Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - 5 Common Vitamin and Mineral Deficiencies (and How to Fix Them)

Episode Date: July 3, 2023

Vitamins and minerals are critical for our overall health, yet deficiencies and insufficiencies are surprisingly common. But what's the difference between a deficiency and an insufficiency? How do these issues impact our body? Most importantly, how can we fix them? In this episode, we’ll explore these concepts in detail and provide insight into the five most common vitamin and mineral issues: Potassium, Vitamin D, Vitamin K, Magnesium, and Zinc. If you've been wondering if you might be falling short on these key nutrients, or if you're just curious about the topic, this is the episode for you. Tune in as we uncover the hidden impact of deficiencies and insufficiencies, and provide practical tips to ensure your body is getting the micronutrients it needs. Understanding these principles can be a game changer for your health and wellbeing, so don’t miss out! Timestamps: (0:00) - Please leave a review of the show wherever you listen to podcasts and make sure to subscribe! (1:46) - What is the difference between deficiencies and insufficiencies? (9:05) - What are the two ways insufficiencies harm the body? (13:22) - My new Vitamin D & K Supplement: https://buylegion.com/vitamindk (17:06) - Potassium and insufficiencies (20:36) - Vitamin D insufficiencies (22:18) - Vitamin K insufficiencies (27:47) - Magnesium insufficiencies (32:03) - Zinc insufficiencies Mentioned on the Show: Get my new Vitamin D & K supplement risk-free today! Go to https://buylegion.com/vitamindk and use coupon code MUSCLE to save 20% or get double reward points!

Hey there, I am Mike Matthews and this is Muscle For Life. Thank you for joining me today to learn about some common vitamin and mineral insufficiencies and deficiencies. And I'm also going to talk about those two terms and why insufficiencies are much more common than actual deficiencies and why insufficiencies matter, why you should address these things if you have some of these common nutritional insufficiencies in your diet. And this isn't the sexiest of subjects. It's kind of the boring basics or it's part of the boring basics of nutrition. But remember that the boring basics in, well, just about most things in life are part of that 20% that give you 80% of the potential results. The old Pareto principle applies to many things, certainly applies to fitness,

it applies to nutrition, it applies to training, it applies to supplementation, it applies to recovery out of all of the possible things that you could learn about and you could try. A minority, let's say something around probably 20% are going to give you the majority of the possible things that you could learn about and you could try. A minority, let's say something around probably 20% are going to give you the majority of the results. And often those disproportionately important things are not very sexy. They are part of the boring basics. And so in today's episode, I'm not going to be talking about anti-psychotic tree barks. I'm not going to be talking about supplements made from volcanic ash. That kind of stuff is interesting, but I'm going to talk about vitamin D, for example. And

you're going to say, I know vitamin D is good, but do you know how much vitamin D your body needs? And are you sure you are giving your body all of the vitamin D that it needs? And do you know why it's important to do that? Okay, let's start this discussion with a distinction between insufficiencies and deficiencies. So when it comes to the essential vitamins and minerals, most of the discussion around them simply revolves around how much you should consume. And it's assumed, of course, we have to consume it. It's an essential vitamin and mineral. It's a nutrient we have to get from our diet. And that is a tricky topic to cover when you dig into the details, because the way essential vitamins and minerals, as well as other vitamin-like compounds that are designated as non-essential, like CoQ10, for example, it's actually not as simple as putting

gas into the tank until it is full. You can't just hit target X and call it a day, or you can't just hit a one-size-fits-all target X and call it a day. And the reason for that is those cookie-cutter recommendations have to make some assumptions about things that change from individual to individual, like absorption rates and elimination rates and assessing what the vitamin or mineral even does in the body. And so what that means then is the ideal doses of these vitamins and minerals, essential, non-essential, can change from person to person. Your ideal doses are not going to be

the same as mine or probably not going to be the same as mine in most cases because of things related to lifestyle, genetics, intake of other things. For example, a major role of vitamin D is to manage calcium levels in the body. So if you increase one, it does affect the other. Vitamin K, phosphorus also involved. And it was only a decade or so ago that our vitamin D requirements were literally of what they are now. If you look at the scientific consensus about vitamin D a decade or so ago, it was that we only need about half of what that consensus is currently. And it is now recognized that some people need quite half of what that consensus is currently. And it is now recognized that some people need quite a bit more vitamin D than that

one size fits all kind of cookie cutter recommendation to maintain optimal amounts of the active form of vitamin D in the body. And the story of vitamin K is very similar. In the last decade or so, a lot of research has come out indicating that it is more important than scientists once believed and that we should be getting quite a bit more than we were told to get some time ago, let's say a decade ago. And so anyway, my point is that every year scientists are learning more about vitamins and minerals and other nutrients and how much we need, how much is likely to be optimal for most people and how much some people who are not going to reach an optimal level, if they consume that

amount, how much those people need. And again, sometimes it's multiple times what the average person needs and how to best get these nutrients and so on. Now, that brings me to deficiency versus insufficiency. And this is important to understand because some people will claim that you don't need to eat certain foods or don't need to eat certain amounts of certain foods or make certain optimizations to your diet because you're not going to develop a deficiency of some essential or non-essential nutrient. Some people will point to research to back that up, saying, look, you're totally fine. You don't really have to eat much in the way of, let's say, plants or vegetables or leafy greens or whatever, as evidenced here by this research that shows that people who did not eat much of those things did

not develop any sort of deficiency. Okay, but a deficiency is when you get none of that thing or things in your diet and you get some sort of disease state. That is a true deficiency. Now, if you get enough of a nutrient or nutrients to avoid disease, but your body isn't functioning as well as it could be. It is not in an optimal state of health or function. And if you could then add more of whichever nutrient or nutrients we're talking about to overcome that suboptimal state and reach a more optimal state, that is an insufficiency. And if you're listening to this podcast, you almost certainly don't have any nutritional deficiencies. It would be very hard for you to develop a true nutritional deficiency, even if you follow some odd offbeat diet like the carnivore diet or the keto diet or whatever

other diet du jour you want to dabble in. It is very hard to develop a true nutritional deficiency. But nutritional insufficiencies are far more common than most people realize, even among people who eat fairly well, who eat a fair amount of nutritious foods, who eat a fairly quote unquote clean diet. And addressing those nutritional insufficiencies can be far more beneficial than most people realize. And so then one of our primary goals with our diet should be to maintain nutritional sufficiencies, to get enough of essential and non-essential nutrients, to maintain a high level of health, a high level of function,

and I could say more specifically, to maintain a state that will not get any better, a state of health and function that will not get any better by adding more of those nutrients. So we're getting enough to get more or less all of the benefits that we can get from those nutrients. And that would be a state of nutritional sufficiency in a given nutrient, or we could just say overarching nutritional sufficiency. And that, for example, is why I take a multivitamin and why I recommend people at least consider taking a multivitamin, because while I do eat a very nutritious diet, there are certain nutrients, and I'm going to talk about a couple of them here today, that are very hard, if not impossible, to obtain in optimal amounts from food alone. And supplementation is great for that specifically.

Supplementation is not great for trying to replace the need to eat nutritious foods. That is a fool's errand. You do not want to drink a greens supplement instead of eating greens, for example. You need to eat the greens. And similarly, you do not want to take a multivitamin instead of eating nutritious foods, instead of eating fruits and vegetables and seeds and nuts and legumes and so forth. But if you are doing those things, if you are eating a lot of nutritious food, you still can benefit from a well-formulated multivitamin that contains very specific essential and non-essential nutrients and forms of those nutrients and doses of those nutrients. Because by eating well and taking the supplement, you can

obtain a higher level of health and function than you can just from eating well alone. Now, of course, that is not to say that you need to take a supplement to be healthy or to have a body that functions well. Absolutely not. You don't need supplements for that. You don't need supplements for losing fat, for building muscle, but the right supplements can help if you are doing the 20% that gives you the 80%. If you are eating well, if you are training well, if you're managing stress well, if you are getting enough sleep, if you are recovering from your training well and so forth. So anyway, coming back to this point of insufficiency, nutritional insufficiency, which, by the way, is what most people who just kind of casually talk about diet

nutrition, even influencers or experts, if they say nutritional deficiency, they probably mean insufficiency, not a true deficiency. But there are two primary ways that nutritional insufficiencies harm the body. The first is, OK, so your body has enough of a nutrient or nutrients so that it can do its job in an adequate fashion, but it's not really working at 100 percent capacity or certain mechanisms, certain processes in the body are not working at 100% capacity because there just isn't enough of these key nutrients to support the mechanisms. And if you were to get more of those nutrients, then those mechanisms, those processes would work better and your body would work better. So that's one issue. And then the other issue is if you are not getting enough of

certain vitamins and minerals, then the body starts to modify some of its basic functions to preserve the amounts that you are getting and that you have stored because there's not an abundance of these nutrients. And so your body has adapted for survival here, but not for optimal function. It needs to cut some corners because it's not getting enough of the key nutrients. Now, one other thing I want to comment on before I get into some common vitamin and mineral deficiencies and what to do about it is the attack on non-essential nutrients. And I often see this among low carbers of all kinds. So keto or carnivore people who dismiss many different nutrients because they are not essential. And the implication is because they are not essential,

you can get basically none of them in your diet and you can be just fine. And that is a misleading and mostly wrong argument, unless your goal is simply to survive. If you're not trying to thrive, if you're not trying to optimize health and function, you're just trying to not die, then yeah, you can neglect many non-essential nutrients. But if you are trying to thrive, if you are trying to achieve as close to optimal health and function as you possibly can, there are many non-essential nutrients that you should provide your body with because if you don't, we go back to the second way that nutritional insufficiencies can harm the body, your body is going to have to make adaptations and sometimes those adaptations are

not optimal. For example, taurine is a great source of sulfur for the body, but without it, yes, the body can use other sources and it will adapt. There are things that our body can synthesize, so we don't need to rely on ingestion like CoQ10, creatine, PQQ. But if we do ingest additional CoQ10, creatine, PQQ, it can benefit our body. And in the case of creatine in particular, it can benefit our body in many meaningful ways. And that doesn't necessarily mean that you have to supplement with creatine. I would say if you want to get everything that creatine has to offer, you do have to supplement because you have to ingest probably close to 10 grams per day. That's what the research is showing,

particularly for cognitive benefits for brain health and brain function. But if you don't want to supplement with creatine, you can get a fair amount from eating meat, enough to make noticeable improvements in your physical performance, in your body composition, and in other elements of your health and your well-being compared to getting very little or no creatine in your diet. And so anyway, my point here is some people disrespect non-essential nutrients as not even worthy of consideration and shine the spotlight solely on essential nutrients. And in some cases argue that we don't need very much of those as well. And I disagree with that line of argument. I think the overwhelming weight of the scientific evidence shows otherwise. It shows that we should care very much about our essential nutrient intake.

And if we want to thrive, if we want to optimize our health and our performance and our well-being, we also want to pay attention to our non-essential nutrient intake. If you like what I'm doing here on the podcast and elsewhere, and if you want to help me do more of it, please do check out my sports nutrition company, Legion, because while you don't need supplements to build muscle, lose fat, and get healthy, the right ones can help.

Like our newest supplement, vitamin D and K. Now, will this supplement maximize your energy and your immunity and will it banish fatigue and anxiety like some people claim that vitamin D and K supplements can do? No, it's not going to do those things. And will it give you glowing skin, hair and nails overnight? Common claims as well from people who sell vitamin D and K supplements? Well, no, it's not going to do those things either. But can my vitamin D and K supplements support your bone health, muscle function and performance and immune health? Yes, absolutely. Or you get your money back. Now, you might be wondering how, how can vitamin D and K do those things? Well, vitamins D3, K1, K2, those are critical nutrients

that are involved in the production of many different enzymes and hormones in the body that regulate critical processes like calcium metabolism, blood clotting, bone and cardiovascular health, immune health, insulin sensitivity, and more. Furthermore, despite their importance, research shows that as many as 20% of people here in the West are not getting enough vitamin D3 for optimal health and performance, and up to 48% of people are not getting enough vitamins K1 and K2, which together are just referred to as vitamin K, including people with a healthy diet and lifestyle. These nutritional insufficiencies, or to use a technical term, subclinical deficiencies, can be serious too because research shows that they can be

associated with many different health problems, including mood disruption, muscle weakness, impaired bone and heart health, and more. It's also hard to get enough vitamin D and K even when you eat well, when you try. Because one, the best natural source of vitamin D3 is exposure to sunlight. It's not food. And many people don't consistently spend enough time in the sun to produce enough vitamin D3, especially those who use sunscreen or have darker skin pigmentation or live far from the equator. And as for vitamin K, and particularly the two different molecules that are part of the vitamin K family, K1 and K2, there just aren't many practical dietary sources of them. The best choices are dark leafy greens. Spinach in particular is great. Try to eat spinach every day. Cheese, butter, seaweed,

in particular is great. Try to eat spinach every day. Cheese, butter, seaweed, fermented foods, pork and chicken, and many people don't eat enough of those foods to meet their body's K1 and K2 needs, which research is showing are quite a bit higher than the standard RDI, especially if you want to get all of the potential benefits that vitamin K has to offer when you want to optimize your health and physical performance and wellness. Some research suggests that you might need up to eight to 10 times the RDI or upward of 1000 micrograms of vitamin K per day. And so for those reasons, many health conscious people who eat a nutritious diet and who live a healthy lifestyle also choose to supplement with vitamins D3, K1, and K2. I'm one of those people, and that's why I created this supplement. And if you want to check it out, you can find it at bylegion.com slash vitamin D K.

That's B-U-Y-L-E-G-I-O-N dot com slash vitamin D K. That's B-U-Y-L-E-G-I-O-N.com slash vitamin D-K. Okie dokie, with all of that out of the way, let's now get to specifics. Let's talk about five common vitamin and mineral insufficiencies. And the first one is potassium. And this is a great example of something that you really can't be deficient in, but you can be insufficient in. And many people are insufficient in it. And so potassium is found in essentially all plant products to a low degree, and it's commonly seen as the opposite of sodium. So any of the bad stuff that can occur from

sodium, at least sodium in excess, is the stuff that potassium intake can protect against. And when it comes to a deficiency state, I don't think that that happens unless people are like in the hospital. The body seems to be very anal retentive about retaining as much potassium as it can due to how important it is. But if you look at the literature on potassium and potassium intake, something that is striking is its effect on cardiovascular health. What you see is that in otherwise healthy people, higher potassium intake levels are associated with a reduced risk of any cardiovascular problem that's related to blood flow, which is almost all of them.

And so it is important to get enough potassium in your diet. And you can't do that with supplements. You can't practically do that with supplements because of limitations around how much potassium can go into a supplement. Although one kind of exception worth mentioning is a salt substitute, a potassium chloride that you can use in the place of table salt. That is a viable potassium supplement. The best way to do that is just sprinkle it slowly onto your meals that you are eating, and it is not going to provide you with enough potassium to maintain sufficiency. That requires three to four grams per day for most people, but it can get you an extra gram or so per day if you use it properly. But you do not want to use it in large amounts.

Don't dump a whole pile of it in water and drink it down like it is table salt because you can cause major cardiac issues if you do that. It really is something just to sprinkle on your meals to use in the place of salt if you are not getting enough potassium from your diet. And so then how do you maintain potassium sufficiency if supplementation is simply not an option? It can supplement your potassium intake, but it can't be the foundation of your potassium intake. Well, you guessed it.

You gotta eat well. You have to eat a mixed diet filled with various types of fruit and vegetables and legumes. For example, some foods that are naturally high in potassium include beans, white beans, soybeans, kidney beans. Lentils are good as well. and vegetables and legumes. For example, some foods that are naturally high in potassium include beans, white beans, soybeans, kidney beans. Lentils are good as well. You have tuber vegetables. Potatoes seem to be the best source in this family of food. Sweet potatoes, though, are good.

Parsnips work. Carrots are good. Other vegetables that contain meaningful, I guess you'd say, amounts of potassium are spinach, lettuce, broccoli, peas, cabbage. If we move to fruits, tomatoes are a good source. And that's a fruit. Don't argue with me. Dates are probably one of the best sources of potassium in case you like dates. If you don't, oranges, bananas, and most fruits actually are a good source of potassium. And you can find potassium in some different fish. You can find it in some chocolate products. You can find it in certain types of flour.

But your primary sources are going to be the legumes, the fruits, and the vegetables. All right, let's move on to the next common vitamin and mineral insufficiency. And this one is one of the best cases for supplementation. And it's vitamin D, of course, because there's a lot of evidence to show that many of us need to get a lot more than we're getting if we are not supplementing with it because it is hard to get through diet alone, especially non-fortified foods, which tend to be foods that are not highly processed. A lot of fortified foods, foods that have vitamin D added

or highly processed foods that people who are trying to optimize their health and their fitness are not eating. And vitamin D supplements are relatively inexpensive and they are effective and they are safe. And so it's definitely in the top three supplements that you really should just be putting in your face. Because again, unless you live near the equator and you spend a lot of time outside with a lot of your skin exposed to the sun, you are almost certainly not getting enough vitamin D. And as for how much you want, anything between probably 800 and 2000 IU per day is good. But some people recommend up to 5000 IU and that's fine. Although when you get to that level of intake, it's best to get a blood test to check your levels

to see how much D3, the active form of vitamin D is in your blood because you want those blood levels of the vitamin D of the D3 to be in the range of 54 to 90 nanograms per milliliter of blood. And you don't need to get blood work if you're just going to take, call it 2000 IU per day. But if you're thinking maybe your body needs more or you're just curious if it needs more, then check it with a blood test and you'll know. Okay, next up on the list of common vitamin and mineral insufficiencies that should be addressed is vitamin K, which is an essential vitamin that is going to be subject to the vitamin D treatment soon. I would say that's actually well underway. More and more people are learning about the importance of vitamin K

and how difficult it is to get enough vitamin K through diet alone and are deciding to supplement with it because of that. And I support that line of thinking and that line of attack because more and more evidence is coming out showing that we can benefit from quite a bit more than the RDI of 90 to 110 micrograms per day. At least that's what it is here in Western countries. And there are actually two different types of vitamin K, two different molecules. There's K1 and K2, and researchers are starting to look at those independently and are calling for specific recommendations for K1 and K2 to optimize health and function and well-being rather than just vitamin K can support bone health and manage where calcium goes, indirectly being heart healthy as well, managing where that calcium goes. There are two proteins in the body that seem to function better and better with large amounts of vitamin K, doses up to 1,000 micrograms of vitamin K1 or 320 to 500 micrograms of the MK7 form, which is vitamin K2. And there's other research that has

shown that a protein that's involved in blood clotting seems to work better up to about 200 micrograms of vitamin K per day. So that's double the RDI. And I mentioned heart health in passing just a minute or two ago, but considering how important heart health is, I want to comment a little bit further on that, because if you look at just these few proteins that I mentioned that work better with rather large amounts of vitamin K, those proteins working better can result in better arterial and heart health. It can help the body actively remove calcium from blood vessels. And that, of course, can reduce the risk of having a heart attack. And so in this way, vitamin K could help curb the potential side effects of too much vitamin D and too much calcium,

which include arterial calcification. There have been news stories, sensationalized news stories about this over the years, telling people to stop taking vitamin D supplements because it's going to give them a heart attack. No, it's not that simple. What is true, though, is if you take too much vitamin D and you eat a diet rich in calcium and you do that for too long, it could increase the risk of heart attack. And so anyway, how much vitamin K should should you be aiming for every day? Well, 250 micrograms of K1 is a good floor. That's a good minimum to shoot for or up to 1000 micrograms of K1. And that could be prudent for cardiovascular and overall health and longevity. Now, in terms of how to do that, it can be difficult because, it can be difficult because, for example, a cup of frozen, cooked or boiled kale would get the job done. 800 micrograms or so of vitamin K, but that's a cup of frozen or cooked or boiled kale.

Now, collards is another good source, but again, not very popular, at least with all the people I've met in my travels. Turnip greens, not very popular. Spinach is a good source, a more popular source. So a cup of frozen, cooked, or boiled spinach has about 800 micrograms per serving. But if you don't like boiled spinach, and I like most food, but boiled spinach is not something that I would order in a restaurant, for example.

I do like spinach, but I like it more in a salad than cooked. And so if we look at raw spinach, it has about probably 150 micrograms of vitamin K per cup. So that's decent. You're not going to get all the way there with just a cup of spinach, but that's going to get you well on your way. Brussels sprouts, about the same. Broccoli, your way. Brussels sprouts, about the same. Broccoli, about the same. Onions have a bit, 30 to 40 micrograms probably per onion. Asparagus is a decent source. And that's about it. If you look at a list of foods high in vitamin K, I've probably just shared most of the ones that you'd be willing to eat. And so then to get enough vitamin K, you can include those foods in your diet in sufficient amounts, or you can do a bit of that and supplement. And that's what I do

personally. I probably do get a fair amount through food alone, probably at least 500 micrograms, but there's no way I'm going to get to a thousand micrograms of K per day from food alone. I mean, it could be done, but I'm just not willing to eat that much of the things that I just shared with you. So I do eat spinach every day. I do eat onion every day. I do eat broccoli almost every day. And I take a vitamin D and vitamin K supplement. Actually, I take my own vitamin D and vitamin K supplement. Well, technically, it's a multivitamin with vitamin D and vitamin K. And if you want to check it out, learn about what else it has and why I think you should consider it, you can find it over at buylegion.com, B-U-Y legion.com

slash triumph. And I do have a vitamin D plus K supplement for people who are not going to take my multivitamin, but who do specifically want to supplement with vitamin D and vitamin K. And you can find that over at buylegion.com slash vitamin D K. Okay. And you can find that over at by legion dot com slash vitamin D K. OK, next up on my list here is magnesium, which you may not know is the most common mineral insufficiency in the Western world. And that's because of how many people do not eat well here in the Western world. And similar to potassium, magnesium is in many different foods, but it's usually only in small amounts. So in the case of something like vitamin C, that can be really easy to take care of because a good source of vitamin C can provide well over 100% of your requirements

and other foods can contain over 50% of your daily needs for something like calcium. That's also easy to get enough of, especially if you use a protein powder, like a whey protein or a casein protein, lots of calcium there. However, in the case of magnesium, most of the stuff that you would be willing to eat contains like a serving would contain 20% or less

of how much you need to be getting every day. And so for example, the best source is macadamia nut, and those have about 130 milligrams of magnesium per 100 grams of nuts. That's a lot of nuts. That's about 33% of what you should be getting every day in magnesium for a quote unquote cost of 720 calories. And so what that means then is you are not going to be able to rely on just nuts to get enough magnesium. You also are going to want to consider avocado, which also is delicious and nutritious, but contains a lot of calories and not that much magnesium, maybe about 60 milligrams in a medium avocado. Legumes are a good source of magnesium.

medium. Avocado. Legumes are a good source of magnesium. Cup of cooked black beans, for example, contains about 100, maybe a little bit more, 120 milligrams of magnesium. So that can add up. Tofu is a decent source, although not particularly popular in fitness circles. Seeds are another good source of magnesium. For example, one ounce of pumpkin seeds have almost 200 milligrams, about 170 or so milligrams of magnesium. Of course, seeds also have a lot of calories like nuts, which doesn't mean they are not quote unquote healthy, but it just means that you need to eat them in moderation if you are also trying to maintain a healthy body composition. Grains can be a decent source, whole grains in particular. A cup of buckwheat, for example, contains about 90 milligrams of magnesium. And some fatty fish also has a bit

of magnesium. It's almost trace amounts like salmon, for example, three and a half ounces or so of salmon has about 30 milligrams of magnesium. And then we have leafy greens coming to spinach again, which is probably my favorite vegetable, period, is just spinach. It is so packed with nutrition. It is so easy to eat because there are so many different salad recipes that you can play around with and that you can change up when you get sick of. And so a cup, for example, of cooked spinach, that's a fair amount of spinach, a cup of cooked, not raw, contains about 160 milligrams of magnesium. Also has vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K. Spinach is awesome. And finally, bananas are a decent source of magnesium, about 40 milligrams per banana.

Also a good source of potassium, good source of fiber. One of my favorite fruits along with strawberries. And lastly, supplementing is an option. It should be viewed though as supplemental, as complementary to your diet. If you are finding that you need a supplement to get most of the four to 500 milligrams of magnesium that your body needs every day, you probably should look at your diet first because you probably are not eating enough plants and could benefit from eating more plants. So start there. And then if you want to look into supplementation, there are different forms out there. And the form does matter because certain forms of magnesium are much more bio

available, meaning your body is able to absorb and use a lot more of them than other forms. And the absolute best form that I know of that has good high quality research behind it is called sucrosomial magnesium. And if you want to learn about that, I have a sucrosomial magnesium supplement or Legion does at least. And you can find that over at by Legion dot com. That's by Legion dot comA-G. All right, the final nutrient I wanted to talk about today, the final common nutritional insufficiency is zinc, which is a mineral that many people all over the world are not getting enough of.

Now, we don't need that much, and our bodies are pretty good at keeping the zinc that we do get inside and recycling it as needed. But regardless, there are quite a few people who don't get enough zinc or who could benefit from more zinc because zinc plays a vital role in many enzymes in our bodies and enzymatic processes, including those directly involved in the creation of DNA, RNA. It also has some antioxidant roles in the body. Many enzymes require minerals attached to them so they can

interact with other proteins, and zinc just fills that role well. There also is some research that athletic people, people who are exercising a fair amount and sweating a fair amount, tend to have lower amounts of zinc in their bodies compared to people who are not athletes or who are not very physically active, despite the more physically active people having a higher oral intake of zinc. And that may be due at least in part to mineral loss through sweat. But research shows that that probably isn't as big of a deal as hydration supplement sellers would have you believe. At any rate, what you want to do is get 15 to 30 milligrams of zinc per day. 15 per day is fine if you're a smaller woman, 30 per day if you're a

bigger guy. And you can get there if you like red meat and you are willing to eat it every day or at least every other day. Three and a half ounces of raw ground beef, for example, provides about five milligrams of zinc. And so that's a good start. And you'll find trace amounts of it in certain shellfish. I mean, oysters contain a fair amount. Six oysters is like 30 or 40 milligrams of zinc, but you're not gonna be eating oysters every day. So something more like shrimp that you would eat every day, it contains a small amount,

like a serving of shrimp is maybe a couple milligrams or so of zinc. And the same thing goes for other foods that you'll find on most foods to eat with quote unquote, a lot of zinc, like legumes. No, not really. We're talking about trace amounts, 100 grams or so, three and a half ounces of cooked lentils, for example, containing a couple milligrams of zinc. And the same thing goes for other types of legumes, seeds and nuts, more or less the same thing. Small amounts in

servings that you actually are going to eat, like you're not going to eat a thousand calories of nuts and seeds every day. But if you are having some nuts and seeds every day, that is contributing to your zinc intake. And I could go down the list, dairy, eggs, whole grains, also foods that contain small amounts of zinc. I think it's also reasonable to consider supplementing with zinc, especially if it is included in a supplement that you are taking like a well-formulated multivitamin. I think a well-formulated multivitamin should contain some zinc because it is not nearly as easy to get as other nutrients. And my multivitamin Triumph, for example, does have zinc. And I think I mentioned this already in this podcast,

but I'll mention it again. You can find it at bilegion.com slash triumph. And so that is it for the five most common nutritional insufficiencies, at least here in the Western world and what you can do to fix them. And there's nothing sexy about it. I warned you that in the beginning, these are simple nutrients everybody has heard of. And in most cases, you can get most of what you need just by eating well. Then you can add supplementation. I would not recommend relying solely on supplementation, but I do think it makes sense to add supplementation into a nutritious diet in many circumstances, if not most circumstances, at least with some of the nutrients discussed in this podcast and then others that I didn't discuss

in the podcast, because while they may not be common nutritional insufficiencies, there's good evidence that supplementing with rather large amounts of them, amounts that you are just not going to get from food, can provide market benefits. Like, for example, in the case of vitamin B12 and other B vitamins, and in the case of the essential mineral chromium and other nutrients. And so to summarize the key practical takeaway of this podcast, are going to eat for your health, for your longevity, for your vitality are going to be plant foods. You want to eat a variety of those. I think it is smart to include some very specific ones to meet some very specific nutritional

needs. And then once you are doing that, if you have the budget, if you have the inclination, if you want to maximally optimize your nutrition regimen, you add some supplements into it to meet some very specific nutritional targets that are very difficult or impossible to meet with food alone. Well, I hope you liked this episode. I hope you found it helpful. And if you did, Well, I hope you liked this episode. I hope you found it helpful. And if you did, subscribe to the show because it makes sure that you don't miss new episodes. And it also helps me because it increases the rankings of the show a little bit, which, of course, then makes it a little bit more easily found by other people who may like it just as much as you. as you. And if you didn't like something about this episode or about the show in general, or if you have ideas or suggestions or just feedback to share, shoot me an email, mike at muscleforlife.com,

muscleforlife.com, and let me know what I could do better or just what your thoughts are about maybe what you'd like to see me do in the future. I read everything myself. I'm always looking for new ideas and constructive feedback. So thanks again for listening to this episode and I hope to hear from you soon.