Monday, February 4, 2008

Women and Their Nutrition...Very Important To All Of Us!

Women and Their Nutrition...Very Important To All Of Us!
Many of our readers asked for simple nutrition tips for
women. Women today are busier than ever before. Their
stress is exacerbated by today's fast paced, pre-packaged,
convenience based society and the toxins that come from
antibiotics and household cleaners. Iron-deficiency anemia
is very common in young women. Women need nutrition and
they need to be CLEAN from toxins. Here's a nutrition tip
for all women -- berries are your friends.

While women's role in the food chain is essential to
produce that all-important resource, food, it paradoxically
does not guarantee women even minimum levels of nutrition.
Women are often responsible for producing and preparing
food for the household, so their knowledge — or lack
thereof — about nutrition can affect the health and
nutritional status of the entire family. Women with
adequate stores of iron and other micronutrients are less
likely to suffer fatal infections and are more likely to
survive bleeding during and after childbirth. Women in
developing countries are also regularly deficient in
vitamin A, iodine, and energy. Women of child-bearing age
are recommended to take folic acid supplements and consume
a folic-rich diet. Women are also at higher risk for
developing osteoporosis (50 percent of women compared to 25
percent of men are expected to develop it in their
lifetimes) and need more calcium and Vitamin D to prevent
it. Studies showed that women with vitamin D insufficiency
absorb less than 10 percent of available calcium.

However, even among the poor, different groups of women are
affected differently by macro development policies, such as
the commercialization of agriculture or family planning.
The conflict between women's (economic) earning role and
(biological and social) mothering role results to some
degree in a squeeze on child care, with consequences for
child health and nutrition. While women will be mothers
too, motherhood is just one part of the inexorable life
cycle. This calls for intervention programs to be
bolstered by efforts to increase women's awareness,
self-confidence, and motivation to act. Men must be
educated about the cost to society of neglecting women and
the need for affirmative action for women, which arises
both from the fact of their greater work burden and their
unique reproductive roles. The issue of women's nutrition
status and roles is crucial to the proposal for nutrition
as a basic right for all in the 1990s, in which human
development goals are paramount over economic goals.
Programming for women's health must extend beyond their
role as mothers to encompass their non-reproductive and
work-related energy and health needs.

The nutrition tips for women broadcast on the news often
imply that nutrition may magically cure all kinds of
diseases. Sometimes we simply forgot that the basic role
of nutrition is to support what our bodies need. 1
nutrition tip for women is to regularly include iron-rich
foods such as meat, shellfish, beans and enriched cereals
in your diet. Among the consequences of this triple burden
of market production, home production, and reproduction are
high levels of protein-energy malnutrition and anemia among
women. The nutritional handicap accumulated in the life of
a woman is passed on to the next generation through low
birth weight, which considerably reduces survival and
jeopardizes growth. The ultimate constraint of time
affects the extent to which women can acquire nutritional
goods and services and allocate them to improving their own
well-being or that of their families. The best way to give
your body the balanced nutrition it needs is by eating a
variety of nutrient-packed foods every day. In some
respects, men and women have different nutritional needs,
largely due to differences in male and female hormones.

"If you look at the current federal dietary guidelines for
kids, there is no difference in nutritional needs for males
and females until age 9," says Elaine Turner, PhD, RD,
associate professor in the department of Food Science and
Human Nutrition at the University of Florida in
Gainesville. And women's unique role as the bearers of
children tends to drive their special nutritional needs.
If you need fewer calories, the calories you take in need
to pack a lot of nutritional punch. Using the berry plants
for both nutrition and medicine is one way that
traditionally-minded woman can continue to keep their
strength and health within the cycles of the creation.
Remember, too that although berry plants have much
nutritional value, they are only meant to supplement and
enhance a well-balanced diet.

Anemia is the most common form of malnutrition, afflicting
an estimated 47 percent of women worldwide, and anemia in
pregnancy is one of the leading causes of maternal death.
For maximum effect, improving women's nutrition should
begin long before pregnancy. Improving nutrition by
maintaining a healthy diet before and during pregnancy and
also during lactation can help to ensure adequate
gestational weight gain, prevent weight loss during
lactation, help strengthen the immune system, and delay HIV
disease progression. Good nutrition is important for all
pregnant and lactating women irrespective of their HIV
status. Ignorance about the symptoms of malnutrition, such
as the lethargy and depression caused by iron deficiency,
may be dismissed as "normal" or unimportant, further
exacerbating the problem. Addressing women's malnutrition
has a range of positive effects because healthy women can
fulfill their multiple roles — generating income,
ensuring their families' nutrition, and having healthy
children — more effectively and thereby help advance
countries' socioeconomic development. Well-nourished
mothers are more likely to have infants with healthy birth
weights, and such children are less likely to ever suffer
from malnutrition. Women are more likely to suffer from
nutritional deficiencies than men are, for reasons
including women's reproductive biology, low social status,
poverty, and lack of education. Adolescent girls are
particularly vulnerable to malnutrition because they are
growing faster than at any time after their first year of
life.


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The health & well-being of women in our society is a very
crucial one. Chuck Arnone will continue to pass along this
information, to enlighten those in need!
http://www.provitaminliquid.com

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