By Gabriel James Dziya
There is a tendency to pay much attention to the consumption of macro nutrients (fats, carbohydrates and proteins) when dieting for fitness. This approach can be effective in the short run but ultimately if your goal is to be healthy, while looking and feeling good, you will need to pay a lot more attention to your micro nutrients (vitamins and minerals).
In order to conceptualise the difference between macro nutrients and micro nutrients, think of your body as a large building that is constantly under construction – renovations, expansions and downsizing at times. The macro nutrients are the actual raw materials used to build and shape your actual appearance. The micro nutrients are like the workers on the construction site. You have many different types of specialist workers that preform different jobs in your body and without these workers (micro nutrients) a lot of work in your metabolism will simply slow down or stop altogether. Weight loss is, on a biological microscopic level, a highly complex process. What actually does the work of burning fat in your body are certain enzymes (hormone sensitive lipase – HSL and digestive enzymes) and hormones (human growth hormone, insulin like growth factor – IGF1, testosterone, leptin and thyroid hormones T3 & T4).
If your nutrition is off in terms of micro nutrients you will experience sub optimal levels of health and weight loss. Your body does not have enough workers (vitamins and minerals) to do tasks effectively.
Vitamins and minerals are co-workers or co-enzymes and some vitamins are being relabelled as hormones, for example Vitamin D which is produced in the body when the skin is exposed to sunlight.
So how do we get enough of these micro nutrients? The best source for micro nutrients without a doubt are vegetables. When we speak of vegetables in this context we are referring to non – starchy vegetables. So that means we exclude things that have starch like rice, sadza, potatoes and sweet potatoes.
Vegetables are extremely low in calories while being very high in micro nutrients. Fruits tend to be lower in nutrients and higher in calories. You can put on weight eating a diet of only fruits if you overdo it but it would be impossible to gain weight eating most vegetables as they are very low in sugar and high in fibre. The fibre in the vegetables feeds your important gut bacteria, which help bun a few extra calories and produce B vitamins in your body.
Ideally you will want to consume more cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, kale, covo, spinach, cabbage, rape and mustard greens/tsunga). These are jam-packed with nutrients and low in calories, for example, if you ate 5kgs of broccoli you would have only consumed about 1600 calories! Lets put it into perspective – 4 slices of Pizza (which is just 428g) comes in at a 1140 calories.
Since these vegetables are so high in fibre they make you feel full while the vitamins and minerals help you feel more alert and vibrant. You will find you can run longer and the weight just melts off a lot faster. You will sleep deeper because sleep hormones (melatonin, adenosine, thyroid stimulating hormone – THS and prolactin) will be optimised which is important for your body recomposition, fat loss, glowing skin and general energy and vitality levels.
Boost your micro nutrients with vegetables and you will notice changes to you health within days. If you find them hard to consume try to make vegetable smoothies with some honey for flavour.