Essential Vitamins and Minerals For Weight Loss

 

Essential Vitamins and Minerals For Weight Loss 

While we all need to intake vitamins and minerals every day to remain healthy, weight loss can be helped along by ensuring we have adequate intake of a few particular nutrients. This is especially important considering in the past 20 years, modern farming practices have consistently produced food that, while plentiful and attractive to the eye, have 80% less nutritional value than they did a generation or two ago.

 

Chromium

Chromium is mineral that stabilizes blood sugar levels, decreasing the likelihood of sudden waves of hunger, mood swings, and binging. In the lonterm, it works to prevent diabetes and heart disease because of its leveling effect. You can take chromium as a supplement but it is always best to obtain it through foods such as corn, sweet potatoes, apples, eggs, tomatoes, and broccoli.

 Magnesium 

Surprisingly little emphasis is placed by the media on the role the mineral magnesium plays in weight loss. Magnesium plays critical parts in food digestion, insulin regulation (insulin determines whether energy is used or stored as fat), and controlling the body’s chemical reactions to stress, which causes weight gain. Food sources of magnesium include rice, wheat, and oat bran, pumpkin seeds, spinach, flax, sesame seeds, Brazil nuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, molasses and edamame (dry roasted soybeans). 

Zinc

Here is another key player in the weight loss game: the mineral zinc helps control metabolism and lean muscle mass as well as the immune system, so this is one mineral to pay attention to. Quick tip: you can tell if you are zinc deficient by looking at your finger nails. If there are white spots, then that is a usually reliable indicator that you are lacking zinc in your diet. You can always take zinc in a supplemental form, but getting it from food sources is a much better route to take. Zinc can be found in oysters, toasted wheat germ, roasted pumpkin seeds, low fat roast beef, peanuts, crab, and lamb.

 Vitamin D

Once just thought of as being useful for strong bones, Vitamin D is becoming a major force in the nutritional world, including the weight loss arena. Adequate amounts of this vitamin help transition the body metabolism from fat storing to fat burning and has the additional benefit of burning belly fat first. Vitamin D is made by exposing the skin to sunlight each day. While this is not always possible, you can take an oral supplement Vitamin D to ensure your body is maintaining proper levels.

Good Luck..Good Health,

@bktantra