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Benefits Of A Plant-Based Diet

Benefits Of A Plant-Based Diet

Published by on September 15, 2023 | Leave a response

There are many health benefits from consuming a plant-based diet, but also other benefits. What is a plant-based diet? It’s not necessarily vegetarian or veganism. It’s all about consuming food that’s mostly from plants. Besides many of the health benefits, it can be quite kind to your wallet. One gram of plant-based protein costs less than a gram of animal protein. You don’t have to switch to all plant proteins, either. Making one or two nights a week meatless can boost your budget and improve your health.

Eating more food from plant sources can help prevent cancer.

The link between reducing the risk of cancer and increasing the amount of food derived from plants has been known for over twenty years. If you fill two-thirds of your plate with plant-based foods and leave the remaining third for protein, either from plants or animals, it can improve your health. The food you eat must be healthy and low in sugar and fat. It also shouldn’t contain highly processed food, even if that food is plant-based.

Plant-based foods provide antioxidants.

Plants contain phytonutrients you can’t get from animal-based products. They have phytochemicals and fiber. They also contain vitamin C, which is only found in significant amounts in raw liver, fish roe, and eggs in animal-based foods. Plants contain far more antioxidants, like vitamin C. The phytochemicals and vitamin C help boost your immune system and fight inflammation. Inflammation can damage cells and tissues and is linked to cancer, heart disease, and inflammatory diseases like arthritis.

A plant-based diet can help you lose or maintain a healthy weight.

Obesity is a leading cause of preventable deaths, surpassing smoking several years ago. If you’re overweight, it increases your risk of cancer. Obesity also increases your risk of heart disease, diabetes, and other serious conditions. It occurs due to inflammation and hormonal issues caused by obesity. If you consume a plant-based diet that’s healthy, it reduces your caloric intake while keeping you full.

  • You’ll get more fiber from a plant-based diet. It’s in all unprocessed plant foods. That improves your digestive system, aids in mineral absorption, improves the gut microbiome, and reduces cancer risk.
  • A plant-based diet can help lower your blood pressure. That reduces the risk of stroke, type 2 diabetes, and heart attack. Several studies show that people who consume a vegetarian diet have a lower risk of high blood pressure.
  • A plant-based diet can help reduce the risk of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. To be effective the diet must include healthy options, not sugar foods or highly processed food.
  • People who consume a plant-based diet tend to live longer. It can reduce the risk of all diseases that affect mortality by approximately 25%.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio

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The Importance Of Hydration

The Importance Of Hydration

Published by on September 5, 2023 | Leave a response

It doesn’t take long in the hot sun in San Antonio, TX, to become dehydrated. It’s why staying focused on hydration is so important, especially if you’re working out. Sipping water throughout your workout can help you attain peak performance. A cold bottle of water can also be a quick picker-upper when you’re mentally dragging.

The human body is approximately 65% water.

Your muscles, bones, tendons, skin, and organs contain high amounts of fluid. The brain and heart are 73% water. If you’re dehydrated, they don’t function properly. Even though young children have a higher percentage of fluid, they are smaller, so depleting even a small amount is dangerous. The percentage of fluid in the body of a senior is far less than it is in younger people. They are at higher risk of dehydration.

Hydration can help prevent aching joints and muscle pain.

After you workout, you may experience joint and muscle pain due to the workout, but it’s not always the reason. Dehydration can cause it. The joints require synovial fluid to cushion the bones and facilitate the delivery of nutrients. It helps reduce friction. Dehydration reduces the fluid available, so there’s friction and pain. Dehydration causes fluid to divert from other areas to ensure an adequate amount for the brain, lungs, heart, and other vital organs. It takes the fluid from appendages, the stomach, and non-essential areas causing stomach and muscle cramps.

Staying hydrated can help prevent headaches.

Your brain is composed mostly of water, so it’s easy to understand how dehydration can dramatically affect it. It can cause brain fog or present itself as mental confusion in seniors and be mistaken for dementia. Water conducts electricity and is necessary for the electrical energy in the brain. It helps carry nutrients. If you’ve ever had brain fog, it might be caused by mild dehydration. If your body fluid drops just 2% it can cause cognitive issues and brain fog. It also affects the heart. The disruption of fluid levels can create blood pressure issues and cause tachycardia.

  • You can prevent dehydration by continuously sipping on water, herbal tea, tea, and fruit juice. When you work out or are out in the sun, carry a bottle of water and sip on it frequently.
  • Drinking more water can help you lose weight. Studies show that drinking water before a meal can cut your appetite. Thirst can be mistaken for hunger, too. If you sip water, you’ll eat less.
  • The easiest way to identify dehydration is by checking the color of your urine. If it’s dark, you may be dehydrated. Light yellow urine shows adequate hydration. A skin turgor test is also another way. Pinch the skin and if it doesn’t snap back to normal, dehydration may be a problem.
  • Dehydration can cause blood pressure to increase or decrease. For some, low blood volume causes low blood pressure. In others, it causes the blood vessels to constrict and increase blood pressure.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio

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The Benefits Of A Weighted Vest

The Benefits Of A Weighted Vest

Published by on August 25, 2023 | Leave a response

If your weight loss program is stalling out, you can do one of two things, eat even less or burn more calories. If your diet is healthy and lower in calories, improving the calories burned is the best answer. You can make your workout more intense or longer by wearing a weighted vest. Add more weight to the vest as you lose weight.

The weights in the vest can simulate the weight you lost.

One reason people slow down weight loss, even though they’re working hard, is their weight loss. If you’re 30 pounds overweight, it’s like carrying a 30-pound weight during every waking moment. You’ll have more mass and more resistance against gravity. Even a five-pound weight loss makes a difference in the calories you burn. If you weigh 155 pounds, you’ll burn 712 calories during an hour of vigorous calisthenics. If you lose 15 pounds, the calories burned are reduced by 66 calories to 646 in an hour. That extra weight created extra effort and burned more calories. A weighted vest can help you reach your goals by causing you to burn more calories.

You’ll improve your endurance.

When you’re doing intense exercises for longer periods, you’ll often experience “the burn.” That’s from the acidic byproduct of burning the stores of glucose in the muscles. It’s called lactate. The lactate threshold occurs when the body can’t clear the lactate as quickly as it’s produced. Some research shows increasing the threshold may benefit performance and cardiovascular system. Weighted vests improve the lactate threshold for runners, allowing the runners to go faster for longer periods. The higher the weight increase—those from 10-40% of body weight were best for sprinters, while those below 10% were best for long-distance runners.

Build muscle strength faster.

Whether you’re doing pushups or running, weighted vests can help build strength. Improvements are also evident when doing traditional weightlifting, explosive movements, and other resistance training. It’s easy to understand why. You’re working harder. Weighted vests are good for both older and younger people. If you’re having dramatic muscle loss from aging, they can improve muscle tone quickly and help reduce osteopenia, which reduces the potential for osteoporosis.

  • A small study showed that weighted vests may help burn fat more efficiently. However, larger studies and more studies should be completed before there’s any conclusive evidence.
  • If you’re using a weighted vest, distribute the weight evenly. The extra weight too far to one side, to the front, or the back will affect your posture and performance.
  • The best weighted vests are the ones that work best for you. If you’re building muscles or on a weight loss program, consider using a vest that you can add or remove weights, rather than one with a fixed weight.
  • A weighted vest isn’t any good if you don’t use it and you won’t if it’s not comfortable. You need one with a good fit that doesn’t bind or pinch. It should be breathable and appropriate for your exercise.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio

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Farmers Market For Fresh Produce

Farmers Market For Fresh Produce

Published by on August 15, 2023 | Leave a response

If you want to maximize the nutrients in your food, shop at any of the San Antonio, TX, farmers’ markets. They offer fresh produce that’s locally grown, so it’s right from the garden. You’ll get more nutrients. There’s everything from heirloom tomatoes to sweet potatoes, so creating a healthy meal is a cinch. Many farmers’ markets offer animal products. You’ll often find healthier options like meat and eggs from pasture-raised animals.

Get up early, exercise, and shop on the weekends.

You’ll get a head start on fitness when you plan. Most farmers’ markets are only open on the weekend. You can maintain your weekly sleep schedule by getting up early and exercising. That leaves enough time to shower and start shopping when they open. If you aren’t meal planning, it can be a good time to start. Try several different markets until you find the ones that offer the best variety and produce.

Stock up on the superfoods.

Beets, broccoli, spinach, summer squash, sweet corn, strawberries, tomatoes, and many other summer vegetables are available in August. Plan your meals around the seasonal produce and buy extra to freeze or can for later. Focus on the superfoods packed with nutrients like beets. Beets are high in manganese, potassium, and folate. They’re sweet but low in calories. You can eat the leaves and beetroot. They’re high in fiber, zinc, vitamin C, and iron. They help fight inflammation, improve physical endurance, lower blood pressure, and improve cognitive function.

Get more nutrients from farm fresh produce and pastured animal products.

It’s hard to find fresh produce in the grocery store, particularly if it’s organic. You can find it at a farmers’ market. Locally grown produce is picked at peak ripeness, so it tastes better and is packed with more nutrition. If it’s organically grown, you know it has to follow strict compliance with rules, so the fertilizer isn’t the traditionally grown type that contains only phosphorus, nitrates, and potassium. The fertilizer for organic gardeners contains trace minerals. The farmers use earth-friendly practices that put more nutrients back into the soil. Animal products are often from pastured animals, where they eat their traditional food. The nutrient profile is far higher in these products.

  • You can often save money at farmers’ markets, especially on organically grown produce. There’s no middleman, like the grocery. You purchase it directly from the producer.
  • Don’t forget to check for fresh herbs and spices to add more nutrition to your meals. Don’t be afraid to add them to almost any dish. They can make you look like an ace in the kitchen while boosting nutrients.
  • If you aren’t already using some of the fruits and vegetables you find, get adventurous. Try foods you wouldn’t otherwise purchase, like sweet potatoes, parsnips, or fresh figs. Many of the vendors share favorite recipes and tips for creating new dishes.
  • You’ll probably find some fruits and vegetables you’ve never seen. Just remember to choose a rainbow of colorful fruits and vegetables to maximize nutrition. Farmer’s markets are child friendly, so it’s a chance to let the little ones help choose a meal.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio

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The Impact Of Alcohol On Weight Loss

The Impact Of Alcohol On Weight Loss

Published by on August 5, 2023 | Leave a response

Stopping for a few drinks with colleagues after work may seem harmless, but alcohol can cause your weight loss program to fail. If you have a drink to let off steam, you’d be better off doing a few HIIT circuits at Iron Fit. Even if you’re just having a couple of beers or a few glasses of wine, it can be disastrous to your weight loss program. While a glass of wine may be heart-healthy, it still has calories and alcohol, both of which have consequences for weight loss.

A calorie is a calorie.

Whether you eat it or drink it, it doesn’t matter and any drink with alcohol adds calories with few or any redeeming qualities. The excess calories can increase your risk of diabetes and obesity. While a calorie is a calorie, alcohol slows the fat-burning process, making their calories even more detrimental to weight loss. If the body doesn’t get enough calories, it burns fat. When you drink alcohol, the body burns the alcohol first since it’s a toxin. That causes your metabolism to switch from burning fat and impairs glucagon use. Glucagon increases blood glucose levels as it breaks down fat. The lower blood sugar levels make you hungry, even though you’ve just consumed a few hundred calories in your drinks.

Even though that wine has some benefits, you won’t develop belly fat eating the grape.

You can eat almost three cups of grapes and get the same calories as a glass of wine. You’ll also feel fuller from the grapes for several reasons. The calories from umbrella drinks are even higher since they’re often packed with sugar. Those calories are stored as fat, while the liver’s primary task is eliminating the alcohol from the body. For females with low estrogen levels, such as those who are menopausal, the enzyme Aldh lal causes the calories to turn to pounds on the belly.

There are a few benefits, but moderation is the key.

Drinking alcohol may have some benefits. When used in moderation, which is one daily serving, like a glass of wine, for women or two daily servings for men, there are a few benefits. It may help lower the risk of Alzheimer’s or dementia. One research study found people who drank in moderation were less prone to Alzheimer’s than those who didn’t drink at all. It also may help improve healthy HDL and could boost the immune system. The resveratrol in red wine can even be heart healthy.

  • Be careful about drinking before a meal. Studies show that people who drank alcohol before a meal ate more than those who drank water. It stimulates your appetite.
  • If you have a problem with insulin resistance or diabetes, alcohol can make your insulin levels spike and cause hypoglycemia. However, drinking in moderation may improve insulin sensitivity. More than three daily drinks cause higher A1C and blood sugar.
  • Alcohol can lower testosterone levels. That slows the process of building muscles. It also affects your metabolism since the more muscles you have, the more calories you burn 24/7.
  • Per gram, alcohol has almost as many calories. It has 7 calories per gram, while fat has nine. Fat fills you up and makes you feel full longer. Alcohol makes you hungry.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio

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How Hormones Affect Health And Behavior

How Hormones Affect Health And Behavior

Published by on July 25, 2023 | Leave a response

We began our site to ensure that people of San Antonio, TX and across the US have access to learning healthier habits, and how nutrition and exercise can change your overall health. Those changes can make a difference in every part of your body, especially your hormones. Your hormones are your body’s messengers, similar to neurotransmitters but created in the endocrine glands. They affect your body, health, and behavior. Stress hormones are necessary to survive but also cause damage when left unchecked. Hormones can affect your mood, and an imbalance could cause mental illnesses.

Hormones can make you feel hungry or full.

Most people think of sex hormones when they hear hormones, but there are 50 different hormones besides testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone. Each one has a task or tasks they have to start. Hormones also have an opposing hormone. For instance, ghrelin is a hormone that makes you hungry, while its counterpart, leptin, makes you feel full. The two can get out of balance. If you get too little sleep, the body makes more ghrelin and less leptin. You’re hungrier and eat beyond where you’d otherwise feel satisfied. That’s an invitation to weight gain.

There are feel-good hormones and imbalances that make you feel out of control.

Almost everyone has heard of dopamine. It’s both a neurotransmitter and a hormone. It’s a feel-good, reward hormone that triggers the brain’s pleasure center. It’s responsible for motivation and addiction. Too much cortisol or norepinephrine can make you feel stressed and anxious. Oxytocin is the love/relationship hormone that helps parents and their children bond. Testosterone is in both male and female bodies since it performs other tasks that aren’t related to sexuality. Too little testosterone causes depression, anxiety, a low sex drive, lower energy levels, and increased anxiety.

Insulin is necessary for your body to survive.

Insulin tells the cells to open to receive glucose. It’s created when there is too much glucose in the bloodstream. You need insulin for the cells to have the energy to survive. It also is responsible for storing excess glucose in the form of fat. It has an antagonist, as most hormones do. That hormone is glucagon. It signals the liver to release glucose and put more in the bloodstream. It causes fat cells to break down, while insulin causes them to increase. Both must function to avoid diabetes.

  • Norepinephrine is both a neurotransmitter and a stress hormone. One function is constricting blood vessels, raising blood pressure. Acetylcholine, prostaglandins, and histamine are hormones that make them wider, lowering blood pressure.
  • Even though serotonin is often called the “feel good” hormone, it’s not a hormone. It isn’t created by a gland, or by the body for that matter. Beneficial microbes in the gut create serotonin.
  • Oxytocin may be the love hormone that is released during group activities, during romance, and between parent and child, it also can cause aggressive behavior to anyone outside the group.
  • HGH—human growth hormone—is considered a hormone of youth. You’ll have more if you exercise regularly. It controls many functions and some believe it slows the aging process.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio

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Why Fiber Is So Important?

Why Fiber Is So Important?

Published by on July 15, 2023 | Leave a response

It’s amazing how important fiber is and how little credit it gets. It’s the butt of constipation jokes and people’s moods, but it does more than help prevent constipation. It keeps your gut microbes healthy and in perfect balance. That leads to improved weight, a healthier body, and better mental functioning. Fiber can play a vital role in weight loss and eliminating waste.

There are two basic types of fiber.

Fiber is either soluble or insoluble. The body can’t digest insoluble fiber. It adds bulk to stools to make them less compacted and softer. That makes stools easier to eliminate. The other type of fiber is soluble fiber. It turns into a gel when it is mixed with water. It blocks the absorption of fat and lowers cholesterol. It also helps slow the absorption of sugar and keeps blood sugar levels stable. Another role of soluble fiber is feeding the beneficial microbes in the gut. It helps build a stronger community of beneficial microbes, which reduces the population of harmful ones.

Keeping your gut microbiome in balance keeps you healthier.

The gut microbiome controls many things. It’s necessary to help you digest food and absorb nutrients. The mix of fungi, bacteria, viruses, and other microbes almost acts like a separate body organ. The microbes affect you from cradle to casket. They control many functions, such as boosting immunity, digesting food, nervous system control, heart health, and brain health. A healthy gut microbiome lowers the risk of diabetes and obesity.

Fiber is filling.

When you eat food with fiber, the fiber fills you and keeps you feeling full longer, without adding excess calories. It is the champion of weight loss. Foods containing fiber are traditionally low in calories. The soluble fiber group includes strawberries, apples, peas, and other fruits and vegetables. whole grains. A few insoluble fiber sources are whole grains, nuts, the skins of apples, and beans. Only plant-based foods have fiber, animal products don’t.

  • Studies show an unhealthy balance of microbes can increase the risk of weight gain. Consuming food beneficial to your microbiome, like fiber or probiotic food like yogurt, can help you lose weight.
  • When you increase fiber in your diet, do it slowly. If you increase it too fast, it can cause gas, bloating, and other unpleasant digestive issues.
  • Highly processed foods, including white bread, contain very little fiber. Both the bran and germ are removed when the grain is processed, leaving only the high-calorie endosperm. It’s why eating whole grain products is important.
  • If you’re taking antibiotics, your gut needs probiotic food, like yogurt and sauerkraut. It also needs prebiotic food like fiber. When you increase fiber in your diet, don’t forget to drink extra water.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio

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Health Benefits Of Carbohydrates

Health Benefits Of Carbohydrates

Published by on July 5, 2023 | Leave a response

If you recoil at the word carbohydrate, you probably also flee in fear when you hear the word fat. Both have been given a bad rap due to some offenders in their category. Carbohydrates can have health benefits, but they also can damage your health. It’s all about the type of carbohydrate you choose. If you’re consuming whole-food carbohydrates, chances are, you’ll be eating a healthy carb. However, if you eat a highly processed carb, most likely you’ll eat a bad carb.

What are carbohydrates?

Carbohydrates are a macronutrient. Other macronutrients are protein and fat. Within the category of carbohydrates, there are three sub-categories, starch, fiber, and sugar. Another classification includes simple and complex carbohydrates. In most cases, simple carbohydrates include sugar that’s added to food. They’re in brown sugar, glucose, sucrose, fructose, HFCS, corn syrup, and raw sugar. Fruit juice with the pulp removed acts much like a simple carb. It breaks down quickly in the digestive tract to glucose and floods your bloodstream. There’s no fiber to slow the absorption of sugar in the digestive tract.

You need fiber.

Fiber provides many benefits for the body. Fiber slows the absorption of glucose into the bloodstream, which helps prevent serious conditions like insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Soluble fiber feeds beneficial microbes in the gut. In turn, the microbes perform many services for the body, such as breaking down food into nutrients the body can use. Soluble fiber also reduces fat absorption, lowers cholesterol, and can benefit weight loss.

Like all carbohydrates, starch provides energy.

They also provide so many more benefits. One type of starch is resistant starch. It’s in beans, dried peas, lentils, and green bananas. When you cook and cool food like pasta or potatoes, it also forms. This is why you need to scrape pasta from the pot immediately or it’s far more difficult to remove. The body doesn’t digest it. It ferments in the large intestine. Fermentation produces short-chain fatty acids, a type of fiber. Those fatty acids can help prevent colon cancer and provide all the benefits fiber does.

  • Healthy carbs provide many nutrients that are difficult to find in animal products. They contain fiber, vitamin C, and phytochemicals only found in plants—as the name suggests. Phytochemicals play an important role in keeping the body healthy.
  • The key is to eat healthy sources of carbohydrates. These include whole fruits and vegetables. They provide your body with the nutrients it requires, plus energy. Avoid processed carbs and those with added sugar.
  • Food can be a combination of protein, carbohydrates, and fat. For instance, tree nuts contain protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Most carbs are plant-based, with milk being the exception.
  • When you choose your carbs wisely, you don’t have to worry about the number of carbs you eat. Most healthy food options are lower in carbs and don’t pack on the pounds.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio

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How To Break A Weight Loss Plateau

How To Break A Weight Loss Plateau

Published by on June 25, 2023 | Leave a response

Even if you’re sticking with your diet and working out regularly, sometimes you face a weight loss plateau, where the next pound simply won’t budge. That can be extremely frustrating but happens to many people. Plateauing can occur for several reasons. One of them is quite positive. You may be gaining muscle. Muscle weighs more per cubic inch than fat tissue does, so while you aren’t losing weight, you’re losing inches. If your pants are a bit loose and button with ease, you’re still making progress. In this case, keep up the good work, and don’t change a thing.

Have you continued to use the same workout routine?

If you haven’t changed a thing since you started your quest to a smaller, narrower you, it’s time to make some changes. The more exercise, the more efficient your body becomes. That means it burns fewer calories. Vary your routine and work your muscles on a different plane or focus on a new muscles group. It feels awkward and difficult initially, but that’s a good thing. It causes the body to burn more calories and continues the loss of weight.

Remember weight loss isn’t a straight line down but a crooked one.

Most people think they’re going to see a consistent loss every week. You try for that, but it doesn’t always work that way. Some weeks you’ll lose four pounds and other weeks none. Another problem may come from your new lower weight. You may have to cut calories further and work out harder. The ten pounds you lost was like carrying an extra ten-pound weight everywhere you went. Of course, you burned more calories. Reevaluate your program.

Look at your exercise program.

Are you only doing aerobics? It might be your problem. When you do aerobic-style workouts, like running a mile or two, you’ll blast calories for sure. However, the body doesn’t discriminate what the source is. They may start as fat tissue converted to energy or come from lean muscle tissue. The less muscle tissue you have, the lower your metabolism, since muscle tissue requires more calories to maintain than fat tissue does. Add strength-building exercises to your workout to build muscles and torch fat.

  • If you’re on the straight and narrow when it comes to food, but not paying attention to what you drink, it might be the problem. High-calorie sugary drinks can pack on the pounds. Skip soft drinks and go for water.
  • Check your diet for too low of a calorie count. If you’re not eating enough, it can slow your body’s metabolism and make weight loss more difficult. Make sure you include healthy fat. It’s necessary for weight loss.
  • Are you getting adequate sleep? Lack of sleep can make you hungrier since it boosts the hunger hormone and diminishes the one that makes you feel full. It also can slow you down so you burn fewer calories.
  • Don’t weigh yourself every day. Sometimes, the weight is temporary. If you think it’s water weight, flush it out by drinking more water. It not only makes you feel full but also helps flush your system, acting like a diuretic.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio

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Supplements NOT To Take

Supplements NOT To Take

Published by on June 15, 2023 | Leave a response

If you go to any grocery or drug store, you’ll see an aisle or two devoted to supplements. All types of vitamins, minerals, nutrients, and herbal options are available. Even though these nutrients will never substitute for a healthy diet, some supplements may be beneficial, which includes common ones, such as vitamin D. Not all are. There are also supplements not to take for many reasons, and some exotic herbs that may cause health issues.

Some fat-soluble vitamins may seem harmless, but you might be wrong.

When people self-diagnose, they often look for easy cures for self-medication One diagnosis is a lack of proper nutrition. If the problem is nutritional deficiency, they choose to use supplements instead of improving their diets. In the case of vitamin A, it’s not about taking it but taking too much. Vitamin A is a fat-soluble that accumulates. Too much can cause thinning hair, dry skin, and other direct symptoms. If you’re pregnant, too much can cause problems with the baby’s central nervous system and birth defects. You can accumulate too much vitamin D, E, and K, also fat-soluble vitamins. Overdosing on any vitamin or mineral has negative consequences. You’re far better off getting nutrients from whole food.

Stick with a cup of coffee or tea and skip the caffeine supplements.

A cup of coffee before a workout might increase your productivity but beware of going overboard with caffeine supplements. A little can be beneficial but is best when it comes from coffee or tea, which also have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant phytochemicals. Drinking your caffeine lets you control the reaction better. You start to notice the anxiety and jitters. It’s far too easy to overdose on a caffeine supplement, which can negatively affect people with diabetes, heart disease, and mental issues.

If you’re going for big muscles, be wary of some protein supplements.

Whether you’re a bodybuilder or a senior just trying to get adequate protein, be careful when you choose a protein supplement. Make sure it’s received third-party certification. The FDA doesn’t review these types of products, but third-party certifiers do. The USP, BSCG, and NSF review it and give it a score. Some protein supplements have been found to have some pretty shady ingredients not shown on the label that range from rat droppings to metal shavings. Avoid products with creatine for bulk. It can cause heart and kidney problems.

  • If you’re a male senior, avoid protein supplements made with soy isolates. It acts like estrogen on the body and can cause male breasts to develop. Avoid cleavage and use those made from milk-protein isolates.
  • If you’re taking medication, always check to see if the supplements interact with your meds. Check the dosage before using. Some supplements come in extremely high-dose units.
  • You might be wasting your money if you purchase cheap vitamins. Not all vitamins are bioavailable, so your body can’t use them. Normally, the more expensive forms have the highest bioavailability.
  • Be aware of the side effects of some supplements. The supplement glutamine improves immune health but may cause a fast heartbeat, blood in the urine, and weakness. Ginkgo boosts memory and may improve certain eye diseases, but it can cause problems with blood sugar levels.

For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio

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