Nutritional Gap: 5 Things I Wish I’d Known Earlier

The alarm clock rings, we plug the coffeemaker and proceed to the bathroom. We pour the coffee on-the-go tumbler and we’re immediately off to the races. We call it the morning panic: no breakfast as we need to be prepared for the long lines in the train stations. Therefore we are missing the most important meal of the day and we thought it’s okay since we’ll take a full meal during lunch and dinner.


So what happens when we skip breakfast?

When we wake up in the morning, the blood sugar our body needs to make our muscles and our brain work their best is usually low. If our body doesn’t get that fuel from food, which normally replenished after eating breakfast, we may feel sluggish. Worse, we’ll be more likely to overeat later in the day –– which is also not good.


Skipping breakfast is one of the culprits for nutrition gap –a term for lack of nutrition in our diets or “micronutrient deficiency”. With the way most of us eat today there is a troublesome gap between the nutrients we need and those we actually consume. Moreover, most of our diets today are lacking in many essential vitamins and minerals. The nutrition gap is becoming a public health concern because it occurs across all age groups, and can negatively affect health.


What are we missing?

1. Breakfast gives us a chance to get in some vitamins and nutrients from healthy foods like dairy, grains, and fruits. If we don’t eat it, we aren’t likely to get all of the nutrients our body needs.



2. The typical diet exceeds recommendations for things like refined grains, sodium saturated fats and calories and falls short of important nutrients such as fiber, potassium, vitamin D, and calcium leading to what we call the “nutrition gap”. So, while we may get plenty of calories and look well fed, over time the absence of essential nutrients may ultimately lead to nutritional deficiencies.


3. Vitamins and minerals are necessary for proper food metabolism. When we do not get the right amount of vitamins and minerals into their body, we are unable to efficiently turn the proteins and carbohydrates that we eat into energy. This is why even though we eat so much; we still feel weak and get tired quickly.


4. Learn to read nutrition information on food labels. Consumers typically underutilize this important source of nutrition information. If we formed the habit of reading food labels and their nutrition information, we can calculate the nutritional requirement we need everyday.


5. Nutrition gap is leading to an increase in chronic degenerative diseases, obesity and Dementia and among other illness. It also heavily contributes to a reduction in general health and well-being. The best way bridge the nutrition gap in our diet is to adhere to a healthy diet, a good fitness regime and on top of this take a food-based supplement.


A balanced diet is the best way to stay healthy, but under the best of circumstances, it can be difficult to get all the nutrients you need from the food you eat. That’s where vitamins and supplements come in, to fill in the gaps. A powerful multivitamin with minerals can help fill nutritional gaps that can be present even with the best of diets.


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