I get this question all the time…”Does my kid need different nutrients than I do?” It’s confusing trying to feed your little one. Most foods marketed toward kids are not an indication of what foods are actually good for them. It’s hard to know what children need for proper physical and mental growth. As parents, we are bombarded with marketing that makes us think a product is genuinely healthy for our children…cereals enriched with vitamins and minerals, gummies loaded with vitamins, quick + healthy packaged snacks and meals, etc…The problem with most of this, is that these companies are taking advantage of our seriously busy lives by catering to our lack of time and vulnerability, but not delivering the quality of foods they may claim to be delivering. A product may have the nutrients they say they have, but they may also be cheaply made, not very absorbable, and contain unhealthy levels of sugars and processed oils. We need to believe these foods are good for our kids because most of the time we just don’t feel like we have time for better alternatives. The marketing companies know this of course…they know what appeals to you and your child. In some cases, these options are the best alternative. I’m not saying that all of these products are all bad, just to be aware when looking at the actual nutrients found in some of these products. Pay attention to the nutrition labels- do you recognize the majority of the ingredients? Try keeping track of how many of the pre-packaged products your kiddos are consuming daily. Are they getting real, whole foods in their diet? If you’re not sure what to look for, ask your health care professional or nutritionist for help.

Here are some tips when thinking about what to feed your little one:

• Kids need the same nutrients that adults do.
• However, generally speaking, it’s more important that they get the nutrients they need and the amounts necessary due to the amount of development taking place.
• There are specific windows of time that children need the right nutrients, or they may suffer lifelong consequences.

Which nutrients should I pay more attention to?

• Fat-soluble vitamins. This includes A,D,E and K2. Cold water fatty fish is an excellent source of vitamin D. Pasture-raised egg yolks, dairy, and fermented foods are a good source of K2. Organ meats and cod liver oil are good sources of vitamin A, whereas cooked sweet potato, winter squash, kale, collard greens and carrots are good sources of Provitamin A.
• Calcium. For bone and health and skeletal development. Full fat, fermented dairy if tolerated. Bone-in fish and dark leafy greens.
• Choline. For brain health and development. Pasture-raised egg yolks, organ meats and fish are excellent sources. Cruciferous vegetables and nuts also contain choline.
• Zinc, Iron, and Copper. Helpful for immunity, cell growth, wound healing, hemoglobin. Shellfish, organ and muscle meats are good sources.
• EPA and DHA. Crucial for brain development. Cold-water fatty fish and shellfish.
• Phytonutrients. Found in fresh fruits and vegetables. Beneficial for feeding gut bacteria.
• Protein. For the development of muscles and tissues. Meat, poultry, fish, eggs, grains, nuts, seeds, and vegetables.

We all want the best for our children! You don’t have to make huge shifts overnight, but consider making changes one step at a time if you feel like the kids are falling a bit short in getting what they need. There are so many tips online to help with meal preparation and strategies for feeding picky eaters. Bulk cooking and freezing meals can help prepare you for the week, involving your kids in cooking can help with picky eaters…like I said, there’s so many tips online for this! Look at your friend group, perhaps there’s someone in your close circle that loves to cook or has more time to cook. Ask them for help or turn it into a night out to learn a little something while getting some adult time;)

I get it. It seems like every other week there’s a new trend in the nutrition space…curcumin, Omega-3s, black seed oil, probiotics and psychobiotics, etc…It can be confusing and hard to keep up. Recently, clients have been asking about postbiotics…what are they, when do you take them, why do you take them and what do they help with? So here we go…a brief explanation of the current research!

To begin, let’s take a step back to review what prebiotics and probiotics are to help tie in postbiotics and how they may be useful. Probiotics are live microorganisms that can have a beneficial impact on your health if consumed in adequate amounts. According to the National Institutes of Health, there are an estimated 100 trillion different microbial cells living in our gut. These microorganisms can be bacteria, viruses, fungi, helminths, and archea, however bacteria comprise the majority of the microbiota. Most of these bacteria are harmless, while others are either helpful or can cause disease. The helpful or beneficial bacteria can influence your metabolism (weight loss), enhance your immune function, improve your digestion and the health of your skin, and reduce the risks of some diseases. The harmful bacteria can be ok as long as they stay in smaller numbers. However, when their numbers increase and the amount of the beneficial bacteria decreases, the harmful bacteria can begin to exert their negative effects on your health. Harmful bacteria have been linked to a number of diseases that include inflammatory bowel disease, metabolic syndrome, obesity, heart disease, colorectal cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease. A healthy microbiota strengthens the integrity of the gut and therefore, strengthens our overall health.

How then, you may wonder, do these numbers of helpful vs harmful bacteria get out of balance? Or, how does the harmful bacteria increase and cause disease? There are a number of reasons this can happen. Our diet has a huge influence on the landscape of our gut and the organisms that reside there. You can ingest probiotics by choosing to consume foods that contain them, such as yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, tempeh, kimchi, miso, natto, and traditional (not cultured) buttermilk. You may also choose to take probiotic supplements. Choosing a probiotic supplement can be overwhelming, as there are a large number of products to choose from. Knowing which probiotics are helpful for a specific condition can help you narrow your products. Or, you may choose a multi-strain probiotic supplement. Either way, when choosing a supplement, know that they are not regulated by the FDA. So, be careful of false claims, ask your nutritionist or health care provider if the supplement looks like a good choice, and try to find brands that use third party testing. If you have ever taken antibiotics, especially for longer lengths of time, you may have noticed some unpleasant symptoms such as diarrhea. Usually this occurs because the antibiotics kill the harmful and commensal bacteria in your GI tract, which throws off the gut balance. Eventually, the effects of antibiotics may allow harmful bacteria to thrive.

Prebiotics are sometimes confused with probiotics, however prebiotics are the foods that fuel the microflora . Prebiotics are usually in the form of fiber…they are non-digestible carbohydrates found in foods like bananas, onions, garlic, soybeans, artichokes, chicory root, leeks, asparagus, barley, oats, apples, and cocoa. Beneficial microbes can then ferment these prebiotics, which leads to the production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) that can have multiple beneficial effects throughout the body.

And finally, we have postbiotics. The term postbiotics has been defined by the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) as “a preparation of inanimate microorganisms and/or their components that confers a health benefit on the host.” Basically, this refers to the left over waste created from your body digesting both prebiotics and probiotics. Because evidence of postbiotics health benefits to the host/human has been accumulating, the interest in developing postbiotic products as foods, therapeutics, etc…has also been increasing. However, while we wait for the scientific community to guide us on how to use these products in the future, for now the best way to increase the amount of postbiotics in your system is to increase your intake of fermented foods and foods containing probiotics.
N. Zastrow

The conversation and research around our need for additional vitamins and nutrients has been mixed for years. The questions regarding food and whether or not we can get what we need from our diet without supplementation remain at the top of the list for those that are trying to eat optimally. Are we getting the necessary vitamins and minerals through our diet? Should we be taking a multivitamin and mineral complex? Not knowing these answers can make the recommendations surrounding diet and supplementation confusing, especially if you’re trying to implement changes on your own. Over 70% of Americans are taking some form of a supplement on a daily basis and statistics have shown that we are in fact, undernourished, despite being overfed. If, however, 70% of us are taking a supplement daily, yet the majority of us are undernourished, where is the breakdown? Are we just not taking the right supplements? Are we relying too much on supplements while eating meals that are not nutrient-dense? Can we in fact get what we need from our food?

The shift from local, organic food systems to an industrial food system has unfortunately led to soils that are depleted in their vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals, as well as their organic matter. Because of this, the food grown within these depleted soils becomes depleted itself. Several studies have shown differences in the quality of foods grown in soils and farms using conventional farming practices (synthetically fertilized, treated with herbicides) versus farms using regenerative farms (esp. those using conservative agricultural practices), concluding that regenerative farms have been found to have higher levels of nutrients. In addition to the changing farming practices affecting the quality of the foods grown, there is also the issue of our food systems becoming more globalized. We can now eat some of the produce we love nearly year-round as opposed to seasonally because we’re shipping produce in from all over the world. Currently, more than 200 countries or other territories supply approximately 32% of the fresh vegetables and 55% of the fresh fruit consumed by Americans annually. A study done by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture in Iowa compiled data from the US Dept. of Agriculture and found that some produce that traveled to a Chicago “terminal market”, where the produce is then sold to restaurants and grocery stores, had traveled hundreds of miles. For example, grapes had come from 2,143 miles, apples from 1,555 miles away, lettuce as far as 2,055 miles, and peaches from 1,674 miles. On average, it’s been estimated that the average carrot travels 1,800 miles before reaching the grocery store. The importance of this is how early the produce must be picked or harvested in order for it to still be fresh by the time it reaches its destination. Often, these foods are 40-50% depleted in its nutrients.

In addition to the global expedition of produce, is the issue of a growing toxic burden surrounding our food supply. There has been major concern for the safety of our food due to the presence of heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants (POPs), which are persistent, bioaccumulative, and have long-range transport potential. For example, pesticides and PCBs are POPs, and metals like lead, mercury, and arsenic have been found in our food supply. Clearly, these can all be toxic, but they can also bind to the nutrients found on our food, which can prevent us from absorbing them.

So, in looking at our food supply thus far, it seems if nothing else, more difficult than it used to be to get what we need from our food. There is another factor however, and that is the growing presence of chronic diseases and disorders. The CDC states that 6 out of 10 Americans lives with at least one chronic disease, such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. People with these chronic diseases usually have an increased need for nutrients. For example, smokers, who are at an increased risk of coronary heart disease, have been found to need an intake of 200mg daily of vitamin c in order to prevent low serum ascorbic acid levels even though the current Estimated Average Requirement (EAR) for ascorbic acid is 75mg for adults. Another example is obesity as a risk factor for heart disease. People that are obese are less likely to absorb vitamin D from their food and are less efficient producing vitamin D from sun exposure and therefore have an increased need for vitamin D. Again, we can try to get what we need from foods, and I believe we should always start there. However, you can start to see how this has become more difficult given our food supply methods and issues with toxins in our foods.

Not to add fuel to the fire, but there are a couple of factors that can also increase our need for nutrients and those are stress and medications. Chronic stress has unfortunately become a part of our culture in America. The American Institute of Stress states that chronic stress is commonplace at work with 94% of workers reporting feeling stress at work. That may seem to be somewhat synonymous, work=stress. Yet, when 63% of those workers are ready to quit their job to avoid such work-related stress, that paints a different picture…at least when thinking about health. Stress can affect our body’s intake of nutrients in numerous ways, however two of these ways are: 1) it raises the body’s metabolic needs and increases the use and excretion of many nutrients, 2) we tend to undereat the foods we need and overeat those that aren’t as nutritious when in stress-mode. Without the proper intake of these vitamins, minerals, etc…, chronic depletion of some of these nutrients can lead to other serious disorders and mental health issues. Last-but-not-least, are the effects medications can have on nutrient metabolism. Many medications can cause nutrient deficiencies. For example, taking a statin regularly, blocks the body’s natural production of CoQ10, an antioxidant that your cells use for growth and maintenance. Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPIs) are known to deplete calcium, chromium, folic acid, iron, B12, vitamin D, and zinc. Oral contraceptives can deplete many of the B vitamins like folic acid, B2, B3, B6, and B12 as well as magnesium, calcium and zinc.

One can see that despite our best efforts to eat a whole-foods, nutrient dense diet, that there are many other factors at play when trying to decide if we can get what we need from our food alone without supplementation. If you’re trying to acquire everything your body needs to function optimally from your diet, it will take more work than you might have originally thought. The truth is, most of our data and recommendations are there to prevent disease, not necessarily for optimal health. We don’t really know what those levels should be. Therefore, your practitioner should look at all of the above factors and your dietary intake in order to investigate what you might need more or less of. If supplementation ends up being necessary, it’s important to know that supplements are not regulated by the FDA and are often found to not have what they claim to have. Look for supplements that have been tested independently by third-party certified companies like Consumer Lab, NSF International, and USP. Also know that some synthetic forms of vitamins/nutrients are not very bioavailable, meaning your body has trouble absorbing them. They are usually cheaper for the supplement companies to make and consumers don’t typically know the difference. For example, the B12 supplement that contains cyanocobalamine that is cheaper to make, can be converted by some people into it’s more active form, methylcobalamine, but some people cannot convert cyanocobalamine well.

There are some supplements that are fairly safe to take and others you should be cautious of. As always, remember that your health and wellness are personal and the recommendations for your health should be as well.

• Baker, L. D., Manson, J. E., Rapp, S. R., Sesso, H. D., Gaussoin , S. A., Shumaker, S. A., & Espeland, M. A. (2022, September 14). Design and baseline characteristics of the cocoa supplement and multivitamin outcomes study for the mind: Cosmos-mind. Contemporary clinical trials.
• Blum, W. E. H., Zechmeister-Boltenstern, S., & Keiblinger, K. M. (2019, August 23). Does soil contribute to the human gut microbiome? Microorganisms.
• Blumberg, J. B., Bailey, R. L., Sesso, H. D., & Ulrich, C. M. (2018). The Evolving Role of Multivitamin/Multimineral Supplement Use among Adults in the Age of Personalized Nutrition. Nutrients, 10(2), 248.
• Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. (n.d.). FDA strategy for the safety of imported food. U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
• Daily Life. The American Institute of Stress. (2022, March 30).
• Dimitri, C., & Effland, A. (2018, November 12). From farming to food systems: The evolution of US agricultural production and policy into the 21st Century: Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems. Cambridge Core.
• Guo W, Pan B, Sakkiah S, Yavas G, Ge W, Zou W, Tong W, Hong H. Persistent Organic Pollutants in Food: Contamination Sources, Health Effects and Detection Methods. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 Nov 8;16(22):4361. doi: 10.3390/ijerph16224361. PMID: 31717330; PMCID: PMC6888492
• How far does your food travel to get to your plate? Foodwise. (2022, November 2).
• Hyman, M. (2022, September 21). Why most of us are nutrient deficient and what to do about it. Dr. Mark Hyman.
• Kresser, C. (2022, August 9). Should you take a multivitamin? Chris Kresser.
• Kresser, C. (2022, September 30). How the gut microbiome influences your overall health. Chris Kresser.
• Montgomery, D. R., Biklé, A., Archuleta, R., Brown, P., & Jordan, J. (2022, January 27). Soil Health and nutrient density: Preliminary comparison of regenerative and conventional farming. PeerJ.
• O’Connor EA, Evans CV, Ivlev I, Rushkin MC, Thomas RG, Martin A, Lin JS. Vitamin and Mineral Supplements for the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease and Cancer: Updated Evidence Report and Systematic Review for the US Preventive Services Task Force. JAMA. 2022 Jun 21;327(23):2334-2347. doi: 10.1001/jama.2021.15650. PMID: 35727272.
• Raatz, S. K., Jahns, L., Johnson, L. A. K., Scheett, A., Carriquiry, A., Lemieux, A., Nakajima, M., & al’Absi, M. (2017, July 28). Smokers report lower intake of key nutrients than nonsmokers, yet both fall short of meeting recommended intakes. Nutrition Research.
• Salamon, M. (2022, June 1). The truth about nutrient deficiencies. Harvard Health.