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Vitamin A, B6, B12, C, E, Folate & Iron: Deficiency Nutrients in the US - 31% are Deficient | Plus: What About Athletes?

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Few US citizens get all the nutrients they need from their diets. You may argue that I've addressed this in a previous article. The fact that there's now updated data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)  does yet (IMHO) warrant to take another look at the prevalence of nutrient deficiencies in the US. The bad news first: The study found sign. deficiency rates for all the investigated nutrients: vitamins A, B6, B12, C, D, E, folate and iron. The good news: It's easy and - with the exception of iron and folate 100% unproblematic to supplement your diet. Looking for more ways to improve your diet? Increase your potassium (K) intake! Potassium vs. Diet-Inducded Insulin Resis. In the Lime Light: The Ill Effects of Low K Intakes Bad News: Most Americans are Sign. K Deficient Lean, Healthy ... Correlates of High Hair Potassium Eating a High Protein Diet? Better Watch K! Potassium Bicarbonate = Anabolic!? In their analysi...
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Potassium-Magnesium Aspartate, an Overlooked Endurance Enhancer? Acute 100% Increase in Time to Full Exhaustion

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1952, Italian Fausto Coppi is drenched with water by a fan during the golden years of the Tour. Question: Can the topical application of K & Mg do the same magic? Answer: That's very  unlikely, ... What sounds like a supplement producer was trying to sell his product with a sponsored study is, in fact, the gist of a 1968 study from the Departments of Clinical Physiology and Internal Medicine at the venerable Karolinska Institute  in Stockholm, Sweden (Ahlborg. 1968). The authors' conclusion that "[a]fter administration of potassium-magnesium-aspartate [KMgA] the capacity for prolonged exercise increased about 50 per cent" (Ahlborg. 1968) can thus not be discarded as marketing babble. And, before we decide whether it's too good to be true, I'd suggest we take a closer look at the way the data was generated before we either (a) discard it as outdated or (b) get totally excited for nothing. Mineral water will contain some K and Mg, too - and it will...
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Hair Mineral Analysis: Significant Correlations Between Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium & Sodium and Met. Syn., Insulin Resistance, Waist, BP etc. - Implications?

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Does her hair hold the secret to her fitness body? Actually that's unlikely, but it appears possible that a hair analysis could reveals what's keeping you back from a similarly amazing physique. Hair mineral analyses have been discredited by certain snake oil vendors who use them to sell their "oils" in form of an endless list of "essential" supplements you'd have to take if you don't want to end up as dead as the hair they used to produce the analysis. Still, they share one big strength with the more expensive RBC or other cell tests: They give you an idea of your actual calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium balance. Much in contrast to serum levels, by the way. If those are off, it's either due to an acute event (like diarrhea, for example ;-) or you have a real reason to be concerned. There is after all a really good reason these minerals are also called "electrolytes": They are heavily involved in the ion and thus charge-e...
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There is More To Glucose Control Than Carbohydrates (4/?): Non-Carbohydrate Nutrients Blood for Glucose Management ➲ Calcium - Bone Builder + Fat Burner + Glucose Stabilizer?

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Healthy due to calcium? In the last three weeks we've already covered the effects of protein, fat and vitamin D in this series about the "non-carbohydrate" (micro-)nutrients which have an impact on your blood glucose levels ( browse the previous installments). With vitamin D as the topic of the last installment, it appears only logical to jump from vitamins to minerals and take a look at the "bone mineral" calcium, of which scientists have long believed that its management was the main, if not the only function of vitamin D. In view of the fact that the word "calcium" did not even appear in last week's installment about the "sunshine vitamin", it may appear questionable, whether it would even be worth taking a closer look at the soft gray alkaline earth metal. As a SuppVersity reader who has read my previous articles about calcium, you will yet be aware that this would be as inappropriate as the shortsighted idea that the only ...
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Quackery or Solid Science: The Zinc Tally Test - Does it Work? How Does It Work? And How Reliable is It?

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"Any idea if zinc tally test is reliable? Google spits somewhat mixed conclusions." That's what SuppVersity reader David Salda asked two days ago on the SuppVersity Facebook Page and this article is a somewhat lengthy answer to a short, but very valid question. I know that only few of you are running a website, let alone one with daily updates, but if you do you the following incident may sound vaguely familiar: You are just trying to keep up with the comments on questions on the Facebook page of your website , when an innocent question like "Any idea if zinc tally test is reliable? Google spits somewhat mixed conclusions." someone (in this case David Salda) posted on your Facebook wall , reminds you of the written, yet never finalized and published articles that lie dormant in the depth of your website's draft folder... don't get me wrong, this is unquestionably a good thing - I mean I guess there will be more people than David, who would like t...
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Are You ABCDE-Deficient? Common Nutrient Deficiencies in the US. Plus: How Food Fortification & New "Daily Values" Affect the Intakes of Vitamin A-E, Calcium Iron & Co

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Nutrition labels on fresh blueberries - do we really need them? I sill remember that I was shocked, when I bought a pack of blueberries and found a nutrition label underneath the plastic cover of my expensive 150g health-investement... That's probably 2 months ago and the reason I do remember this event now is the publication of a paper that examines the effect a change in the "daily values" (i.e. the references), the figures in the obiquitous black and white table are based on, would have on the average US citizen's nutritional intake of the vitamins A, D, E, C, B-12 and folate, and the minerals calcium and iron. "Daily Values" (DV), fortified foods and nutrient adequacy: Before I dig deeper into the actual study results, it's probably wise to point out that fortified foods are the link between the DV's and micro-nutrient intake of the average American. If manufacturers continue to fortify foods to the same %DV for each nutrient, the extent...
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Science Round-Up Seconds: The Macro-Mineral Alphabet & the Potential Health Hazards of Diet-Induced Latent Acidosis

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You lose 600x more sodium than magnesium during a workout. The RDA is yet only ~3-4x higher (Montane. 2007). If you already listened to the podcast of yesterday's installment of the SuppVersity Science Round Up (if you have not already done so, you can dowload the podcast, here ), you may have noticed that I confused the minimal potassium (K) to sodium ratio (Na), which is probably ~1:1, and the "original" K:Na ratio in the "paleo diet". According to Sebastian et al. (2002) the latter is ~8-9:1 in other words: 8-9 mols of potassium per mol of sodium. That's miles apart from the 1:2-3 ratio the average Westerner (the exact ratio varies depending on which study you refer to) uses as a springboard to hypertension ;-) The (un-)definite mineral synergism/antagonism chart Another thing you may have noticed with yesterday's show is the fact that the show was pretty "topic centered". My personal feeling is that it has a much better flow ...
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