Vitamins To Aid In Weight Loss

Weight loss is a sensitive issue especially in this ‘beauty-glorified’ world we live in today. However, people often associate weight loss with exercise or with loss weight pills, but do you know that vitamins can help you loss those extra kilos too?

When you think about weight loss, you will tend to consider only about an exercise program to burn your fats away or the tasteless and raw foods that you plan to eat. You might also have considered buying the diet drug that you saw at the pharmacy. However, did it ever come across your mind that vitamins might help in weight loss?

Our body requires vitamins and it can be easily obtained from the foods we eat or dietary supplements. Vitamins are very important and there is absolutely no way a person can sustain his life without the presence of necessary vitamins.

Believe it or not, there are vitamins that aids in weight loss. They are mainly vitamin B2, B3, B5, B6, vitamin B complex and vitamin C. These B vitamins help to convert carbs into glucose, after which they are burned to produce energy for the body. With this in mind, you are encouraged to consume foods, which consist of these highly beneficial vitamins. Each of these vitamins has different functions.

Just to name a few:

Vitamin B2 or also known as Riboflavin is highly required for increased metabolism. You are encouraged to consume more hard cheese, milk and almonds for a healthy intake of Vitamin B2. Next is the B3 vitamin. This vitamin is necessary for normal thyroid hormone production. Leafy green vegetables and eggs are a good source of this vitamin. You can also choose to include wheat bran, meat and salmon. Vitamin B5 is necessary for the production of energy. Good sources of B5 include liver, poultry, nuts and whole grain bread.

It is best that you consult the doctor or your dietitian if you are unsure as to what to include in you meal to ensure sufficient intake of these weight loss vitamins.

Other than natural vitamins that can be found in the food we eat, you can choose to have an extra dose of vitamin through the needles. Vitamin B12 injections are a usual sight at weight loss clinics. The B12 works by boosting your metabolism. As such, this would cause you to digest food faster and burn more calories just by sitting there! With more calories burnt, you will store lesser calories as fat.

At the same time, B12 is energy giving and hence it gives you an energy boost. Most people do not exercise because they are just plain tired after a long day at work. So, with the extra energy, you will feel more energetic and you can afford to exercise more! 

You can also choose to take vitamin pills, but remember, vitamin pills are not energy pills! They do not carry any energetic value so remember not to substitute the necessary intake of carbs, fats or carbohydrates with just vitamin pills!

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Vitamin B12 In A Vegan Diet: The Dreaded Debate

When you follow a vegan lifestyle, there are many questions that you probably dread. Where do you get your protein? Why don't you eat dairy or eggs? How do you get your calcium if you don't drink milk? If you are well-informed on vegan nutrition you can easily answer these questions with pride. But, there is one question that delves a bit deeper, that is a much more difficult to answer, and threatens the view of many vegans that their lifestyle is a more natural way for humans to eat: Why aren't there any plant-based sources of B12?

Every vitamin, mineral, or nutrient can be found in a modern-day plant-based diet, except for one. Vitamin B12 (or cobalamin) can not be found in any plant-based sources and is only found in animal products. This strikes a sore-spot for many vegans.

In practically every book or article that you read on vegan nutrition there are lengthy paragraphs on how and where you can find nutrients such as calcium and protein in a plant-based diet. These discussions are usually followed by a sentence such as this, "Vitamin B12 is vital for your health. Since you can only get B12 from meat or dairy products, if you follow a vegan diet, make sure to take a vitamin B12 supplement daily." After reading a statement like this, you may be wondering, but why? The answer to this question is difficult to find, but if you search the scientific literature long enough, you can find it.

To really understand why we can't get vitamin B12 from a plant-based diet in modern-day society, we have to take a look at nature and a look back into our human history.

B12 is produced by "good" bacteria which are found in the soil and on plants. Every herbivore in nature gets its supply of B12 from consuming these bacteria on the plants they eat. These bacteria then make homes in the gut of the herbivores that eat them. Carnivores get their B12 by consuming the organs and thus the bacteria from their herbivore prey.

Our ancestors, whether you're looking at several thousand years or just a few hundred years back into our past, didn't wash the food they pulled from the ground. They ate the bacteria which produce B12 on the plant-foods they consumed and got an adequate supply of B12 daily.

In our modern-day society, bacteria isn't found on our plant-foods for two reasons. First, the large number of pesticides, herbicides, and other chemicals used to treat our food doesn't allow a large amount of this bacteria to grow in our soils. Second, we wash our food very well. So, in our modern-day diet, there is not enough of this good bacteria on our plant foods so we have to find other sources.

People who eat meat or vegetarians that eat dairy and eggs, can easily get their B12 from animal products. This is mainly because of contamination of the animal foods by the bacteria normally found in the gut of these animals.

Unfortunately for vegans, the only source of B12 is through a supplement. So when you pop that B12 pill, hopefully you'll feel better knowing that you have to take it only because of our clean, modern-day culture and not because a vegan diet is fundamentally deficient!

Article Source: EzineArticles.com