Now that you know you know what’s a Macronutrient, we are going to talked about Micronutrients. Simply put, micronutrients are vitamins and minerals your body needs and gets most commonly in pill form. We looked at the sources and roles of Macronutrients earlier this week, now we will take a look at the other nutrients and what role they take in your body’s health and development.
Six essential micronutrients are vitamin B6, vitamin C, vitamin E, magnesium, calcium and zinc.
Vitamin B6: may help reduce symptoms of depression, better your mental outlook, help prevent anemia, treat PMS symptoms, help nausea when pregnant, help reduce blood clots and risk of heart disease.
Vitamin C: Not just for your immune system. It’s also needed to grow, develop, and repair body tissues, as well as, formation of collagen and helps absorb iron into the body. It assists the body in healing our wounds and helps maintain cartilage, teeth, and bones.
Vitamin E: Helps protect our cells (30 trillion in our body), important for our immune system, fights off infections, and protects our eyesight.
Magnesium: Can help with exercise performance, depression, Type 2 Diabetes, lower blood pressure, inflammation, sleep cycle, and migraines.
Calcium: The obvious to most is to help strengthen bones. But did you know that it also helps with the function of heart and muscle nerves and when combined with Vitamin D it may help with high blood pressure.
Zinc: Assists in proper growth and maintenance of the body and its functions. Also needed for immune function, healing of wounds, blood clotting, thyroid function, your sense of taste and smell.
There are many more micronutrients to list, but please look them up if you are interested in their importance and functions. I just wanted to list a few as prime examples for your knowledge. What is more important to know is what vitamins or minerals your body may be lacking. One way to find out is to get a blood test that will test for them, your yearly physical with your primary care physician would solve that.
I highly recommend the test as every year your body’s needs change and YOU should be vigilant about that. Any good doctor’s office would recommend one, if they don’t, then you should demand one. It’s your body and your responsibility to take the best care possible, not your doctor’s. What do you do with the results?
You’ll know what vitamins you are lacking and can have your doctor recommend what you need or go to the store and buy a good quality multi-vitamin. In the past, I was never a big proponent of taking vitamins and relied only on my food intake for them. But as I have gotten older and our food supply has deteriorated, I have found that vitamins can be very helpful to me, my family, our members, and anyone trying to get and stay healthy. So, the lesson for today is micronutrients are vitamins and minerals, macronutrients come from food and we need both for optimum health and performance.
-Coach Anthony
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