Getting Your Nutrients From Natural Sources
As time goes by, and the agriculture industry is being ill treated by big industries and government regulations, we are seeing less and less good quality food from the soil or the animals.
Our soil is being depleted by toxic practices such as pesticides or over production. Therefore, we are not getting the nutrients we use to get from the food we eat. As a result, many of us are severely depleted from key ingredients.
The consequences of this malnourishment are often felt in our period or hormonal experience. A slight lack of iron may lead to cramps and fatigue, but a chronic one can cause hypothyroidism or PCOS. In short, we are victims of the treatments we have given the earth, and now our health is suffering.
We need to find other ways to up our nutrient intake.
Sadly, the highly unregulated supplement industry makes it hard to trust to nourish us with the nutrients we are lacking. A lot of the supplements we buy at the store don’t do anything to us and go straight into the toilet, with either little to no impact, or worse, some undesired side effects.
Some supplements no longer have any active nutrients, others contain nutrients that cancel each other out, others don’t have enough for normal absorption or even from sources we can barely metabolize, etc.
Most of my clients have experimented with supplements and have rarely felt a real difference. Of course, some high quality supplements are actually incredibly powerful. We can talk about that in another blog post - let me know if you are interested in finding out how to choose supplements you can trust.
But back to our topic of today.
This whole supplementation chaos makes the process of choosing supplements harder - and the quest to eat better and feel better in our bodies feels close to impossible.
It can feel as though the only things that truly work are chemical and medical - that the natural approach is incomplete, or doesn’t give us the same results.
We can sometimes wish we were back in time, before the soils were depleted, when we could eat our own cabbages and carrots and feel energized from it alone. I’m seeing a rise in nostalgia on social media - where women yearn for “traditional” practices (to take with caution, a lot of what we see on the internet as “traditions” were never traditional uses. There is a lot of misinformation out there that we need to take with a grain of salt, but the yearning for it is the same) and a bigger connection to the food they eat.
I am here with good news today. As we have continuously mistreated the earth and our bodies, mama nature has learned a couple of tricks, and so have our bodies.
So here are things we can do to make sure we are amping up our nutrient intake from natural sources - from the actual food we eat.
Eat fermented foods
This might sound surprising, but the process of fermentation makes nutrients more potent and more easily digestible for our bodies. The process of fermentation opens up the availability of nutrients and increases their potency.
It also makes food last wayyy longer, which is a fantastic way to save both on money and health.
My best practice is to use my own vegetables from the summer, prepare them, and have them last for a couple more months. Since my husband loves anything pickled, the taste suits him really well, and you can basically ferment any vegetable.
2. Eat organic
I know this sounds problematic, since organic foods are much more expensive, and even they are sometimes not that much better.
The ideal scenario is to either cultivate your own vegetables in a soil you have worked yourself and using your own compost, or to know an organic farmer nearby and to get your vegetables directly from them.
However, this is not possible for most women. This is why eating organic is our second choice. It’s not just about reducing the amount of chemicals in the food, it’s also about the way an organic farm is required to cultivate their food.
Normally, a real organic farm needs to move their cultures around so that each field will know different types of foods, with a year of rest every couple of rounds. This practice helps rejuvenate the soil, and therefore the foods that come out of it have more nutrients to offer.
The only problem with this is that you might have to do some research to see if the brand you’re getting is really organic or if it’s simply a marketing strategy.
Note: in some countries of Europe, like Switzerland, these practices are mandatory. This means that you will get better chances of getting high quality food if you look for foods that come from your own region rather than organic foods that come from a different country.
3. Make your own bone broth
If you are not a vegan, a bone broth is an incredible source of nutrients that are more easily bioavailable.
The concept of a bone broth is to use bones from an animal you just ate (I mostly use chicken bones, as I get it whole and try to use it whole) and let it simmer with some vinegar (bonus points of it’s apple cider vinegar - meaning it is fermented) for a couple of hours.
Now, the beauty of bone broth is that you can add your veggies scraps and some herbs to add even more nutrients. The act of breaking down the collagens and proteins of the bones help to absorb all the other vegetables that come with it as well.
It’s an absolute win- win. The nutrients are more easily absorbed, and the nutrients that come from the bones help to heal your body in the process. Bones are a golden mine of nutrients, but we rarely tap into its treasure.
4. Take some herbs
Obviously, as a herbalist, I need to talk about plants.
Now if you know me you know that I don’t believe in one plant that fixes it all. I believe different plants work for different people, and that it’s important to get a full intake before you choose the right herbs for your unique situation.
But there are some herbs out there that are so filled with nutrients that I have to talk about them. Most of these are safe and act in a more general way on health. They’re not targeted, potent herbs for acute situations.
These herbs contain a couple of key nutrients that are often well absorbed by the body.
Different ways of extracting their properties will give you different levels of nutrients, so depending on what you want you might want to explore different methods.
However, to take them in a herbal tea is often the safest and easiest way to do so.
[Obviously, you should talk with a doctor if you have any concerns about plant medicine, or book a full herbal consultation with me HERE if you want to dive deeper into these herbs. This advice does not replace medical care.]
Are are some of my favorite nutritive and supportive plants:
Stinging Nettle (Urtica Dioica)
“ She’s a powerhouse!
Vitamin A, C, E, F, K, P. Zinc, formic acid, magnesium, carbonic acid, iron, copper, selenium, boron, bromine, chlorine, chlorophyll, potassium, phosphorus, sodium, silica, iodine, chromium, silicon and sulfur. Calcium, 1 cup provides 32 to 42% of the amount you require daily. Vitamin B-complexes as well as thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, B-6 all of which are found in high levels and act as antioxidants.”
HerbRally, source here (https://www.herbrally.com/monographs/nettle)
Red clover (Trifolium Pratense), mainly for its calcium, chromium, magnesium, and vitamin C
Horsetail (Equisetum Spp) for its iron, calcium, manganese
Oats (Avena Sativa) for its magnesium, Vit E, Vit B, and calcium
These are just a few examples. Remember, because these are less potent, it’s when you take them regularly, daily or twice a day, that you will get their full benefits.
If you want more personal herbal recommendations, book a time with me here and we’ll set you up with some herbal support.
5. Slow down when you prepare food and when you eat
When making food, you send multiple signals to your body that it’s time to activate your digestive system. The smells, the sight, the actions… all of these are ways your brain knows it’s time to wake your digestive system up.
Your salivary glands will start producing more saliva, your stomach will start producing some acid, your intestine will start pushing, etc.
By the time you are ready to eat, your body is ready to welcome in food and digest it. When we are only paying half attention to our preparation, our body is only half ready to receive the food we eat. This means that the absorption of nutrients will be twice as less effective. Does that makes sense?
This is why we absorb less nutrients when we eat out. And for those of us who don’t make the food we eat, it’s a good idea to take some time before a meal to really look at it, to smell it, to signal your body to get ready for food. Even just a few short minutes is better than to start eating immediately.
Some might want to send a grateful prayer for the food after they’ve looked at it, and finally start eating it.
The same goes when we are only half paying attention to what we eat. What we most commonly hear is that we don’t pay attention to how full we are and end up eating too much.
But we are also not paying attention to the others things happening in our digestive system. Things like, am I chewing too little and making it impossible for my stomach to absorb food? Am I too stressed to actually absorb anything? How does this food feel in my mouth and body?
When we slow down, we allow our body to tell us what it truly needs to fully get what we’re eating.
The sad story is that we absorb way less nutrients than what we eat, because we eat in ways that make it impossible for our body to absorb them. We eat too big chunks, we’re too stressed, we overeat, etc.
Slowing down and learning to be present both in food preparation and during the meal amps up your nutrient absorption by quite a lot.
6. Eat colorful foods
Different nutrients cause different colors in different foods. For example, a red bell pepper has more vitamin A and vitamin C than the green or yellow bell peppers, while chlorophyll- which contains magnesium molecules - is what gives broccoli its green color.
So an easy and powerful way to make sure to have a vast array of nutrients in your nutrition is to eat different colors. It is often said as “eat the rainbow every day”.
One of the ways we can amp up our nutrient intake is by making sure we’re getting a little bit of each vitamin. Vitamins often work together in our body, so to have a variety of them will have a healthier impact that to just eat a lot of one kind.
7. Drink enough water
Water has a deep impact on all other systems of your body. When you’re in a state of dehydration, it’s harder for your organs to work properly. This means that without water, your stomach won’t absorb as much nutrients.
Making sure you are hydrated at the level you need will make sure you absorb all the nutrients you can instead of sending them to waste.
8. Eat nuts and seeds
A lot of nuts and seeds are part of the superfood category - that is, a category of food that are considered containing the most available nutrients.
Nuts have high amounts of vitamins and minerals that are easily absorbable. It’s one of our richest source of nutrient.
I always recommend that my clients low in iron take some cashew nuts, or that my clients low on progesterone take some sesame seeds every day.
By simply adding one tablespoon of nuts and seeds to your nutrition daily, you are getting a LOT more nutrients.
As you can see, it’s all about the small daily habits that we repeat over and over. We may not have as many nutrients as we need from the soil, but we can optimize our food and body to get as much as we possibly can naturally.
I hope this mini course was helpful for you. If you have questions or need more support, feel free to reach out. Any newcomer gets a free 30-minute consultation, and recurring clients get discounts for all my current offers - so don’t hesitate to ask!
audreygerber@spotlessgirl.com
Stay radiant!
