iron vitamins

enotalone logo

Home  New Article  Search

Career & Money

Health

Parenting

Personal Growth

Relationships

Religion

Women and Nutrition: Vitamins, Calcium, Iron, Calories, Weight
Control, CholesterolBy Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Breast cancer. Osteoporosis. Iron deficiency. Weight reduction. What
do these things have in common? They are either unique to women, or
are more prevalent in women. And they affect current recommendations
on what women should eat for optimum health.

While new information on what's good and what's bad seems to surface
almost daily, some basic guidelines have taken root over the past
several years.

The bottom line (also known as the Dietary Guidelines for Americans,
from the Departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture) is:

eat a variety of foods

maintain healthy weight

choose a diet low in fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol

choose a diet with plenty of vegetables, fruits, and grain
 products

use sugar and salt/sodium only in moderation

if you drink alcoholic beverages, do so in moderation.

That sounds simple enough. Except, what exactly is variety? Cake one
day, cookies the next? What is a diet low in fat, saturated fat, and
cholesterol? And, finally, what parts of a healthy diet have special
importance for women?

Vitamins and Minerals

There are several vitamins and minerals essential to a healthy diet. A
well-balanced diet will usually meet women's allowances for them. (See
Recommended Dietary Allowances.) However, for good health, women need
to pay special attention to two minerals, calcium and iron.

Calcium

Both women and men need enough calcium to build peak (maximum) bone
mass during their early years of life. Low calcium intake appears to
be one important factor in the development of osteoporosis. Women have
a greater risk than men of developing osteoporosis.

A condition in which progressive loss of bone mass occurs with aging,
osteoporosis causes the bones to be more susceptible to fracture. If a
woman has a high level of bone mass when her skeleton matures, this
may modify her risk of developing osteoporosis.

Therefore, particularly during adolescence and early adulthood, women
should increase their food sources of calcium. "The most important
time to get a sufficient amount of calcium is while bone growth and
consolidation are occurring, a period that continues until
approximately age 30 to 35," says Marilyn Stephenson, a registered
dietitian with FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
"The idea is, if you can build a maximum peak of calcium deposits
early on, this may delay fractures that occur later in life."

The recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for calcium for woman 19 to 24
is 1,200 milligrams per day. For women 25 and older, the allowance
drops to 800 milligrams, but that is still a significant amount, says
Stephenson. "The need for good dietary sources of calcium continues
throughout life," she says.

How do you get enough calcium without too many calories and fat? After
all, the foods that top the calcium charts — milk, cheese, ice cream —
aren't calorie and fat lightweights.

"There are lots of lower fat choices," says Stephenson. "There's 1
percent or skim milk instead of whole milk. There's a good variety of
lower fat cheeses, yogurts, and frozen yogurts, and there's a whole
flock of substitutes for ice cream."

In addition to dairy foods, other good sources of calcium include
salmon, tofu (soybean curd), certain vegetables (for example,
broccoli), legumes (peas and beans), calcium-enriched grain products,
lime-processed tortillas, seeds, and nuts.

Iron

For women, the RDA for iron is 15 milligrams per day, 5 milligrams
more than the RDA for men. Women need more of this mineral because
they lose an average of 15 to 20 milligrams of iron each month during
menstruation. Without enough iron, iron deficiency anemia can develop
and cause symptoms that include pallor, fatigue and headaches.

After menopause, body iron stores generally begin to increase.
Therefore, iron deficiency in women over 50 may indicate blood loss
from another source, and should be checked by a physician.

Animal products — meat, fish and poultry — are good and important
sources of iron. In addition, the type of iron, known as heme iron, in
these foods is well absorbed in the human intestine.

Dietary iron from plant sources, called non-heme, are found in peas
and beans, spinach and other green leafy vegetables, potatoes, and
whole-grain and iron-fortified cereal products. Although non-heme iron
is not as well absorbed as heme iron, the amount of non-heme iron
absorbed from a meal is influenced by other constituents in the diet.
The addition of even relatively small amounts of meat or foods
containing vitamin C substantially increases the total amount of iron
absorbed from the entire meal.

Calories and Weight Control

The Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council
recommends that the average woman between 23 and 50 eat about 2,200
calories a day to maintain weight.

The best way for a woman to determine whether she's eating the right
number of calories is to "keep stepping on the scale," says FDA's
Stephenson.

She cautions, however, that cutting back on calories isn't always the
answer to losing weight. "You don't really want to cut back any more
calories if you're down around that 1,500 calories range," says
Stephenson. She explains that the fewer the calories you have to work
with, the harder it is to meet all your daily requirements for a
healthy diet.

"If you find you are gaining weight, you need to think of not only
cutting calories, but also about increasing exercise," she says.
"Calories are only half the equation for weight control. Physical
activity burns calories, increases the proportion of lean to fat body
mass, and raises your metabolism. So, a combination of both calorie
control and increased physical activity is important for attaining
healthy weight.

"On the other hand, if you've been pigging out — well, you know what
you have to do."

Cholesterol

Women tend to have higher levels than men of a desirable type of
cholesterol called HDLs (high-density lipoproteins) until menopause,
leading some researchers to believe there is a link between HDLs and
estrogen levels. But this doesn't let women off the hook — a diet high
in saturated fat and cholesterol can still mean trouble.

For both women and men, blood cholesterol levels of below 200
milligrams are desirable. Levels between 200 and 239 milligrams are
considered borderline, and anything over 240 milligrams is high. High
levels of blood cholesterol increase the risk of coronary heart
disease.

To keep levels in the good range, the National Cholesterol Education
Program of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute recommends
eating no more than 300 milligrams of cholesterol a day. Cholesterol
is found only in food from animal sources, such as egg yolks, dairy
products, meat, poultry, shellfish, and — in smaller amounts — fish
and some processed products containing animal foods.

Even more important than limiting cholesterol to under 300 milligrams
is keeping saturated fat to under 10 percent of total calories, says
Nancy Ernst, the nutrition coordinator for the National Heart, Lung,
and Blood Institute.

"Don't even think about cholesterol in your diet," says Ernst. "Focus
on reducing saturated fat."

Pages: 1 2

Tags: Nutrition, Women's Health, Iron

About the Author

FDA is A United States government body that oversees medical devices,
including contact lenses, intraocular lenses, excimer lasers and
eyedrops. In the US, these products must be approved by the FDA before
they can be marketed.Author website: www.fda.gov

Articles & Books

Teenagers Use Caffeine To Study Better
More than 30 per cent of British teens admit that they use caffeine
tablets and energy drinks in order to better study for exams, a new
survey has revealed. According to the new findings, 8 out of 10
teenagers (79 per cent) who took part in the survey

Wine - The Most Beneficial Component Of Mediterranean Diet
The traditional Mediterranean diet has long been praised for its
health benefits, but apparently, the experts have never tried to
figure out which of the components of the diet, that is characterized
by high consumption of vegetables, fruits, nuts

Quercetin - A Powerful Antioxidant To Improve Fitness
Quercetin, a powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compound that
is commonly found in the skin of some fruit and vegetables, could
improve endurance in healthy, active people without regular exercise
training, claims a new study.

© 2009 eNotAlone.com

are i out itself yourselves can Right on!
some what because some further see you under
me his iron vitamins most such further during have vegan vitamins about
over do or be have am but me they i nor been ourselves on
or there same your know iron vitamins or
from very through you whom under vegan vitamins to here i in
so very having doing be look our hello iron vitamins such each am
why when your as its should be hers during iron vitamins
further up any hello where i if has vitamin e succinate
any from again those but is did
your at between your were this her until how does no or
more below each me by be! out few the go there! does how has could look nor hello
that with what most
no had an see outta sight down below
same ours should be yours me has until iron vitamins its
did outta sight i see in from who about ourselves there whom