Raise your hand if you feel tired all the time and can’t figure out why?
Maybe your primary care physician referred you to a nutritionist to figure out if you’re eating right. After all, food is supposed to fuel the body.
Chances are, nutritionist had you read the nutrition facts labels on all the common foods you eat daily and said, “well, it looks like you’re getting everything you need most. Maybe add a bit more vitamin C just in case but I don’t see a problem with your diet.”
Or maybe you’re not getting the nutrients you need based off those labels and you have been instructed to only increase the nutrients listed on the labels. Maybe you did that and still feel tired.
The list could go on trying to figure out why you are tired but 1 discovery helped me stop being so tired and it has to do with what the FDA is not putting on those nutrition facts labels.
What is required by the FDA on the nutrition facts labels of food?
Let’s start by figuring out what is on the nutrition facts labels.
Mandatory nutrition facts on food products include:
- Calories
- Calories from fat
- Total fat
- Total carbohydrate
- Trans fats
- Cholesterol
- Sodium
- Dietary fiber
- Sugars
- Protein
- Vitamin A
- Vitamin C
- Calcium
- Iron
What does this list help us with?
Well if you’re diabetic, have heart disease, immunocompromised, obese, or bone disease, this list may help you a little to monitor what you are eating.
Most of us who feel tired and can’t figure out why do not fall into those categories of health problems.
Even if you do have those health problems, just making sure you get the recommended daily values of those nutrients listed, won’t help you entirely.
Now, let’s talk about what is only optional to be listed by the FDA on the nutrition facts label that could be more helpful for those feeling tired.
Here is the list of optional nutrition facts that are rarely disclosed on food products. This list doesn’t even include ALL the beneficial nutrients that you could be getting daily.
- Vitamin D
- Vitamin E
- Thiamin (Vitamin B1)
- Riboflavin (Vitamin B2)
- Niacin (Vitamin B6)
- Folate
- Vitamin B12
- Biotin
- Pantothenic Acid
- Phosphorus
- Iodine
- Magnesium
- Zinc
- Copper
This looks to be concerned with other bodily functions like blood function, muscle, nerve, bones, and brain.
The first list of recommended nutrients is definitely vital to monitor but you also need to monitor the optional list along with nutrients that are not on either list.
Those of us that are frequently tired, have a lot to learn and monitor in order to avoid feeling tired but it can be done and there are ways to make it easier for you. I will discuss these ways further in this article.
How significant are the FDA’s optional nutrition facts concerning us feeling tired?
First, go look at your food products that have a nutrition facts label and see if you can find some of the optional nutrients.
I found only a few food items listed maybe one or two extra nutrients in the optional category.
The food may very well contain more nutrients but you won’t know how much or which nutrients it contains.
Not very helpful…
What is helpful is knowing how the optional nutrients benefit your body and how they can help reverse the feeling of being tired.
All of the vitamin B’s are optional according to the FDA.
The list of vitamin B’s on the optional nutrients are known as the B-complex. These vitamins help with numerous bodily functions including brain, metabolism, repair, and blood cell production.
It’s a bit complicated and I’ll try to sum up the benefits of the B-complex but if you are not getting the right daily values, you are not metabolizing your food properly, your brain is not getting what it needs to work properly, and your blood is not functioning properly either.
When those body functions are not working properly, how are you getting energy from food and how are you properly absorbing oxygen that you breathe if your red blood cells are not functioning properly?
The other nutrients are also essential for numerous body functions like your endocrine system, nerves, and bones.
Bones need much more than just calcium which is a mandatory nutrient from the FDA but if you’re just monitoring calcium, protein, and vitamin C, your bones could still be struggling to build or repair itself.
Bones actually need calcium, protein, vitamin C AND magnesium, phosphorus, vitamin D, potassium, fluoride, manganese, copper, boron, iron, zinc, vitamin K, vitamin A, and the B vitamins.
Some of those nutrients like potassium and boron are not including on either list of mandatory or optional nutrients by the FDA.
Now the brain that has many jobs including telling us it needs something by giving us that tired feeling, needs ALL of the nutrients listed and more NOT listed such as Omega-3’s.
Don’t forget, food is SUPPOSED to be fuel and your brain will tell you that any part of the body including bones, nerves, organs, blood, etc., is not getting fuel by making us feel tired.
If one part of the body like your bones are not getting magnesium, it will fight with other body systems to get it. Pretty soon, your whole body will be in a fight to get the right food it needs.
Fighting is tiring, am I right?
How can you avoid feeling tired?
To avoid being tired, you need to start getting those nutrients we talked about previously and stop depending on the FDA nutrition facts to help with your health.
Research is still required from all of us to learn what nutrients are in what foods. Start eating a balanced diet including fruits and vegetables and decreasing sugary or processed foods.
You can find all the nutrients you need from what grows in the ground.
A daily multivitamin can really help with the gap in nutrition and they have their ingredients listed with daily values.
Read my article on the Ritual Vitamin ingredient breakdown to learn more about the nutrients women need specifically and how the ingredients in the Ritual vitamin have been selected as well as work in synergy for proper metabolism.
Most of the ingredients I talk about in the article are not listed on food labels so again, you wouldn’t know if you’re getting the right nutrients your body needs if you’re just following the labels.
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The information in this article is surprisingly not well known. Please copy the link of this article and share on Facebook or even Pinterest to spread awareness on nutrition and how the FDA might be making us tired by not disclosing the optional nutrients on nutrition facts labels or the full list needed for our bodies to work properly.
The label is misleading making us, our doctors, and even nutritionists believe the mandatory nutrients are all we need to be concerned with when choosing foods to eat at grocery stores.
References:
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/vitamin-b-complex#who-should-take-them?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17092827
The New Health Cycle 