The Truth About Being Tired All The Time: Nutrient Deficiencies
Tired all the time? Do you hit snooze multiple times each morning? Are you reaching for that third cup of coffee? Want to curl up under your desk for an afternoon nap? Well, you’re not alone. Modern schedules that promote long arduous days after a night of poor sleep quickly leads to a vicious cycle of chronic exhaustion. The 21st-century go-go-go lifestyle is accepted as normal but it is anything but healthy. Today we will explore one of the most powerful ways to combat exhaustion: a nutrient-dense diet.
A Culprit of Exhaustion
Nutrition is the field that highlights the nutrients found in food, and the pursuit of health thanks to these foods. Nutrient density is a concept that refers to foods that contain a large number of nutrients per calories. Nutrient void foods would be highly processed foods (like white sugars, flours, and vegetable and seed oils) that yield a high caloric intake with very little vitamins, minerals, and other micronutrients.
Nutrients give your body the building blocks for energy, among other things. By providing our bodies with nutrient-dense foods, we enable them to operate most efficiently. There are other factors (like exercise and sleep) that play into a vibrantly healthy and naturally energetic body, but addressing the quality of food has a positive ripple effect on all the other root causes of exhaustion.
Why You Might Have A Nutrient Deficiency (Even If You Eat Well)
Many people make an effort to eat well, and as you read this you may think that there’s no way you would have a nutrient deficiency considering your current ‘healthy’ diet. Unfortunately, eating subjectively healthy isn’t always enough to ensure you aren’t nutrient deficient. There are three major reasons why someone who eats well may still have nutrient deficiencies.
- People are busy – so they eat the same foods over and over again. Less diversity in their diet means they likely aren’t getting all the nutrients they need.
- Soil nutrient depletion – modern farming practices like plowing and pesticide use deplete the soil of naturally occurring nutrients, which means food grown in these fields have fewer nutrients.
- High-stress lifestyles – when the body is under stress, it requires MORE nutrients to function, so people need even more nutrients for optimal function.
Tired All The Time: Other Signs of Nutrient Deficiency
Aside from being tired all the time, other signs of nutrient deficiency include:
- Catching every cold that comes around
- Having dull skin, weak nails, or hair that won’t grow
- Being unable to control your intense cravings for sugary or fatty foods
- Having brain fog or trouble concentrating
- Relying on caffeine and sugar to get through a full day of work
Indeed, nutrient deficiencies can negatively impact every aspect of health and wellbeing.
Tired All The Time: Tips For Addressing Nutritional Deficiencies
As we have noted, nutritional deficiencies are not only a problem for those consuming unhealthy diets. Those making an effort to eat well are also hit by the oh-so-common problem of nutritional deficiencies. By addressing these 4 key factors, you can highly reduce the likelihood of having nutritional deficiencies.
1. Quality
Eliminating junk food is an obvious way to boost nutritional density, but going the extra mile to opt for high-quality food may be the key to truly getting the most out of your food. Food is only as nutrient-dense as the soil it is grown in, and so organic food, specially grown in a regenerative farming environment, is the best option. There are various labels these days, and the term ‘organic’ alone doesn’t always give you the full picture. Ideally, biodynamic food (or a farm you know to practice regenerative farming) will provide the best quality.
When it comes to animal products, you want to ensure you’re only eating pasture-raised animals, raised on natural and non-GMO feed. For many animals, this means grass-fed (and grass-finished), but definitely non-GMO when there is other feed involved.
Eating as local as possible is another way to ensure that your food is as nutrient-dense as possible. If you’re eating blueberries in the middle of a snowy winter, imported from the Philippines, you can be sure that much of the nutrition has been depleted by the time it took a plane ride over to the USA. Food grown closest to you is most likely to have been harvested recently, meaning it is fresh and contains more of these vital vitamins, minerals, and other micronutrients.
2. Variety
When we stick to the same handful of foods we know, it can limit the scope of nutrient profiles that our bodies are exposed to. It can be easy and comfortable to get into a routine with food, especially when kids are around. However, there are many ways to incorporate new vegetables, fruits, fats, and proteins into the diet– like smoothies, soups, and stews.
If you’re making a soup, try chucking in a leafy green you don’t normally consume. When making a pasta sauce, you could sneak in a little bit of beef liver with the regular mince. Aim for one new type of food per week!
3. Restoring the Gut
Once we consume high quality and a big variety of foods, it’s then up to the gut to turn the food into absorbable nutrients. This is only possible if the gut is in good enough state– which for a large percentage of the population, it isn’t.
Gut healing is a multifaceted project, and depends on the individual needs of the specific person– however, there are a few key tools that apply broadly to the majority of the population:
- Address any parasites or gut dysbiosis
- Consume regular bone broth and/ or a collagen supplement
- Consume Restore regularly
4. Supplementation
You can’t out supplement a bad diet, but opting for a high-quality supplement may bridge the gap for busy lifestyles and poorly mineralized soils. Our top recommendation here is without a doubt Paleovalley’s 100% Grass Fed Organ Complex, a freeze-dried blend of nutritious beef organs. Paleovalley also makes a bone broth powder supplement that we love.
As you probably know, offal is one of the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet. Organ meat is however daunting for many people who did not grow up eating it, and the taste can be off-putting enough to avoid it altogether. This supplement
If you’re tired all the time, organ meat is known to be nature’s multivitamin, because of how jam-packed it is with a wide range of nutrients.
These are some of the nutrients found in organ meats:
- Vitamins B2, B3, B5, B6, B9, B12 (Vitamin B6 is the most common nutrient deficiency in the U.S.!)
- Fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K
- Choline
- Phosphorus
- Iron
- Zinc
- Copper
- Selenium
- Protein
Tired All The Time: Summary
Nutritional deficiencies are not limited to those who eat a standard American diet and can be caused by a wide range of factors. In today’s fast-paced world, many people are lacking the nutrients they need to thrive, causing a cycle of exhaustion in the body. By addressing a few key things: quality and variety of food, absorption through gut health, and supplementation– you can ensure your body is provided the nutritional boost it needs to make it through the day without constantly leaning on crutches like caffeine and sugar.
References:
- Bird, Julia, et al. “Risk of Deficiency in Multiple Concurrent Micronutrients in Children and Adults in the United States.” Nutrients, vol. 9, no. 7, 2017, p. 655., doi:10.3390/nu9070655.
- Bush, Zach, and Robert Rountree. “New Science on the Human Gut and Health: A Clinical Conversation with Zach Bush, MD, and Robert Rountree, MD.” Alternative and Complementary Therapies, vol. 25, no. 3, 2019, pp. 121–128., doi:10.1089/act.2019.29220.zbu.
- Doré, Joël, and Hervé Blottière. “The Influence of Diet on the Gut Microbiota and Its Consequences for Health.” Current Opinion in Biotechnology, vol. 32, 2015, pp. 195–199., doi:10.1016/j.copbio.2015.01.002.
- Xu, Meihong, et al. “Anti-Fatigue Effects of Dietary Nucleotides in Mice.” Food & Nutrition Research, vol. 61, no. 1, 2017, p. 1334485., doi:10.1080/16546628.2017.1334485.
- Zeisel, Steven H. “Nutritional Importance of Choline for Brain Development.” Journal of the American College of Nutrition, vol. 23, no. sup6, 2004, doi:10.1080/07315724.2004.10719433.