet approaches! Opt for grass-fed red meat, organic poultry, pasture raised egg yolks, alternative non-dairy milks, nutritional yeast and goat or sheep dairy products. 

Vitamin C

What is Vitamin C?

You might be familiar with vitamin C for a healthy immune system during flu season, but did you also know that vitamin C can support healthy progesterone levels?

 For starters, vitamin C is a water soluble vitamin that acts as an antioxidant and also helps to synthesize collagen production. 

Looping back to hormones, progesterone is important for fertility and libido. When it’s low, it’s common to feel mood swings, anxiety and fatigue. 

Low levels of progesterone can also contribute to weight gain. 

Depletion

Vitamin C can become depleted due to medications (particularly birth control), poor diet and even stress!

Restore

Try adding vitamin C rich foods like oranges, lemon, grapefruit, strawberries, red bell peppers, papaya and spinach to your meals.

Manganese

What is Manganese?

This essential mineral is important in cholesterol, glucose, carbohydrate and amino acid metabolism. For hormonal balance and to get the scale to budge- it’s essential that the blood sugar and insulin are in balance.

Depletion

It is primarily depleted due to poor diet and the quality of our food. Unfortunately, glyphosate or something commonly known as Round Up, is sprayed on a lot of conventional food products. This can also be a major contributor to a manganese depletion in people.

 I always suggest trying to purchase organic if it’s in your budget and available. Or, refer to the Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen list provided by the Environmental Working Group. This way, you can prioritize the most important fresh vegetables and fruits to buy organic.

Replete

Try opting for organic foods like macadamia nuts, hazelnuts, buckwheat and oats.

Your Micronutrient Status

To wrap it up, you can see that micronutrients play a major role in the efficiency of the metabolism, for hormonal balance and weight loss. 

Before adding in different supplements or over-doing it on one food, I suggest running a full micronutrient panel with a holistic practitioner so that you can learn on an individualized level what your body needs and at what amount. Without exact information, we often overload our bodies thinking “more is better.”

If you are a female struggling with PCOS, hormonal imbalance or just can’t get the scale to move in the right direction, I encourage you to schedule a complimentary meet and greet call with me to better understand how your micronutrient status might be holding you back from better health!

Hope to chat with you soon!

Micronutrients for Weight Loss

Disclaimer

This content is from the opinion of The Healing Roots, Nutrition Services, LLC doing business as Women’s Nutrition Clinic and is for educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice or to take the place of treatment or medical advice from a doctor. 

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