Hey, I'm new to the site so I was checking things out and I came across the "report" section under Nutrition tab. For some reason it seems like vitamin levels are way out of whack. A lot of them are at least double what they should be.
For example, today I have eaten:
1 cup Total cereal
1/2 cup milk
handful of grapes
1 cheese stick
small handful of peanuts
2 homemade whole wheat wraps
-grilled chicken, lettuce, salsa, mozzarella cheese inside
another handful of grapes
And that's all so far today. I know Total is famous for having a lot of Vitamins and all, but some things still seem awfully high:
Vitamin D: mine for the day=1251; RDA=5
Calcium: mine for the day=2665; RDA=800
Iron: mine for the day=36; RDA=15
Folate: mine for the day=634; RDA=180
Some of these Vitamins and Minerals, I don't even know what they are, but I'm apparently getting a ton of them. Why is that? Is this a bad thing? I've always had low iron, could I really be getting more than RDA and still getting a low reading when I give blood? I feel like I'm doing ok at trying to eat healthy lately, but now I'm wondering what all these stats mean. Is the Total cereal overdoing it somehow?
Too much Calcium has been touted as an Osteoperosis risk.
The reason is the Osteoblasts, responsible for helping the Calcium to get into the "Bone Matrix", could be overworked and in time, because less able to functioned properly, poorly respond to Calcium and cause poorer Calcium uptake.
It's coming mainly from the Milk, Cheese and Peanuts.
However a Danish study a few years back, concluded that high Calcium diets can help excrete more Fat, but certainly I wouldn't go over 1,500 a day, bearing in mind, the RDA is around 1,000-1,200 mg's.
Iron I would not be overly concerned, as I'm fairly certain it's not an issue. Considering Iron is in pretty much most things. Non-Heme in plant matter has about a 5-10% absorption rate. Heme in Fish, Meat and Poultry, is 15-20%.
However too much Calcium can also interfere with Iron, as does Magesium, Copper, Caffeine and Tannic Acid in Tea, though Copper can help utilise Iron in low amounts, (2-3mg RDA), but Vit C, Amino Acids and Capsicum Pepper can apparently boost it.
B Vits are used to breakdown Proteins, Fats, Carbohydrates, Synthesise DNA, help with Glucose conversion, and in the case of Cobalamin, (B12), help Calcium utilisation. Folate can cut the risk of birth defects and you need enough of these as they can cause problems. One B vitamin, I think it's Niacin, (B3), can cause something called Pellagra, when in low amounts, which can lead to things like Dementia and Diarrhoea.
Whether your intake is a problem in terms of competiton in the body with other Micronutrients or even causing problems relating to excess I'm not sure. It's a water soluable same as Vit C, so I'd suspect too much would be urinated away.
You could remove the Cheese stick and replace it with a bit of Fruit, or mybe have the Wrap thing without Cheese and see how that works out. There's a bit of Calcium in Lettuce so I believe, so I'd avoid adding that, or if it's in there, maybe take it out.
Certainly I suspect if you're getting low iron count on a blood test, the culprit could be the Calcium, plus Magnesioum from Dairy and Caffeinated drinks if you have them.
Magnesium is important, but it can also be found in Beans, Rice and Fish, (Halibut is the best source). Though Calcium is in Rice to some extent and I think Beans too and possibly Fish. The two often co-exist in several foods.
RDA for Magnesium is around 350-400mg I think for Men and 400-450 for Women.
So is the ridiculously high Vitamin D anything to be concerned about at all? That one seemed the most out of proportion. I can work on the Calcium although I've always been an avid milk drinker, so maybe I'll have to find some better non-dairy snacks so I'm not getting too much. I used to drink a fair amount of caffeine, so that could have taken iron down in the past too. I'm trying to cut caffeine out of diet completely now, so maybe that will help iron levels in the future.
So aside from the Calcium, do I need to worry too much about the fact that diet today somehow gave me over 700% of daily dose of Riboflavin and more than double RDA of B6, Niacin, and Zinc, just to name a few?
Don't get too hung up about it. Yes too much Zinc could cause a Zinc, Copper imbalance, yes too much Calcium and Magnesium can interefere with Iron, yes D is in many things along with Calcium, especially as it's a Fat soluable, so things like Cheese, Peanuts, Nuts etc etc, create a link between both.
Some say RDA's are too low, but if they increased them to the point, where some people had to spend additional money supplementing, it could cause some people to be flirting with pauper status and get added stress from monitoring their Micronutrient intake all the time.
Same with calories. Monitoring is fine, but being is just plain bad.
Haha, ok thanks. I'm completely new to this whole monitoring of nutrition thing, so I was just curious, but I won't worry about it too much Thanks again!
I'm completely new to this whole monitoring of nutrition thing, so I was just curious, but I won't worry about it too much