Proper Weight Management - A News Cafe

In today’s diets, we get caught up in calorie counting and loose the fact that approximately 90% of the entire population is nutrient-deficient.

It is estimated that at least 58% of the calories in the typical refined Western diet comes from ‘empty calorie’ foods (white flour products, refined oils, white sugar products and alcohol), in which most of the minerals, vitamins and fiber have been removed by processing and refining.  These calories cause us to gain fat.  These products lack the vitamins and minerals necessary for their own metabolism and are stored as fats.  We get plenty of calories but insufficient essential nutrients.  When we obtain adequate amounts of all essential nutrients, biological hunger ceases.  If our foods are nutrient-deficient, we overeat until we get them.

The energy value of foods is important in our diets.  Our bodies require 20 minerals and 13 essential vitamins on a daily basis, along with essential fatty acids, proper fiber, water, rest and sunlight.  The presence or absence of any of these will change the rate at which energy is produced or burned.

The ability to burn food efficiently into energy instead of fat depends upon hundreds of enzymes which, in turn, depend upon vitamins and minerals.  We cannot nourish our body unless the food is prepared for absorption.  Enzymes break down large food particles into smaller units.  For the body to make these enzymes it needs the right nutrients.  We can get certain enzymes from raw foods, but with today’s commercial growing practices, over processing and overcooking our foods, the enzymes are lost. 

Also, as we get older, our bodies loose the ability to make enough of these crucial enzymes. When food is not properly digested, there is an imbalance in overall health, leading to weight gain, allergies, imbalance in our bacteria count, and many degenarative diseases.

Leading nutritionist say that most Americans are deficient in essential minerals.  Our vitamins control the body’s appropriation of these minerals.  Without vitamins, minerals are not properly distributed throughout the body.  Our physical well-being should be directly dependent upon the minerals and vitamins we take in rather than counting calories of precise proportions of starches, proteins and carbs.

It is essential to consume optimal amounts of the crucial nutrients. For example, the body needs zinc and vitamin B6 to make insulin, while insulin’s ability to control blood sugar levels is helped by chromium, an essential mineral that helps in stabilizing blood sugar levels that control weight. 

And finally, to turn glucose into energy rather than fat, you need the B vitamins, vitamin C and magnesium.  You can see the important interaction of each nutrient.  If one is missing, the other does not function properly and therefore leads to many improper functions of the body, leading to obesity and a variety of diseases. With the modern day processing of our foods, we cannot get all of needed daily nutrients from our foods!  Supplementation is a must!  A great example; our optimum daily intake of vitamin C is 1,000 mg, or the equivalent of eating 30 oranges.

Exercising is also a key to weight loss.  Our bodies were made to be mobile and to exercise.  Vigorous exercising will raise your metabolic rate, which can burn calories for up to fifteen hours after exercising.  The key is keeping the energy or metabolic rate burning.  Moderate exercise also decreases your appetite while increasing blood flow, allowing all cells and organs to receive the required nutrients, as well as detoxifying the body.

Weight management is more than micromanaging calories and weighing in on the scale. Starvation diets only lead to muscle loss and malnutrition and eventually more weight gain.  If the body is out of balance and is lacking the right essentials, the body will suffer in the long run.  We need to make sure that we are eating wholesome foods, obtaining the proper vitamins, minerals, enzymes, fiber, essential fatty acids, water, and getting proper rest and are exercising.

The body will function properly when all these combinations are in balance.

In an effort to improve his health, Dominic DiNino became very interested in nutrition and natural healing. His desire to help not only himself, but also others, led him to become a Certified Nutritional Consultant in 2011. He enjoys educating people on the many benefits of taking control of their health. He can be contacted at ddinino@shasta.com.

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