HNFSC: nutrition part ii
it’s the micro things that matter
Welcome back to my series on the Hierarchy of Needs for Food System Change! If you missed the intro to what this is all about and why I’m writing about it, check out this page.
Last week, we chatted about the macronutrients and how they relate to the health of your body and the planet. Today, we’re looking at the little guys. Those pesky micronutrients that are relegated to the bottom of a nutrition facts panel, and all too often aren’t even listed. I think it’s time we shed some light on these oft forgotten heroes, so let’s dig in!
fiber: the gut one
Fiber, or prebiotics as they’re often touted today, is important for cardiovascular health as well as gut health. On average, we only get about half as much as we should and only 5% of the US population gets enough fiber in their diet (!!) which is 25 – 30 grams. You typically get fiber from whole food sources, like oatmeal or leafy greens, but there are new wave Metamucils out there like your Olipops. Each source can have slightly different types of fibers and they affect you in different ways. There are generally two types of fiber: soluble and insoluble fiber.
soluble fiber: glucose goddess extraordinaire
As the name suggests, soluble fiber dissolves in water to create a kind of gel in your stomach. It slows down digestion and helps manage blood sugar spikes and lowers your cholesterol. Increased blood sugar levels can lead to many different chronic diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular disease by increasing inflammation and creating oxidative stress throughout your body. Your body will actually age faster due to high swings in your blood sugar levels and soluble fiber slows down how quickly sugar is taken up so you don’t get these massive fluctuations that your insulin-producing pancreas has to keep up with. The gel made by soluble fibers binds to cholesterol and prevents its absorption into the bloodstream, especially the “bad” cholesterol, low-density lipids (LDLs). This is great for your heart because it prevents plaque build ups, but is also great for your brain because excess cholesterol has been linked to rates of dementia. My favorite forms of whole food soluble fiber are oats, beans, lentils, peas, apples, citrus fruits and berries. You can also get them from chia seeds and flaxseeds, but I’m not a big chia budding boy.
insoluble fiber: our microbiome’s bestie
This fiber is the one we think of when we talk about prebiotics. We can’t digest this fiber either, but all of our microbial friends (which makes up about 1-3% of our body weight) run on this shit. Okay, but why do we need to feed these little buggers anyhow? Well besides helping us with digestion, they are crucial in our immune system and, thus, fighting disease. With at least 70% of our immune cells present in our gut, there is an intimate relationship between our microbiome. When our bacteria eats insoluble fiber, it makes its own breakdown products that help these immune cells produce infection-fighting compounds to keep us healthy. The best way to get this fiber is from whole grains, nuts, seeds, leafy greens (I have a penchant for broccoli and cauliflower), fruit skins (just eat the whole thing lol) and root veggies like carrots, beets and potatoes.
You’ll notice that all of this fiber comes from plant-based sources, which in many ways makes for a sustainable food system in its own right. The bigger push here is to make sure you’re just getting enough. They make you feel more full, help promote a healthy lifestyle…and make sure the planet is humming right along.
electrolytes: not just for athletes
When I was a wee lad, I thought I was a badass drinking Gatorade because “electrolytes” sounded like such a cool word. Best rebrand of salt I’ve ever seen. You probably know about electrolytes, but let’s talk about the big ones.
sodium: yummy ocean water
Sodium gets a bad wrap because it contributes to high blood pressure and risk of heart disease, which is a completely real thing. In stark contrast to fiber, 90% of the US population consumes too much sodium. Most processed food contains a lot because it helps enhance sweetness or balance bitterness of other foods. The other aspect is that it’s vital for maintaining fluid balance, regulating our blood pressure, transmitting nerve impulses, and supporting muscle function. When you’re working out, you flush a lot of this out, so you check out getting a bit more before and during a long run or lifting session.
potassium: the banana one
Potassium isn’t just in bananas, but abundant in veggies, oranges, potatoes, spinach and beans. It helps counteract the negative effects of sodium, so you should always look to have both at the same time and maybe even edge on having more potassium. This electrolyte also helps with maintaining fluid balance, regulating our blood pressure, transmitting nerve impulses, and supporting muscle function, notably your heart!
magnesium: the sleepy time one
Surprise, surprise – only 50% of Americans get enough magnesium, which is a damn shame for how much it helps. It helps in muscle and nerve function (so you don’t get cramps and muscle spasms), energy production, protein production and is involved in over 300 biochemical reactions in the body. My go-to sources are pumpkin seeds, but are present in many nuts, seeds, legumes, and leafy greens.
Magnesium has recently been touted by our favorite insta-doctors to help with sleep as well, particularly magnesium bisglycinate and magnesium threonate. The former can help with muscle relaxation at night because magnesium will reduce muscle cramping, but the glycine it’s attached to has a calming effect on your nervous system. Mag threonate on the other hand has a form of magnesium that can flow into your brain and have a calming effect here as well.
calcium: more than just for bones
Calcium has been promoted by the milk board for…I don’t know…ever? It obviously helps with bone health, but also nerve function, strong teeth, muscle contraction, and cell function. You know where to get it, but sustainable sources are typically leafy greens, soy, broccoli, oranges and other seeds. Oh yeah, and just a reminder that the milk isn’t even the best source of calcium despite the Milk Board’s insistence.
polymorv’s go-to electrolyte drink
I’m a runner and rather than buying packets of LMNT, Waterboy, or Nuun tablets, I just copied their ingredients to make it myself for pennies. This will last you a full year:
800 grams Kosher Salt
292 grams Morton’s Lite Salt
109 grams epsom salt
Use a teaspoon (or about 4 grams) and mix in water with some fresh lime juice!
iron: man
Iron is what you need for your blood cells to work effectively, since it’s the mineral that holds together hemoglobin. It allows for effective oxygen transport from your lungs to your organs and tissues, helps in energy production, immune and cognitive function, and cell repair. Not having enough can make you feel weak and tired, and makes your thinking cloudy and sluggish. Women who are pregnant and are menstruating really need to make sure they are 1) getting enough iron and 2) recognizing how their other food choices affect how much iron they’re truly getting.Thankfully, most of us get enough through red meat, poultry and seafood. Though eating legumes, beans, and dark leafy greens can potentially hit two birds with one stone for your iron and fiber intake.
There is a difference in how you’re getting your iron as well when we talk about heme versus non-heme. Heme iron (from hemoglobin, i.e. animal sources) is the most absorbable, with us taking in about 15-35% of it, where non-heme sources (i.e. plants) are taken up at 2%-20% in your gut. So while plant sources do have iron, you’re not going to get nearly as much. Both absorption rates are heavily affected by what you’re eating with an iron-rich meal. Make sure to get some Vitamin C to help improve those rates, and also avoid eating with too many tannic foods (coffee, tea, chocolate, red wine) because they bind with iron and make it less bioavailable. So if you’re planning to eat these throughout the day, spread out when you eat them so you’re giving yourself the best opportunity to get enough iron.
It’s hard to deny that meat sources tend to be better in the iron department and it’s going to be important to crack the nut of making more sustainable sources work for our personal nutrition as we move into our new food system paradigm.
vitamin b: the vitamin so nice we named it eight times
It appears that there are so many B vitamins because of a historical error. Folks used to believe that they were all the same vitamin, but lo and behold, they found that they were all different compounds creating deficiencies. Given the fact that they named eight of them (randomly skipping some numbers as well), they must’ve scrambled to make sure they were going to have enough letters in the alphabet, despite stopping at K.
Vitamin B9 and B12 are the two I want to hone in on here. They both are extraordinarily important in nerve function, DNA synthesis, the formation of red blood cells, brain health and cognitive function and can only be gained from animal-sourced foods unless you supplement it in. I can’t stress how important Vitamin B12 is if you choose to eat a plant-based diet, whereas B9 (or folate) can be easily eaten in plants.
where do we go from here?
You’ll notice that many of these micronutrient food sources can come from both plants and animals, where the former is typically more sustainable. It’s a difficult balance to make sure your individual nutrition is perfectly optimized with the planet in mind and that eating only plants can actually make it harder to get these micronutrients. As cooks, chefs, food techs and the food-conscious community, it’s important for us to innovate in this space to make sure that we’re feeding our bodies what we need, while making sure the planet doesn’t get scorched in the meantime.
So should I be doing a carnivore diet or a vegan one? I think there’s a happy medium here where we need to be aware of nutritional pitfalls of both and make sure we eat a balanced combination of both. Maybe throw some eggs into your vegan diet to make it vegetarian, or get some steamed kale or bok choy into your meat-laden plate. There isn’t a universal truth to be found in which diet you choose, other than making sure you are doing right by your body and the planet.