This Salmon and Asparagus Salad Delivers Vitamin D and Iron

We’re suckers for salmon, whether it’s atop our go-to grain bowl or as the foundation for a better-for-you burger. The fatty fish packs important nutrients like vitamin D, heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids, and protein.

What’s more, salmon is hearty enough that it satisfies. Even when it’s paired with the simplest ingredients, the flavorful fish keeps us feeling full. Health.

This superfood salad pairs canned salmon with fresh ingredients like iron-rich baby spinach, mushrooms, and carrots. We also add asparagus to the mix, which is high in vitamins A, C, E, K, and B6. Asparagus is also thought to help with weight loss, thanks to its high fiber content.

Even better, the salad comes together in just four simple steps, so it’s perfect for those days when you need to pack lunch in a flash (a.k.a. every day). Follow the recipe to make a single serving, or double up the ingredients to knock out tomorrow’s lunch, too. Health.

Sauteéing the asparagus and mushrooms is the only cooking required. You can also whisk up a simple vinaigrette to top it all off. For our dressing, we mix tangy rice vinegar with honey, salt, and cucumbers to deliver a fresh finish. Add a dash of sesame seeds at the end for an extra hit of flavor and a subtle crunch.

Together, the salmon, asparagus, and spinach outshine your standard sad desk lunch. Watch the video to learn how to make this winning combo jam-packed with the vitamins and minerals your body needs

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Warning Signs Of Vitamin B12 Deficiency And 4 Foods To Fix It

Did you know that one of the most important, and complex vitamins, which play a very essential role in our body is the vitamin B12? Well, it is, and if you lack this specific vitamin, it can cause a lot of complications and conditions. Thus, it is of great importance to detect the symptoms of this deficiency, before they start to pose a serious threat.

Therefore, we will present you with some of the symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency, and later we will tell you the benefits of this important vitamin.

The Symptoms of Vitamin B12 Deficiency
1. Swollen and Inflamed Tongue
A common symptom of a lack of this vitamin is loss of little bumps on the tongue, which are known as papillae. They are responsible for the taste. If we lose these taste buds, we will lose the sense of taste.

2. Fatigue
The most common symptom of vitamin B12 deficiency, and of all vitamin deficiencies actually, is fatigue. Fatigue happens due to low levels of oxygen in the cells and in return this makes us feel tired and sleepy.

3. Numbness in the Head and Feet
The oxygen levels in the body are caused by vitamin B12 deficiency and this can lead to numbness in the feet and head.

4. Anemia
What vitamin B12 does is help with the formation of erythrocytes, which are the cells that carry the oxygen. If you lack this vitamin, you may develop a condition called anemia. Thus, your heart muscles and the heart will not receive the level of oxygen they need to function properly, thus resulting in fatigue, too.

The Health Benefits of Vitamin B12
1. Boosts Your Energy Levels
This vitamin can easily boost your energy levels and it is very crucial for the metabolism. What it does is convert carbs into usable energy. This is why people who lack it, may experience fatigue.

2. Important for your Bones
A lot of studies have shown that people who suffer from osteoporosis have low levels of vitamin B12, yet, have high levels of homocysteine in their blood.

3. Prevents Nerve Damage
This vitamin can replenish the myelin sheath of the nerves and it can protect them from different types of damage.

4. Protects your Heart
Studies have proven that vitamin B12 is very beneficial for the heart because it reduces the levels of homocysteine in the blood, thus preventing the condition.

As  you can see, these are some of the main symptoms of the lack of vitamin B12 in the body, and the benefits of course. It is of great importance to get thus vitamin in your body. Therefore, our advice would be to eat eggs, clams, turkey and beef, due to the fact that they are the best natural source of vitamin B12. Your body will be thankful!

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6 Non-Meat Sources of Vitamin B12 for Vegetarians and Vegans

Vegetarians usually lack vitamin B12, as they don’t consume meat. Nowadays, more cases of vitamin B12 deficiency are being reported due to the veganism catching on as a trend.

The United States Department Of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service reports that almost two-fifths of Americans have near-deficient or low levels of vitamin B12. Countries like Mexico, India, some parts of Central and South America and Africa struggle with dietary deficiency of vitamin B12 from vegetarianism.

Although there are various suggestions of alternative sources for B12, coming from the vegan population, statistics show that most vegans and vegetarians are deficient in this crucial vitamin.

The American Journal Of Clinical Nutrition has published a study, according to which lack of B12 in vegans leads to high concentrations of the amino acid homocysteinemia.

Meat Eaters Have It Easy
You might have heard that vitamin B12 can’t be obtained from sunlight or plant sources, as this vitamin isn’t necessary for plants so they don’t keep deposits of it in their bodies. This vitamins is commonly found in animal food such as clams, liver, mussels, oysters, eggs, milk, crab, fish, beef, lobster, pork, and lamb. There’s a trace of cobalt in this vitamin, hence the name cobalamin – produced only in animals’ gut. So, if plants aren’t producing them, how come herbivorous animals have it, and where do they get it from?

The research-backed nutrition recommendation portal, Vegan Health, has published a fact sheet according to which rabbits, hares, some rodents, and some other herbivorous animals get their necessary amount of vitamin B12 from their own body wastes, or nature. Primates thought to be the closest to human vegetarians, get the required amount of B12 through insects, eggs, and soil. Ruminants like cows, buffaloes, bison, antelopes, goats, giraffe, deer, and sheep possess gut bacteria which produce this vitamin in their bodies. Herbivores like zebras, horses, hares, elephants, and rabbits, get their B12 fix either through the soil through bacteria in their gut, or by eating their own fecal pellets.

While vegetarian population consume dairy products, vegans exclude any form of animal products, even honey. Therefore, vegetarians have more options in B12 sources.

Vitamin B12 Sources for Vegans

1. Some Plants Have Traces of It

Researchers are constantly trying to find good sources of vitamin B12 for vegans. One recent research discovered traces of this vitamin in the outer skin of white button mushroom and the seaweed Nori. According to the research, so far, these are the only 2 non-animal food sources of considerable amount of vitamin B12.

Though fermented soy products like miso and tempeh, seaweed, and yeast have been identified as alternative sources, there’s an ongoing debate if they are reliable vitamin B12 sources. This is because they contain inactive form of this vitamin which can actually interfere with the absorption of B12 in the body, as opposed to the active form found in the previous sources we mentioned.

2. Fortified Foods, Supplements as Last Resort

In case you can’t include these B12 sources in your diet, due to allergies, taste preferences, or availability problems, the only way is to rely on B12 supplements or fortified food.

3. Breakfast Cereals

The National Institute of Health states that the most readily available vitamin B12 source for vegetarians is fortified breakfast cereals, containing as much as six micrograms of this vitamin per serving. Many studies have confirmed that eating fortified cereal for breakfast or dinner can raise the levels of iron, folate, vitamin B1, B6, and B12.

4. Fortified Rice

Another great source of micronutrients that vegetarian population can use to satisfy their requirements for B12 is fortified rice. The Annals of The New York Academy Of Sciences has published a study which says that fortified rice shown little or no loss of this vitamin regardless of the chosen cooking method. This was proven by another study published in the Journal Of Nutrition, showing that fortified rice improved the levels of vitamin B12 in school children in India.

5. Malt and Cocoa-Based Milk

Clinical Nutrition has published a study which recommends cocoa-based milk and fortified malt to increase vitamin B12, B2, red cell folate, and body weight in children. Infants of vegetarian or vegan mothers will get the necessary amount of vitamin 12 from breast milk in the first 6 months. However, once they stop breastfeed, they can fill their nutrient gap will soymilk fortified with B12 and calcium, according to studies.

6. Supplements

Supplement is the other way for vegans to obtain their B12 fix. It is recommended taking small doses more frequently, as the body can absorb a limited amount of this vitamin at a specific point of time. According to one study, doses of 0.1–0.5 µg of vitamin B12 led to 52% to 97% absorption; doses in the range of 1 µg and 5 µg showed 56% to 28% absorption respectively; and higher doses ranging from 10 µg to 50 µg showed 16% to 3% absorption, respectively. These supplements can be safely added in a vegan diet, as they are not produced from animal products.

Although vitamin B12 is regarded as non-toxic and safe, consult your doctor if you are pregnant, if you are taking other medications, or you have abnormal levels of red blood cells in the body. Vitamin B12 can damage the optic nerve in Leber’s disease patients and people with acne.

Therefore, add fortified food in your diet, B12 supplements, and stay healthy.

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Lack of This Vitamin Is The Most Common Cause Of Anemia

Anemia is a common health issue affecting people of all ages including children. This condition occurs when you don’t have enough healthy red blood cells or hemoglobin to carry adequate oxygen supply to the tissues in your body.

One of the most common causes of anemia is deficiency in folic acid or B9 vitamin. Folic acid or folate, belongs to the group of B vitamins, which are water-soluble. This vitamin takes part as a coenzyme in many biochemical reactions in the body. Deficiency of folic acid can lead to a number of health issues including megaloblastic anemia, neural tube defects in fetuses, increased levels of homocysteine which in turn triggers other health complications such as atherosclerosis and heart attack.

Folic acid is also important for the production of red blood cells. In addition, it improves the body absorption of B12, especially when you are under stress or fighting depression, heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s.

Megaloblastic anemia caused by B9 deficiency occurs when the process of red blood cell production in the body is compromised. As red blood cells are in charge of transporting oxygen throughout the body, a reduced number of these cells leads to anemia.

CAUSES

There are several contributors that lead to folate-deficiency anemia. The most common include:

• Poor nutrition – folate deficiency is often the result of poor nutrition or a diet low in folic acid. Excessive alcohol consumption can also be a cause.
• Malabsorption – certain condition such as Crohn’s and celiac disease can also lead to folate deficiency.
• Increased body requirements for folic acid – some health issues increase the body’s need of folic acid. These can be physiological, such as pregnancy, growth and development during puberty, or pathological, such as hemolytic anemia, tumors, chronic dialysis etc.
• Certain medications – medications such as methotrexate, trimethoprim, barbiturates as well as oral contraceptives can often result in folate deficiency.

COMMON SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS
The most common signs and symptoms of folate-deficiency anemia include:

• Weakness
• Chronic fatigue
• Paleness
• Difficulty breathing
• Heart palpitations or irregular heartbeat
• Dizziness
• A sore, burning tongue
• Inability to focus
• Decreased appetite
• Weight loss
• Irritability
• Diarrhea

Folate-deficiency anemia gives very similar symptoms to anemia caused by lack of vitamin B12, except for neuropathy or damage to peripheral nerves, which leads to weakness, numbness and pain, usually in your hands and feet.

Not many people know that folic acid reserves in the body are much lower than the daily requirements for this vitamin. Therefore, a diet low in B9 vitamin can trigger megaloblastic anemia in a very short time.

THERAPY AND PREVENTION

Folic acid deficiency can be treated with medications in doses prescribed by a doctor. The therapy duration depends on the root cause of folate-deficiency. Pregnant women are advised to take folic acid preventatively. It’s also given to prematurely born babies.

Aside from taking medications, you can easily increase your folic acid intake through your diet. Foods rich in vitamin B9 include spinach, broccoli, citrus fruits, legumes etc.

source: https://www.healthyfoodteam.com

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Vitamin Bomb For Vision Improvement: Amazing Results!

Academic Filatov advised his patients to use this miraculous mixture besides their medications and hospital services, and all those who tried, were amazed by the results.

In the nineteen sixties, at the Ophthamology Clinic, besides the regular tratment and medical therapies, one Russian doctor, ophthamologist and surgeon Vladimir Petrovich Filatov advised his patients to prepare this mixture according to the recipe of alternative medicine, so they improve their vision or prevent further weakening.

After he presented the recipe to his patients, people started using it massively and had very positive experiences.

All you need to make this healing mixture is:

• 100 g aloe juice (Aloe arborescens, you can make it from the leves of the plant)
• 500 g of milled walnut
• 300 g of honey
• 3-4 squeezed lemons (you’ll need the juice only)

How to prepare aloe juice:

Cut the larger, lower and the middle leaves of the aloe plant, leaving the top of the plant and the upper 3-4 leaves. Wash it with cooled boiled water, remove the spikes from the leaves and cut them into small pieces. Squeeze the juice through a double gauze.

When you have made the aloe juice, mix it with the other ingredients.

You should consume this mixture 3 times a day, 1 tablespoon, 30 minutes before a meal. Consume it constantly until it comes to some vision improvements. Besides that, this potion it’s a real vitamin bomb – it strengthens the whole body!

Tip:

Academic Filatov recommended that you should not cut the leaves right after you wash them, but leave them on the plate and keep them in the fridge for 10-12 days. Under these conditions, the cells of the aloe are forming substances known as “biogenic stimulators”, which make the aloe cells more active. Afterwards, wash the leaves again and follow the instruction above.  You can also prepare a biostimulative aloe juice from those leaves.

Note:

You should know that the aloe juice can be contraindicated with acute renal diseases gastrointestinal tract diseases, in the last trimester of pregnancy, inflammatory processes of female genital organs, diseases of the cardiovascular system in the stage of decompensation, tuberculosis and hemorrhoids.

Important:

It is very important that the aloe plant is not younger than 2-3 years.

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This Vitamin Deficiency Causes Severe Headaches And Migraines!

People who suffer from a migraine know how extremely painful they can be. Migraines cause severe intense and recurring throbbing pain, combined with visual disturbances, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, extreme sensitivity to light, sound, smell and touch, and tingling or numbness in the face. A migraine attack typically lasts for 4 to 72 hours, and it is one of the top 20 of the world’s most disabling medical illnesses.

Environmental factors and genetics are believed to have a big impact in causing migraines.A number of things can trigger a migraine attack, including:

1.Changes in Hormones – Fluctuations in estrogen in women (and men) can trigger headaches. This occurs before or during a woman’s menstrual cycle.

2.Drinks – Any type of alcohol, such as red wine with high phenol content, along with beverages that are highly caffeinated can trigger migraines.

3.Foods – Foods that are salty (not with sea salt, but highly refined salt) and processed foods are thought to be a cause of migraines, along with skipping meals or fasting.

4.Sensory Stimuli – There are loud sounds, unusual smell such as strong perfume, sun glare, or very bright lights, can trigger a migraine to people who have multiple sensitivity of any chemical.

5.Stress – Stress at work or at home can trigger migraines, especially when dwelling on a stressful situation or if unable to manage stress.

6.Changes in sleep patterns – Missing sleep or even getting too much sleep can be a cause of migraines, as well as jet lag. This is associated with a lack of grounding or earthing  (a lack of direct skin-to-skin connection to the Earth).

7.Environmental changes – A change in weather or some change in barometric pressure can trigger a migraine.

8.Physical factors –  Intense physical exertion including exercise, manual labor or physical activity may trigger migraines usually due to muscle tension believed to be connected with a lack of calcium and/or magnesium in the diet.

9.Consuming some medications – Oral contraceptives and vasodilators can trigger a migraine attack.

Migraines and vitamin deficiencies

Another migraine trigger that has been recently researched is a vitamin deficiency. According to one study, which tested 52 people diagnosed with a migraine, it was conducted that supplementation with vitamin B12, vitamin B6, and folic acid, are significantly reducing the chances of a migraine attack. Also, another study has found that Vitamin B2 can help to prevent a migraine attack.

There is also another study, which found that 40% of patients with a chronic migraine have Vitamin D deficiency.

How does it work?

Deficiencies of Vitamin B12 and folic acid can cause anemia, so if this condition becomes severe enough, it can trigger a migraine, in addition to memory loss, fatigue, etc.

So, if you have problems with migraine attacks, it is very important to make sure that you are getting enough of these nutrients in your diet to help prevent  migraine attacks

Vitamin B12, vitamin B6, vitamin B2, vitamin D, and Folic Acid.


source: healthypage365

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This One Vitamin Deficiency Could be Causing Your Insomnia

A huge portion of the population have some kind of vitamin deficiency or other. As a result, too many of us get ill regularly, don’t heal rapidly from illnesses, suffer with mood disorders and have a general malaise and lack of energy.

It’s no exaggeration to say that a lot of our problems could probably be solved by getting more vitamins and minerals.

And insomnia is one of the most prominent issues. Insomnia is a serious condition and an inability to sleep well enough or long enough can result in: headaches, poor mood, lack of concentration, slow healing, susceptibility to disease, low energy and more. If you want to get more out of life every day, if you want to get more from your relationships and your work; then you need to focus on your sleep.

The Vitamin You Need

So which vitamin deficiency could be negatively affecting your sleep? There are a few actually but the one we’re going to focus on is vitamin B12.

Vitamin B12 is used to create our red blood cells (along with iron) which deliver oxygen around our body and enable our brains to function optimally. It also builds DNA as we sleep.

Moreover though, vitamin B12 works closely with the hormone melatonin and helps our body to regulate its ‘circadian rhythms’ – the sleep/wake cycles that make us tired at the right times and awake at the right times.

We need to consume about 2.4 milligrams of B12 a day receive these benefits, which is something that a great many of us fail to do.

This isn’t actually what causes many of us to have the deficiency though. For a lot of people, that problem is instead due to digestive problems which can occur as a result of antibiotic use for instance. Vegans also suffer from this problem, seeing as most of our B12 comes from meat, fish and dairy.

So what’s the solution? One answer is to try increasing your intake of foods high in B12, which include most meats, fish, eggs and dairy. Vegans would do well to supplement. Meanwhile, make sure you are looking after your stomach fauna by consuming things like yogurt that contain healthy bacteria.

Other Vitamins and Minerals

Many other vitamins and minerals also play a very important role here. Low vitamin D for instance has been linked with insomnia and as many of us are deficient, supplementation is again a good idea. Zinc and magnesium also play a very important role in our sleep and help us to reach those deeper and healthier levels of sleep.

You can even eat foods like cherries which actually contain melatonin and these are able to act almost like sleeping pills.

Foods high in tryptophan such as turkey and eggs are also good for enhancing sleep, as tryptophan is a precursor to serotonin which is the feel good hormone and is closely linked with melatonin.

Low potassium can make it hard for us to stay asleep in the night and cause cramps. The moral of the story? Eat your greens and sleep better!


source: healthyfoodhouse

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