ESSENTIAL NUTRIENTS FOR EVERYBODY
Momentum Training members, personal training clients, friends, family and people who find out I’m a coach often ask me about supplements.
“What do you take?”
“What should I take if I want to achieve <insert goal here>.”
“I don’t want to get BIG, should I take supplements?”
The last question does my head in as I wish it was that easy to “GET BIG.” A topic for another blog post as I sit here eating ice-cream!
To be honest, it’s actually a no-brainer to select the basic supplements that I feel everybody should be taking on a regular basis.
Firstly, the health and body composition benefits of the supplements I’ll later reference have been well studied and continue to be studied. Every year new studies are linking deficiencies in vitamins and minerals to many of the health problems we see in society today. Secondly, ALL of my personal training clients who have had blood tests have been deficient in one or more of the following vital nutrients. The human body does not just magically make nutrients (with the exception of vitamin-D, unless you live in the UK during the winter), it’s totally dependant on your diet. “I eat a healthy diet” is often the response I hear when questioning people’s nutrition, but most people have no idea what a healthy diet is. You might think your nutrition is excellent, but I’m yet to see a single client who is not taking supplement have reasonable levels of nutrients according to blood work. You can not tell me your diet is good when the blood tests tell me otherwise.
My role as a coach requires me to work closely with many different health professionals. Momentum Training has links with nutrition advisors, doctors, chiropractors, physiotherapists, blood labs, sport massage specialists and other professionals within the industry. Many of these professionals pride themselves on the assistance and advice they can offer. So here is some of my advice to everybody who is willing to pay attention.
At Momentum Training we eat clean, train dirty and we aim to educate our members about the importance of a healthy lifestyle. Unfortunately, the high levels of nutrients our body require – people who train hard require more nutrients than a coach potato – cannot be found solely in today’s highly processed, genetically modified foods alone. Even if you try and eat as healthy as possible, by the time you purchase, prepare and cook everyday foods, a lot of the nutrients have disappeared. As soon as fresh produce is take from the source it starts to lose nutrients. Heat, light, oxygen, chemicals and processing also increase the rate at which nutrients are lost.
Deficiencies can do more than leave you feeling low on energy and ill; they can also impact your longevity, your immune system and your future health. Deficiencies have been linked to many life-threatening illnesses, can you honestly afford to be deficient?
Before I list my top five supplements I would like to cover two additional topics that I strongly recommend:
1. GET YOUR BLOOD TESTED
I tell my clients that they are deficient until proven otherwise. This might be a little extreme, but I honestly want people to get the tests done. Many clients don’t understand how important their levels of vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids are to their health, performance and longevity. Blood test are the facts, you can ot argue your diet is healthy when the results say otherwise.
Our clients/members spend good money on training and the advice coaches can give them on exercise, nutrition, sleep and supplements. The well-educated trainers in the industry (trust me there are limited numbers) will demand you to get your blood tests done. Why? Because we know that a deficiency can prevent you from making any real gains in the gym.
Client: “But I go to the gym and exercise, I eat clean. I can live without knowing my levels of vitamin-D, zinc, magnesium and essential fatty acid ratios. It’s not as important as exercise and nutrition, is it?”
Let me just make this clear, you will NEVER achieve your best results when you have deficiencies. You will make small gains and see some changes in how you look feel and perform, but at the end of the day you could be seeing a 100% improvement if your body had the nutrients in needs to function optimally.
Client: “How long do I need to be taking these supplements for?”
You should be taking these supplements on a regular basis for the rest of your life. Why? Because they are that important to your health and unfortunately it is highly unlikely you will be get the required amount from nutrition alone. Our bodies burn these resources quickly and they MUST be replenished for optimal health and performance.
What to test?
- Red blood cell Magnesium – Only 1% of magnesium in the body is in the blood serum, making it very hard to identify a deficiency. In fact, the rest of magnesium is in the intracellular space in muscle or bone. To effectively assess magnesium levels, you need to test the content in the red blood cells.
- Red blood cell Zinc – plasma is recommended as this has been demonstrated to be the most reliable indicator of zinc status. Clients should abstain from mineral and vitamin supplements for 48 hours prior to the tests.
- Vitamin-D (25-hydroxyvitamin D) – This is the preferred test for vitamin-D levels
- Essential Fatty Acids – Over the past two decades there has been sustained interest in essential fatty acid supplementation. The ratio of Omega-6 and Omega-3 fatty acids is a reflection of individual health and the increased chances of diseases associated with inflammation.
As mentioned, Momentum Training has a partnership with The Doctors Laboratory and the London BioLab, and we can refer you for the following tests:
- Red Blood Cell Mg – £20.00
- Red Blood Cell Zn – £25.00
- 25-OH Vit D3 – £35.00
Sub Total: £80.00
- Either the OMG 3/6 – £50.00 or full EFA profile £98.00
2. STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT THE COST OF BEING HEALTHY
“Eating healthy costs too much.”
“Organic meat and vegetables are a lot more expensive than non-organic.”
“Preparing healthy meals takes a lot of preparation and planning.”
“Supplements cost so much, and do I really need to take so many?”
“Vitamins give you expensive urine”
I hear these comments all the time. Yes, being healthy, lean and full of energy is not cheap. Put a price tag on your health and let me know what its worth?
Vitamins and minerals are important nutrients that promote overall health, growth and development. Vitamins and minerals also ensure that various chemical reactions are able to take place in the body. If you do not consume enough of the specific types of vitamins and minerals for an extended period of time, you will become deficient and increase your chances of illness, obesity, cancer, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, chronic fatigue, infertility, and depression just to name a few…. How much would you pay not to have any of these problems? Do you want to wait until you are diagnosed with an illness and then take drugs to control the symptoms, or would you prefer to take preventative measures and limit your chances of getting sick? Just think how much it’s going to cost you in medical bills if you are diagnosed with a serious illness.
The cost of taking the basic 5 supplements depends on your current nutrition and blood test scores (point 1 above). If you are deficient in minerals you should take a higher dosage to restore the levels. Once the levels have been restored, a maintenance protocol is recommended (I will get to this in future posts)
Take away points: Supplements should be taken when there is a deficiency. Don’t assume that you have sufficient nutrients in your diet, as even the cleanest eaters can have deficiencies. The only way to be sure is to get a blood test. Then work out the correct supplement protocol for your needs.
It is expensive now, but it could save you a lot of money in medical bills in the future.
Over the coming weeks I will be posting more information about the following nutrients. The basic 5 supplements we should all be taking (in no particular order) are:
If you have any questions please feel free to come and chat to the staff at Momentum Training.