A majority of Americans believe that they eat healthy diets. Statistics say otherwise.
"Nearly nine in ten Americans don't get enough vitamins and minerals." -Steve Mister, president and CEO of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, in an article for the Times Herald (https://www.thetimesherald.com/story/opinion/columnists/2017/09/25/many-americans-get-enough-nutrients-food/105977872/). That's an alarming statistic, but perhaps even more alarming than that is approximately 2/3 of Americans believe they are getting enough vitamins and minerals.
According to the CDC and USDA: 9 out of 10 Americans are deficient in potassium, 7 out of 10 in calcium, 8 out of 10 in Vitamin E, and at least half of the U.S. population is deficient in Vitamins A, D, C, and magnesium.
That is just the tip of the iceberg, and doesn't include many other vitamins, minerals, micronutrients, and phytonutrients that Americans have deficiencies with as well. So, what do the numbers really tell us? What the numbers told me was that, odds are, I am likely deficient with one or more of the vitamins listed and more.
Can eating healthy give you all the nutrients you need?
Here is another tricky realization I had to come to terms with when it comes to healthy eating: Most people believe they can get all the nutrients they need from a healthy diet. The truth is that not everyone is 100% perfect at eating healthy every single day, and that getting the RDA (or recommended dietary allowance) for each vitamin and mineral from food alone is a rather difficult task even for the healthiest of eaters.
Here are some examples:
In order to get enough calcium, you would need to drink 3-4 glasses of milk everyday. If milk is not an option for you, you would need to eat 10 cups of cooked kale everyday.
In order to get enough vitamin D, you can either eat a 5-6oz salmon filet everyday, drink 6 glasses of vitamin D fortified orange juice or milk everyday, or eat a dozen eggs...Everday. Particularly anyone living in the northern part of the US where your skin doesn't see the sun for at least several months out of the year is more likely to be vitamin D deficient.
There are many other examples just like this of which I have included at the bottom of this article. The biggest and most important takeaway for me with this information is that it is necessary and vital to supplement your health.
For recommendations or for more information, please email me at instrumentallyhealthy@gmail.com.
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