Vitamin Information Center

A garden may mean different things to different people. To some, it’s a way to trim back the grocery budget. If laid out properly and maintained, a 50-by-50-foot garden could produce all the vegetables a family of five would need for a year. Even a 20-by-20-foot plot could produce enough food to greatly impact that weekly trudge to the grocery store.Some find it relaxing, some, a source of exercise. Light gardening will burn 170 to 240 calories an hour, while vigorous work such as spading and hoeing will burn 250 to 350.
Most have found how much better homegrown harvest tastes than the store bought stuff and how much better it is for you. Tomatoes that are picked green will ripen with 1/3 less vitamin C than vine ripened ones, and broccoli will lose 2/3 of its vitamin C six days after harvest. But even when stored for a period of time, good amounts of disease fighting beta-carotene are found in winter squash, carrots and sweet potatoes.

Why should it surprise us that fresh, just-picked veggies are the best for us? You wouldn’t need to take another store bought vitamin if all your vegetables came from your garden.

Going down the list we find that asparagus is high in vitamins A, C, B1, and Calcium. Because they root deep they become a good source of minerals too. Beets are high in A and C, while turnips are packed with B2 and E.

Besides the beta carotene found in carrots, significant amounts of B1, calcium, and phosphorus make the carrot one of the best snacks you could give your little munchkin. They would consider it a tasty treat if it came from your garden; the store stuff can taste pretty bad sometimes, thus leaving a bad taste in their mouth for veggies.

Parsnips, when harvested in the winter under 12 inches of leaves, will give you a whole new appreciation for this B6, C and potassium packed, cream-colored, carrot-looking thing. Other vegetables whose flavor sweetens with each passing frost include broccoli, which has more body-ready calcium than a glass of milk could ever hope for. Brussels sprouts are just plain stuffed with everything. And just one serving of Cauliflower will give you all the vitamin C your body will need for that day. Cabbage goes beyond that, adding good amounts of vitamins B1, B2, A and calcium as well.

Onion and leeks rate high in vitamins A, C and E, with corn adding vitamins A, B and some minerals, though not in very big amounts. My wife says there is not much nutrition in sweet corn; and I guess after it’s been smothered in butter and sprinkled with salt, any good has probably been canceled out. But I tell her, “It’s got to be better than a Twinkie.”

There are many more, including spinach. We around 50 years old know what gigantic muscles can be had by downing a can of this stuff, and these are necessary when protecting our Olive Oyls from the Blutos in our lives (I still don’t know what he saw in her, what a bean pole).

If gardening is your thing, whatever your reason, be it saving money or good health, your tastes buds and, more importantly, your children’s buds will say, “I didn’t know veggies could taste this good.”

If you have any questions about your landscaping, lawn, or garden, enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope and write to Niemeyer Landscaping, 3368 Perry St., Hudsonville, 49426, or e-mail NiemeyerLandscaping@Juno.com.

Vitamin Water, Lifewater, Dasani Plus and a pack of other brands and generic spin-offs line grocery shelves around Oshkosh in a rainbow of fruity flavors.

Juicy berry and citrus-infused liquids wrapped in flashy labels promise “80 percent fewer calories!” and more “B Vitamins!”

Dozens of vitamin-enhanced beverage lines have spouted up recently, and are bottles are flying out of stores, showing up everywhere from local gyms to office desks.

Especially since beverage companies like Glaceau and SoBe launched TV campaigns featuring celebs such as 50 Cent and Beyonce, said Dan Braun, health and wellness coordinator at the downtown YMCA.

“It’s something the public likes because they feel they’re doing something healthy for themselves … and this is easy,” said Jean Wagner, clinical dietician at Mercy Medical Center.

“They might feel it tastes better than tap water, too, and it’s kind of sexy, walking around with drinks with pretty colors,” Wagner added.

However, Wagner cautions that if consumers think they’re deriving great health benefits from drinking any number of the various branded “vitamin waters,” they should think again.

“They’re not getting any real benefit from it other than some hydration benefit,” Wagner said. “You’d do much better for yourself having a serving of blueberries, having an orange or having a glass of milk.”

Many Oshkosh personal trainers say when it comes to the hydration factor, there’s no replacement for the real deal.

“I’d just go for regular, plain, ol’ water,” Braun said.

Trainers say vitamin-enhanced water is mostly a gimmick, and many brands come with high calorie counts and are loaded with sugar.

Drink a 20-ounce bottle of Glaceau’s Vitamin Water, for instance — each bottling 2.5 servings — and you’re downing more than 30 grams of sugar and 125 calories.

“If a person is looking to supplement their diet, they are better off taking a multivitamin,” Braun said.

Local trainers have noticed that gym members are sporting vitamin waters to workout sessions much more these days.

Janet Walotka, a personal trainer at the Oshkosh Athletic Club, said she sees people toting bottles of the colorful flavored liquid all the time, most likely unaware that their nutrition labels boast syrupy additives and too much sugar.

“We don’t need all of these sugars,” Walotka said. “It’s like you got in this nice workout, but you put a bunch of sugars in your body in the process, which quickly converts to glucose and that gets metabolized into fat.”

But are all vitamin waters are created equal, and should consumers abstain from drinking them altogether?

No, Wagner said. For hardcore athletes – marathon runners, serious sports players and the like – drinking certain brands (think Gatorade, Propel, Powerade) can help keep people hydrated and replace electrolytes lost during extensive exercise.

“Not somebody that is not really working up a lot of sweat,” Wagner said.

For recreational or moderate exercisers who down a bottle or two of high calorie, sugar-laced waters, Wagner said people could be getting an extra 400 to 500 calories they never thought about.

“That potentially at the end of the week could mean gaining a pound – drinking water,” she said.

Because labels don’t do the math for you, it’s important that consumers are savvy, especially considering there is no set law defining how companies have to back up nutritional claims when it comes to functional foods, like vitamin water, Wagner said.

The bottom line, trainers say, is hydrating the body during a workout is crucial. However, Walotka recommends doing research before deciding on the drink of choice for the gym.

“You can get your vitamins without calories and you can have water without sugar,” Walotka said.

Sarah Owen: (920) 426-6671 or sowen2@thenorthwestern.com. Amanda M. Wimmer: (920) 426-6632 or awimmer@thenorthwestern.com.

IOWA CITY - If storm after storm is giving you the winter blues, we have some more bad news. It turns out a slip and fall on the ice could be especially dangerous if your vitamin D levels are low. And just about everyone living in Iowa is low right now.

In February our days are shorter and the skies are cloudy. Winter takes its toll on us mentally. But it is also a drain on our vitamin D. Experts say that can lead to all kinds of problems. Registered dietitian Sue Little said, “We’re at more risk for multiple sclerosis, higher risk for diabetes, higher risk for falls and muscle weakness. The list goes on.”

In the summer, Iowans only need to be outside for about 10 minutes to get enough vitamin D. But in February, it is a much different story. Little said, “You’d have to stay outside naked for like five hours to get enough vitamin d synthesis this time of year.”

There is simply not enough sun in Iowa in February to get all the vitamin D you need, so you need to go shopping. Little says a glass of milk a day will get you 10-percent of what you need. Fatty fish like salmon is also a good source of vitamin D. But your best bet might be a supplement. Little said, “I usually don’t recommend supplements, but for this situation we probably need one thousand IU’s per day.”

A vitamin D supplement will replenish what your body uses and loses in the winter. And little says nearly every Iowan needs more. Studies show three out of four of us are vitamin D deficient in February.

Little says a supplement should not replace vitamin D rich foods. The pills should be considered an addition to your diet.

Email Steve Nicoles at Steve.Nicoles@kcrg.com

By Darwin Danielson

While the cold winter weather may put you in a bad mood and keep you indoors, one group says it can also have an adverse health impact. Tim Miller is a spokesman for the U.V. Foundation and says many people in Iowa and other Midwestern states aren’t getting enough sunlight.

Miller says that results in vitamin D deficiency, which he says can lead to increased risk for colon, prostate and breast cancer, M.S. and an increase in children reporting rickets. Miller says there are a lot of remedies including supplements and tanning beds. He says the recommended level of vitamin D is one-thousand units per day.

He says you can look on the side of the supplement bottle to see how much that is. Miller says one serving of salmon has 900 units, so that would cover a day. One glass of milk is 400 units, and five to seven minutes twice a week in a tanning bed would cover the need.

Miller says supplementing you vitamin D intake is important in the winter months, then you must also be sure to get some sunlight in the spring. Miller says you need 15 to 20 minutes of exposure in the sun before you put on your sunscreen.

Miller says a recent study released by Boston University School of Medicine, found that people living in Iowa and other northern latitude states are 74-percent Vitamin D deficient during the month of February. And a Harvard Medical School study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has reported that 60-percent of Americans are vitamin D deficient.

BANANA: banana is a seedless fruit and consumed from very old times. It is available through the year and commonly sold. It’s a nutritious fruit that keeps body sustain with fiber making components, vitamins, and proteins. As compared to other fruits banana contains much calories. Its rapid soluble sugar is abundant that helps in regaining strength and overcomes stress. A banana with a one glass of milk performs as a complete meal. Continue Reading…

BANANA: banana is a seedless fruit and consumed from very old times. It is available through the year and commonly sold. It’s a nutritious fruit that keeps body sustain with fiber making components, vitamins, and proteins. As compared to other fruits banana contains much calories. Its rapid soluble sugar is abundant that helps in regaining strength and overcomes stress. A banana with a one glass of milk performs as a complete meal. Its consumption keeps body parts active and reacts as an anti ageing source. Its utility preserves phosphorus, nitrogen and calcium in the body. Continue Reading…