How to Pick the Best Foods for Any Diet Part Two: How to Evaluate Nutrient Deficiency Risks

Today, let’s talk about how to evaluate nutrient deficiency risks…

Want to achieve lasting results through nutrition?

Then you’re starting in the right place…

Once you develop the skill to discover nutrient deficiencies and help address them, attracting clients won’t be a problem.

Evaluating nutrient deficiency risks is the most important first step you can take.

When you do this, you’ll make a difference in two, much-needed ways:

  1. You’ll improve the health and well-being of whoever takes your nutritional advice. Your future clients will feel better, age better, have more energy, and likely experience fewer illnesses.
  2. You’ll do the whole world a favour by helping solve one of its most wide-spread issues – hidden hunger.

What else could an aspiring nutrition professional ask for?

Let’s dive right in!

Ready to start solving ‘hidden hunger’?

The world population is at a staggering 7.7 billion. Out of that many people, around 2 billion are affected by what we call hidden hunger.

That’s billion with a “B.” (Two-thousand millions.)

Hidden hunger is MUCH more common than you think. However, there’s not a lot of talk about it outside of nutritional science circles.

Yet it is a striking problem.

What we call hidden hunger is when your molecular systems get deprived of essential micronutrients. It can affect even the people who overeat and can result in serious health risks.

Health symptoms and nutrient deficiencies…

This nutrient deprivation is most often caused by micronutrient deficiencies. People may consume enough macronutrients (proteins, carbohydrates, and fats).

But more often than not, they won’t consume enough of certain micronutrients.

As a result, they may develop deficiencies.

This causes two major issues:

  1. DNA breakage, increasing risks of cancer and other illness.
  2. Acceleration of cell senescence, leading to early ageing.

Neither of those consequences is good news.

Luckily, that’s where your expertise comes in…

So, what happens when you give nutritional deficiencies a priority in a diet?

Nutrient deficiencies often go undetected. However, we may experience some “visible” signs when they become more serve, for example:

  • Bad skin
  • Headaches
  • Frequent infections
  • Indigestion issues
  • Brittle nails
  • Poorer memory
  • Slow injury recovery
  • Back pain
  • Weight gain
  • And more…

Different health symptoms may manifest when we are deficient in essential micronutrients.

Anyone who doesn’t consume enough vitamins or minerals can develop something different. Even if they’re covering all their macronutrient needs…

The relationship between micronutrient deficiencies and unwanted health symptoms is two-way.

Either a lack of certain essential nutrients is causing or leading to health symptoms…

Or a health condition is causing or leading to a nutrient deficiency (usually by over-utilising some nutrients).

Either way, visible symptoms are markers of health risks.

And as a future nutrition professional, your goal will be to advise clients on these risks and to help them take steps towards improving their overall health.

How we do that is not as simple as giving our clients more food to eat.

Why eating more won’t fix anything…

Fixing these deficiency issues will require more than simply eating more.

Even overweight people can suffer from hidden hunger and nutrient deficiency issues. So can athletes. And otherwise sporty, healthy-looking individuals who we’d never suspect. 

Most of the world’s population has inadequate intake of at least one of the micronutrients.

This tells us that many problems can also be rooted in excess…

People may take in more calories than they need from unhealthy food. Not leaving enough space for food that contains the micronutrients their body needs.

We can be overfed, yet malnourished.

And that’s an important distinction to make.

Your next steps…

Now that you know what causes “hidden hunger” and understand its risky implications…

You may want to learn a new skill to help people live better, healthier, and happier lives.

In our next article, we’ll discuss how to assess nutritional values in foods. 

But if you want a jump-start over your competition…

You can dive DEEP into nutrition science with our Nutritional Therapist certification. Click here to get all the details.

As always, we welcome any questions you might have. These topics are complex so we’re sure you have at least one.

And if you think someone you know could benefit from reading our articles? Go ahead and share this post with them!

See Also

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© Copyright The Health Sciences Academy. The content, graphs and charts on this page have been exclusively prepared for The Health Sciences Academy and its prospect students, existing students and graduates. None of the content on this page and website may be reproduced, copied or altered without our explicit permission. Criminal and legal penalties for copyright and other infringement apply. All Terms and Conditions apply.
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© Copyright The Health Sciences Academy. The content, graphs and charts on this page have been exclusively prepared for The Health Sciences Academy and its prospect students, existing students and graduates. None of the content on this page and website may be reproduced, copied or altered without our explicit permission. Criminal and legal penalties for copyright and other infringement apply. All Terms and Conditions apply.

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