Nutrient deficiencies
I know that I'm lacking in some vitamins and nutrients because my body is trying to tell me. And I'm hoping my doctor can help me figure out which they are with bloodwork. But I don't want to just "pop a pill" to take these vitamins and necessary nutrients.
Do any of you know of herbs or other foods I can start incorporating into my diet to help with this?
I know for sure that my iron is low.
Comments
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Once you get your bloodwork back and figure out what you are deficient in, I'm sure you will get lots of suggestions here for assisting with rebuilding nutrients.
Non-heme iron rich foods include all of the dark green leafy veg, seeds (pumpkin, squash, sesame, sunflower), nuts (cashews, pine nuts, hazelnuts, peanuts, almonds), dark baking chocolate and beans (white, kidney, chickpeas, lentils). Blackstrap molasses and tofu are very high in iron. Heme (meat sourced) iron rich foods include shellfish (clams, oysters, mussels, abalone), beef and lamb. Liver (from any source) is very high in iron and great for building red blood cells.
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Thank you @torey.
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@torey hit the nail on the head for the iron sources! As far as vitamins, the same foods listed for iron are also great sources of Vit A and several of the B vitamins. The easiest way to think about vitamins and minerals from food is: the brighter/deeper the color, the better and higher number of vitamins and minerals found in that food!
Good luck!
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To add to the great suggestions: eat your iron rich foods with vitamin C foods. That is fundamental.
And, if you can manage, do not eat them at the same time as lots of bran and other high phytate foods, but learning about phytates and their reduction adds a huge step of learning and complexity, so just focus on vit C until you are feeling better.
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Using tissue salts aka cell salts will balance your minerals. We're very seldom deficient. Minerals are all there but not being utilized. If you're not digesting properly you won't absorb nutrients so using probiotics and aloe vera juice will help a lot without even knowing what you're deficient in. B12, magnesium and selenium are some of the top deficiencies. Zinc too but it's a tricky one. You don't want to overdo it.
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There’s an herbal tea I make all the time from a book, Body into Balance by Maria Noel Groves. It has so much good stuff in it in a firm very easy to assimilate. It’s a nice way to “supplement” without having to worry about throwing your body out of balance. It’s high in minerals and you can’t go wrong. I mix up a lot of it and I’ll brew it a quart at a time and sip it all day. I bought the herbs in bulk from frontier .
Nutri-Tea
2 parts nettle
2 parts mint
1 part oat stem
1 part horsetail
1 part red clover
1/2 part calendula
I know molasses is a great mineral supplement as well.
I read that you can get a fine azomite powder (A to Z of minerals including trace elements) and stir a little into water and drink it- but I always chicken out and just add it to my garden instead.
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I too have that book and have wanted to make that specific tea. However I've been unable to source all the herbs. I have been making her Nettle-Oat Chai regularly. I'll have to look again into getting the last coupe of herbs so I can make that tea. Thanks for reminding me about that. 😊
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@Sharie I'm curious, what can happen if you take too much zinc?
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It throws your copper out of balance. Both are necessary!
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As a daily multivitamin, I take a spoonful of greens and honey. My own mix of greens, which I grew or foraged and dried, is spinach, lettuce, plantain, grape leaves, carrot greens, and raspberry leaf. I powdered the greens, sifted, and composted the stems that wouldn't easily break down. I added 3/4 cup of the powdered greens to one cup of local honey. You can add seaweed or spirulina for extra vitamins.
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@Wendy I've recently heard about making your own nutritional powders. I been interested in seeing abut growing moringa, I believe that's what it's called, and using that along with other herbs and greens to help make a nutritional powder I could use in our green smoothies that we have practically every day.
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@JennyT Something I neglected to mention is nourishing herbal infusions.
Susun Weed is a big promoter of these infusions and rotates through about 5 different ones on a regular basis. Following is a link to her web page on this. She mentions 4 infusions in this article. I took an in-person class with her a couple of years ago and she discussed all of these plus included Linden flower as well.
Similar to the nurti-tea mentioned above.
These types of nourishing herbal infusions are good for anyone to use on a regular basis.
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This is a very interesting thread, one I will bookmark. So much great advice!
I like the idea of a dried mixed greens powder. I've seen them, but never thought about making one. I haven't looked at something and thought, "I can copy that myself", in a while. I used to do that on a regular basis. I guess for drying those, I'd need a dehydrator.
As for iron, this is not a veggie nor herb, but a long time ago when I went for a check up with a new doctor, she was somewhat concerned about my iron when she first saw me. I am very fair and she was darker skinned, maybe middle eastern, I don't remember...but, very different skin and maybe many of her patients weren't as fair...I'm not sure. Haha She rolled down my bottom eyelids and said they were red...so no issues with iron! I had told her that I mainly cook with cast iron, rarely stainless steel, and she laughed at little said I shouldn't have any issues then and was quite happy with that.
So...if iron needs a boost (and there is nothing interfering with utilizing it), using that as cookware could help.
Oh, and I've posted lots about magnesium chloride being the most efficient magnesium for the body. Search for Ancient Minerals on the forum. You will find more than a couple threads, I'm sure.
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Thanks, @LaurieLovesLearning. I actually do most of my cooking in cast iron, so yay. And I will look into the magnesium chloride on the threads here. 😊
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@JennyT Vinegar is a great menstruum for extracting minerals. There is a new post of a TGN blog article on Mugwort with instructions for making a herbal vinegar. There are many plants that make great herbal vinegars that you can customize to your particular needs. Then use it as a base for salad dressings. Using good ACV will help with pre- and pro-biotics. Horsetail is another good one for strong bones. Tarragon vinegar is a good digestive. Nettles make a lovely vinegar. I love food medicine!
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When you say your body is telling you, what sort of symptoms do you have?
You might try an Ayurvedic diet - perhaps it's more about the types of foods than the specific nutrients.
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Thank you @torey. I recently saw a webinar about making herbal vinegars and have been anxious to try it.
@stephanie447 I would love to see a Ayurvedic specialist. I've tried getting all the books on Ayurvedic medicine but am only just learning about this and it wasn't easy to understand. I'll PM you so we can chat more.
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Ok, so I received the results of my bloodwork panel finally and it said that I'm deficient on Vitamin D. Well I'm curious if that's because of the time of year or just how I am in general.
But no matter, I know now and I'd like to do what I can with herbs to fix it. So aside from taking pill form supplements and getting outside. Do any of you have any suggestions for me?
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