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Folic acid, sometimes known as vitamin B9, is a crucial B-vitamin for people to take. It’s been estimated that 40 percent of American women do not have enough folic acid in their systems. When they don’t have enough folic acid, the following problems can occur:

• Among pregnant women, a lack of folic acid can result in birth defects, particularly associated with their baby’s spinal cord and nervous system development. In the UK, low folic acid levels have been associated with excessive number of cases of spina bifida.
• Low folic acid levels are associated with elevated homocysteine levels, which is a major cause of heart disease in men and women. Lowered homocysteine is conversely associated with improved levels of heart disease.
• Insufficient folic acid can also be associated with a specific kind of anemia, or failure to produce enough red blood cells. This folic-acid anemia is one of the more common forms of anemia in the United States—again, mostly affecting women.

While folic acid is important in proper doses, one must also be careful not to consume too much folic acid without also ingesting other forms of vitamin B. It has been found that doses in excess of 800 mcg/day of folic acid without other B-vitamins can result in deficiencies of other elemental compounds, such as B6 or B12. If one takes a supplement, therefore, one should do it in concert with other B-vitamins as well.

Folic acid, like other B vitamins, can help with digestion and increase in metabolism. They are especially well known to help in digesting sources of protein that are moving through your system. Not only does it help with the production and loss of red blood cells, allowing for a balance of these types of cells in your system, but also provides for DNA synthesis, which helps with guiding which DNA is active in daily functioning.

There are several food sources where folic acid or B-9 is found. Grains and beans both have a large source of folic acid available in them. You can also find a large amount of B-9 in citrus fruits and juices, such as oranges, and dark vegetables. These are all important supplements that you should have available to you on a daily basis. Folic acid is also available in a variety of meats, such as liver, pork, fish and chicken type products.

If you want to find how much of folic acid to take on a daily basis, as well as which foods will provide the best sources, you can look into several available resources. There are recommended daily allowances, known as RDAs which provide the amount of B-9 intake you should be taking on a daily basis. These can be found through web searches or through local health providers. You can also look into recommendations from health care sources or a physician. This will help with determining how much folic acid you need in your daily diet. Note that the FDA does not allow over 800 mcg/day in each pill, but you may be able to support taking more if your doctor agrees.

Folic acid is an important nutrient for your every day functioning and balance. No matter what you are concentrating on in your life, B-9 will provide several sources and means of balance in order to allow for you to function at a higher level.

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Scott Meyers is a staff writer for It’s Entirely Natural, a resource for helping you achieve a naturally healthy body, mind, and spirit. You may contact our writers through the web site. Follow this link for more information on Nutrition & Health.

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Tags: anemia, diet, digestion, folic acid, metabolism, Nutrition & Health, vitamins

Riboflavin is also known as vitamin B2 or vitamin G and is one of the most essential ingredients to be included in a daily diet. It has several qualities to it that can help with your body and increase your everyday health. By knowing the qualities of riboflavin, you can determine whether you have enough in your system and can help to either increase or decrease the substance.

Riboflavin is a water-soluble nutrient. This means that it will be absorbed and move into a fluid form through your body. From here, it will go into certain areas by this water form. Usually, all vitamin B substances, as well as vitamin C are found as water-soluble vitamins. Because riboflavin is water-soluble, it is important to make sure that enough is available for your body’s needs.

Riboflavin has several different functions that are important in the proper functioning of a healthy body. Riboflavin is similar to other types of B vitamins in that it gives the body sources for energy throughout the system. One of its main functions of this substance is to help fats to move throughout the body. It will also help with digestion of proteins and carbohydrates in this same way. Beyond this energy shift from riboflavin are also several important functions associated with it.

Riboflavin can be directly absorbed by red blood cells. From these cells, it can add supplies and nutrients to help red blood cells in formation and leaving the body as needed. For those who need a boost to skin, nails and hair, riboflavin can help. Riboflavin is also known to move directly into the eye, which helps with eye disorders. Those eye disorders where riboflavin is especially helpful include burning and itching eyes, and cataracts.

Riboflavin is found in several different areas of food. If you are unable to eat these foods, you should make sure that you are taking a supplement or vitamin form of riboflavin. However, taking too much riboflavin will provide the opposite effect. Before taking this vitamin, make sure that you know how much you need. The first area where riboflavin is found is in milk and cheese. Dairy products are a great source for finding riboflavin. Vegetables, especially leafy types are also a type of food that carries riboflavin as a main vitamin ingredient. Nuts as well as liver will also carry sources of riboflavin in them.

Unlike other types of vitamins, riboflavin is not stored in the body. Because of this, you need to make sure that you get the source on a daily basis. This will help in your every day functioning of your body.

Riboflavin is a strong source of nutrients that can be used in your body. By making sure that you have riboflavin on a daily basis, it will help in metabolism functioning as well as increasing supplies of red blood cells and other nutrients that can be used throughout the body. Riboflavin, like other vitamins is an important source of nutrients to be taken on a daily basis.

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Scott Meyers is a staff writer for It’s Entirely Natural, a resource for helping you achieve a naturally healthy body, mind, and spirit. You may contact our writers through the web site. Follow this link for more information on Nutrition & Health.

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Tags: b vitamins, diet, metabolism, Nutrition & Health, riboflavin, vitamins

Fatty acids are one of the essential ingredients in your nutrition. While fatty acids may seem to be unhealthy, there are certain types of fatty acids that can be essential in helping you to gain the proper nutrients and to stay healthy. By knowing which fatty acids to consume, as well as which types to use and which to avoid, you can easily change your eating habits to stay healthier.

Fatty acids can serve several parts of the body. They mainly do their best functioning in the muscles and heart. They are also used to be building blocks for cell membranes and storing energy that the body may need at certain times. Once the body has used enough of the fatty acids and doesn’t need any more energy from them, it will store the rest in the liver. The liver then converts these fatty acids which are not needed at the moment into fat.

There are several different types of fatty acids that are useful to your body. The first types are known as saturated fatty acids. These are typically found in thicker substances, such as butter, lard, whole milk and eggs. It is good to have some saturated fatty acids in your system. Too much of this fat, however, can cause a rise in blood pressure. The second type of fatty acid is known as monounsaturated fatty acids. Some types of foods in this type of fatty acid include avocados, nuts and lighter types of oils. Monounsaturated fatty acids are known to lower cholesterol.

There are several different types of fatty acids that your body needs in order to produce energy as well as to create blocks for cell membranes. These types of fatty acids are also helpful with metabolism. These types of fatty acids are essential to take in through foods, as your body is not capable of reproducing them without the food intake.

The major type of fatty acid that is known to be particularly helpful to your health is called omega 3 fatty acid. This is typically found in different types of fish, flaxseed oil and canola oil. It is known that these types of fatty acids can help with cholesterol levels as well as blood flow. This will eventually reduce the possibility of cardiac problems and heart failure.

One of the most important factors to consider with fatty acids is what types to use, especially if you are using oil. Anything that contains the omega 3 or 6 fatty acids is typically better for your use. This includes the oils of corn, safflower, sunflower, soybean and cottonseed oil. Butters and harder types of fatty acids are more likely to cause problems in your system instead of helping to produce the right types of energies for your daily activities.

It can be seen from these different observations of fatty acids that there are particular types of fatty acids that are better for your well being, while others will cause problems with your bodies regular functioning. By knowing what types of fatty acids to use, you can better balance your diet as well as create more energy for you to be able to use during the day, without storing too much extra fat.

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Scott Meyers is a staff writer for It’s Entirely Natural, a resource for helping you achieve a naturally healthy body, mind, and spirit. You may contact our writers through the web site. Follow this link for more information on Nutrition & Health.

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Tags: avocados, blood pressure, cholesterol, diet, flaxseed oil, metabolism, Nutrition & Health, omega 3 fatty acid, whole milk

Do you need to lose weight? Even if you are only slightly overweight, and need to find a way to lose a couple of pounds, you may be frustrated with the options you have tried so far. Diet pills are designed for those who are severely overweight– and the side effects may not be worth the results. Other diets such as the low carbohydrate diet or the low fat diet may not help much either. It can be very difficult to eliminate fats or carbohydrates because they are found in so many kinds of food.

Perhaps a better way to lose those pounds is the vegetarian diet. It is not designed to promote weight loss, but if you use it correctly, it could be the answer to a thinner, healthier you.

Protein: The Hidden Fat

While consuming fat can certainly add the pounds, there are other sources of weight gain as well. Surprisingly, protein is one of them. If you are eating too much protein for your body to convert into muscle, your body will turn that protein into fat.

The main source for protein in most people’s diets is meat. By converting to a vegetarian diet, you will be eliminating a major source of protein and therefore fat from your diet. It is not wise to cut out protein from your diet entirely: if you don’t provide your system with any protein at all, your metabolism will slow and you will find yourself storing more fat.

A better idea is to change your protein source. Beans in combination with whole grains provide an excellent source of protein. As long as you keep your portions small you will be offering your body just the right materials without eating too much of a good thing. By eliminating meat, you will also be getting rid of a major fat source. Beans do not contain fat, but are instead a purer source for protein.

Adding Up the Good Stuff

On a vegetarian diet, you will be encouraged to eat more plant foods instead of meat. Fruits, vegetables and nuts all are great things to eat to boost your metabolism and to increase your weight loss capabilities. The sugars in fruits are more complex than processed sugars and are less likely to be stored as fat.

Vegetables are great sources for vitamins that your body needs to work efficiently. Plant foods are also good sources of fiber which aids in healthy digestion. All of these factors add up to give you the weight loss results that you are seeking.

A vegetarian diet is not about eating less. It’s about eating right. By giving your body a break from the meats that you normally eat, you will be increasing your chances for weight loss. Eliminating meat means a reduction in protein intake as well as fat intake. In combination with eating a healthy vegetarian diet, you should also reduce your intake of other sugary and fatty foods. Replace vending machine snacks with fruits, vegetables and pretzels. By making good choices on a vegetarian diet, you will finally have the healthy body that want to have.

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Scott Meyers is a staff writer for It’s Entirely Natural, a resource for helping you achieve a naturally healthy body, mind, and spirit. You may contact our writers through the web site. Follow this link for more information on Nutrition & Health.

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Tags: diet, digestion, Fiber, low carbohydrate diet, low fat diet, metabolism, Nutrition & Health, vitamins, whole grains

By now the term “low carb” has become synonymous with loosing weight and improving fitness. This diet seems to work well, and many people feel they have derived great benefit from it. The system seems simple enough – eat fewer carbohydrates (carbs) and you will loose weight. One must ask what the mechanics are behind all these success stories.

By reducing carbohydrates, you are cutting more calories than you would by reducing any other nutrient. While it may seem redundant, reducing “empty” or low nutrient value calories is an important part of changing your diet for the better. Reducing carbs, therefore, will help you curb your appetite, and allow you to eat foods that flush out of your system instead of being stored as fat tissue.

At the beginning of your diet, reducing refined sugars and starches will force your body to turn to the glycogen stored in the liver and muscles. Glycogen can be easily broken down into glucose - the energy or fuel your cells need in order to function. It takes a sizeable amount of water to store glycogen. This accounts for the sudden weight loss that many people experience when they start dieting. It is also why people reach a stagnation point after approximately two weeks. Once the glycogen is used up, and the water flushed, the next job is to reduce the fat tissue.

As long as your carbohydrate intake is lower than 50 or 60 grams daily, your body will seek to break down fat tissue in order to create more glucose. This, however, can be a struggle, as the body naturally wants to keep its stored up reserves. Thus, the metabolism will slow down in order to reduce the amount of fat tissue being lost.

Ketones, however, are also released when you get into the fat reducing stage of your diet. Ketones are normally flushed through your kidneys, and can act as an appetite suppressant. Increased ketones can lead to increased urination. During the fat burning phase of your carb diet, it is important to drink plenty of water, as you may become easily dehydrated.

While low carb diets appear to be effective and as reliable as diets go, not everyone can stay on the regimen for the necessary amount of time. Ultimately, the duration is a personal choice. As always, before starting any kind of a diet, it is recommended that you see a doctor.

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Scott Meyers is a staff writer for It’s Entirely Natural, a resource for helping you achieve a naturally healthy body, mind, and spirit. You may contact our writers through the web site. Follow this link for more information on Nutrition & Health.

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Tags: Carbohydrates, diet, glucose, metabolism, Nutrition & Health

A hangover comes after consuming excessive amounts of alcohol. The result of this overload of alcohol is that your body becomes depleted of essential nutrients and water and your body becomes dehydrated. Your body makes up for this dehydration by taking water from where it can, which basically is your brain. The brain then shrinks and the result is a really bad headache. Dehydration also gives you what is referred to as “cotton mouth”. Many individuals experience nausea and vomiting as a result of all the alcohol and sugar that has now upset the stomach.

Symptoms of a hangover:

Signs of dehydration
Dry mouth
Fatique
Headache
Nausea
Weakness
Anxiety
Irritability
Negativity
Difficulty concentrating
Light and sound sensitivity
Difficulty sleeping

Alcohol does not affect everyone the same way. What causes one to have a hangover and not the other?

There are a number of factors that play a role in why one person experiences a hangover after drinking alcohol and another individual won’t. Other than the amount of alcohol consumed and the type of alcohol ingested, how fast you drink it and how many you have in what time frame can also have a role in whether or not you become drunk. There is also the factor of how well your body metabolizes alcohol. Our bodies metabolize the things we drink and eat in different ways. Metabolism depends on what is being consumed and if it being consumed with other things like are we eating at the same time we are drinking alcohol? The body absorbs alcohol faster when we eat food at the same time.

Water has an effect on the impact of alcohol on our bodies too. When we drink lots of water before we start drinking alcohol, during the time we are drinking and after we are finished with our drinking event then the water that we drink can lessen the effect that alcohol has on our system and we become less dehydrated than what we would have become had we not had the water. Alcohol contains ethanol, which is what causes the dehydration.

Alcohol consumption causes chemical reactions within the body including the way the liver has to work to break down the ethanol contained in the alcohol. The reaction in the cells of the liver when it is trying to breakdown the ethanol impairs the liver’s ability to supply glucose to the tissues within the body such as the brain tissue. Glucose in the brain is how the brain gets energy. When the brain does not receive the glucose, we experience fatigue, weakness, moodiness and sometimes it can affect our ability to concentrate.

Congeners are the chemical by-products of the process of alcohol fermentation. These congeners can exaggerate (make worse) the symptoms of a hangover. Dark alcoholic drinks contain more congeners, which is why those who drink dark alcoholic beverages have more intense hangovers than those who drink clear colored alcoholic beverages.

Cheaper alcoholic beverages have more impurities and are thus more likely to cause greater hangover symptoms.

Those who smoke while they drink exacerbate their symptoms because of the nicotine.

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Scott Meyers is a staff writer for It’s Entirely Natural, a resource for helping you achieve a naturally healthy body, mind, and spirit. You may contact our writers through the web site. Follow this link for more information on Hangover Cures.

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Tags: dehydration, fatigue, Hangover Cures, headache, irritability, metabolism, nicotine