Malnourished or Vitamin Problem?

Aradia_Silvermoon

I started on MFP back in November 12th and since then I have lost 10 lbs just by staying around my calorie goal range. I also take a multivitamin supplement, One A Day for Women, and a gummy fiber supplement. Today I was at work talking with a nurse (I am an Occupational Therapy Assistant) and she noticed pitting in the center of every single nail! I asked what could be wrong and she replied that I could be low on magnesium or it could be something else. After looking online the top three causes of nail pitting are psoriasis (which I don't have), malnutrition, or I could be vitamin deficient!

Has anyone else had this problem? I am getting really worried about my health now! I wanted to lose weight to be more healthy not gain more health problems! If anyone has any suggestions I could really use them! My diary is public if you want to peek at what I have been eating... maybe I am consuming something that is making me become malnourished or doesn't have any vitamins or minerals in it?

bokodasu

From the spot checking I did, you eat maybe one serving of fruit and 1/2 serving of veg on a good day, and everything else is processed, mostly carbs. So yeah, my completely non-medical-advice guess is vitamin deficiency. I mean, if you're really worried you should get bloodwork done, but it's an easy experiment to try getting to that whole 5/day thing and seeing if that helps first. (Eat the rainbow! Leafy greens! Bright-colored berries! Nomnomnom!)

Firefox7275

If it's in the centre of the nail the issue predates your current diet, because that section of nail will be far more than four weeks old. I get ridges when I significantly undereat (stress or illness), even if I get a reasonable amount of minerals from supplements. I assume that is protein intake.

Looking at your diary you are eating an awful lot of processed and junk food, whilst not meeting the basic numbers of servings of real foods like fruit, vegetables, oily fish, mineral rich foods like wholegrains, nuts, seeds, dairy, green vegetables, cocoa powder, canned oily fish with bones. Aside from the directly negative effects on the body of sugary/ junky foods, digesting and processing them uses up (wastes) nutrients AND they feed the bad bacteria in your gut (good guys help us absorb and even manufacture nutrients).

On Monday you had 470 snack calories from junk, plus 200 mashed potato (most people remove the nutritious skins) and pretzels (white flour?) - that's approaching half your daily calories wasted on products devoid of nutrients. Aim to get this down to 10%, the rest being wholefoods with one or two ingredients. Maybe switch your meal replacement for a simple whey powder which is high in protein, then add the carbs in with extra fruit or veggies.

Supplements are supposed to be exactly that, a supplement or insurance policy for a diet that is balanced in the first place not a substitute for real food. If this is the right product, it is not complete, only 13% of your daily magnesium requirement for example http://oneaday.com/womens.html

HTH.

Biodemon

From the spot checking I did, you eat maybe one serving of fruit and 1/2 serving of veg on a good day, and everything else is processed, mostly carbs. So yeah, my completely non-medical-advice guess is vitamin deficiency. I mean, if you're really worried you should get bloodwork done, but it's an easy experiment to try getting to that whole 5/day thing and seeing if that helps first. (Eat the rainbow! Leafy greens! Bright-colored berries! Nomnomnom!)

^^^ The latter says it all.

Aradia_Silvermoon

From the spot checking I did, you eat maybe one serving of fruit and 1/2 serving of veg on a good day, and everything else is processed, mostly carbs. So yeah, my completely non-medical-advice guess is vitamin deficiency. I mean, if you're really worried you should get bloodwork done, but it's an easy experiment to try getting to that whole 5/day thing and seeing if that helps first. (Eat the rainbow! Leafy greens! Bright-colored berries! Nomnomnom!)

I used to eat a salad everyday at lunch but money is tight right now. I haven't had a fresh veggie or fruit in a long time... they are just so darn expensive. I guess I didn't realize I wasn't eating enough fruits and veggies lol. I thought the servings I had at dinner and breakfast would do the trick.

I also struggle with my DD trying to get her to eat veggies but it's a HUGE fight every day so I just give up. I also lack imagination and most of the time dinner is like meat, veggie, and bread side. I wish I knew healthy and tasty ways to add more veggies to my diet.

Firefox7275

I used to eat a salad everyday at lunch but money is tight right now. I haven't had a fresh veggie or fruit in a long time... they are just so darn expensive. I guess I didn't realize I wasn't eating enough fruits and veggies lol. I thought the servings I had at dinner and breakfast would do the trick.

Processed/ ready made crap plus supplements is more expensive than fruits and vegetables, providing you select the correct produce. There have been several threads on eating healthy on a budget including two today and threads on how to gt more veggies into the diet including hiding them, so it would be worth running a search. Frozen, naturally longlife, canned and dried items tend to be cheaper than, say, fresh berries and salad leaves. You should be having nine servings a day in the full rainbow of colours (green, red, blue/ purple, yellow/ orange) for optimum nutrition.

Try eating more soups, stews/ casseroles, curries, stir fries, tomato and veg sauce on pasta, fruit salads with canned evaporated milk, beans and lentils (they count once per day towards the nine) - most children will eat certain vegetables hidden in tasty sauces. I am sure you know yourself you should not give up, if you are malnourished/ vitamin deficient your daughter could be too - you can't always see visible signs of that.

Aradia_Silvermoon

Processed/ ready made crap plus supplements is more expensive than fruits and vegetables, providing you select the correct produce. There have been several threads on eating healthy on a budget including two today, so it would be worth running a search. Frozen, naturally longlife, canned and dried items tend to be cheaper than, say, fresh berries and salad leaves. You should be having nine servings a day in the full rainbow of colours (green, red, blue/ purple, yellow/ orange) for optimum nutrition.

Because of the money issue I have been using a lot of coupons and I get the majority of the food on my lists for free (I can be extreme in my couponing lol) Also when i make mashed potatoes I leave skins on and use only skim milk, no butter. I really thought I was eating healthy by reducing my calories.

Firefox7275

Some of what you are eating is not really food, it's edible and it's calories certainly, but it doesn't look anything like it did when it came off the animal or plant and it doesn't have any of the same nutrients it did when it started out either. I am on a very low income myself but prioritise healthy lower priced food now having been ill in the past, my lifestyle including diet was a major contributing factor to my health problems. I had to totally retrain my palate because I hated fish and almost all vegetables, disliked most fruit too. So if I sound harsh it is because I care and I understand all too well.

If you are keeping the skins in the potato great, try mashing in a small amount of another root vegetable like carrot, parsnip or sweet potato, or even cauliflower depending what you can get cheapest. Or make soup with the potato and other veggies, again blend so your daughter cannot tell what is in there. I managed to feed my ex red lentils hidden in minced (ground) meat pasta sauce before, and he was a chef so it must have been well hidden for him not to realise!

deksgrl

Because of the money issue I have been using a lot of coupons and I get the majority of the food on my lists for free (I can be extreme in my couponing lol) Also when i make mashed potatoes I leave skins on and use only skim milk, no butter. I really thought I was eating healthy by reducing my calories.

Well, there is nothing wrong with mashed potato, but sweet potato is better, it has tons of nutrients. I buy a lot of frozen veggies. And for fruits I generally stick to banana or apple that travel well, I keep them at my desk at work. You can buy frozen strawberries or other fruit and put them in a yogurt smoothie.

wildfirediva

Taking a few multi vitamins doesn't give you permission to eat poorly. They are called supplements for a reason, they are there to assist in getting some (not all) of your nutritional requirements (micros).

A gummy fiber supplement, real fiber from real fruits, grains gives you nutrition and the bulking that helps to exercise the intestines, and get into the nooks and crannies that hold some of the most pungent toxins.

People rely too much on "convenience" diet foods. Most are full of chemicals and synthetics that will drain a person of essential minerals and nutrients and not add (regardless of how much Tocopheryl acetate aka synth Vitamine E or Cyanocobalamin aka synth B12) an energy bar has in it.

LauraDotts

Medical bills cost a lot more than nutritious food. You either pay a little more now for good food or a lot more later on health care.

Whole milk has a lot more nutrition than skim. Don't be afraid of natural fats. Stay away from low fat versions of food. The fat that is removed is replaced with sugar and/or salt. Just figure the extra calories into your daily allowance or eat smaller portions. Get most of your food from the outer edges of the grocery store and not so much from in the aisles -- produce, meat and dairy.

I'm going to repeat that if the pits are in the middle of your nails it is not from your current diet. Looking at your profile I see that you have had a very busy and stressful year. Stress has a big effect on nutrition and may be more the cause of the nail pits.

bokodasu

I also struggle with my DD trying to get her to eat veggies but it's a HUGE fight every day so I just give up. I also lack imagination and most of the time dinner is like meat, veggie, and bread side. I wish I knew healthy and tasty ways to add more veggies to my diet.

Don't get discouraged! Even making little changes can have a big effect, and then you can build on those when you feel like going further, you don't have to change everything all at once.

Frozen veg is good - it's usually cheaper, you can get coupons for it, and it has pretty much the same nutrition as fresh. And even frozen broccoli, which is completely gross on its own, works really well blended up into a soup. In fact, soup and pasta sauce are the answer to everything - it's how I get my kids to eat their vegetables, because you can throw anything that isn't green into tomato sauce and they'll never know, and anything that is green goes in soup. Just find a bullion that you like to flavor it and you don't even have to put that much thought into it, because you can put anything into your standard base and it always tastes good.

bcattoes

Suggestion: See a doctor. A simple blood screen will determine if you are deficient.

Aradia_Silvermoon

I went with skim milk because it was cheaper then whole milk. Also I wish I could see a doctor but I just got hired and don't have any insurance yet. I also am not using supplements so I can purposely eat poorly, I take them because a GI doctor told me too. I didn't realize how poorly I was eating lately. Things have been so busy lately that I didn't realize that my quick cooking had become so processed.

I changed up my diet today and had a huge salad at work with my half sandwich. As to the pretzels I love Sabra Hummus and need a vehicle for it lol and they seemed a good choice. Stress has been a constant companion this past year and a half. I lost my job in November and went on unemployment while I finished up school. I studied day and night, took care of DD (I am a single mom), and did everything that needed to be done. Then I graduated college, took and passed my state boards, found a new job, moved cities, and am struggling to make the big transition. Also with it being close to the holidays I am travelling more to see family and am at the mercy of what they fix. Last weekend I was at my moms and had to make the best of what she cooked...or grabbed out to eat.

Angylgrrl

I too love hummus, and would like to make a suggestion- I often use veggies as the vehicle for the hummus. Sugar snap peas are delightful, as are baby carrots and english cucumber. It's yummy and another good way to sneak in some extra veggies. Just a thought!

Firefox7275

Yay for graduating and salad! For dipping in houmous vegetable sticks/ crudites (carrot, sugar snap peas, asparagus, bell peppers, broccoli florets, celery, button mushrooms, fine green beans, cauliflower florets, spring onion/ scallions, red onion, green apple, baby corn, cucumber) or brown pitta toasted and cut into fingers with scissors.

LauraDotts

The vehicle I usually use for eating hummus is a spoon.