While we’re well-acquainted with the adage ‘you are what you eat’ and understand the need to eat healthily – less fried food, less sugar, more vegetables and fruits – we’re still not getting enough nutrients from our daily diet.
In fact, around 30 per cent of all women are deficient in at least one important vitamin or mineral, said Bibi Chia, principal dietitian at Raffles Diabetes and Endocrine Centre. And for many women, the risk of nutritional deficiencies increases with age.
It doesn’t help that we subject our bodies to a slew of different diets – keto, low-carb, no-carb, vegan – which sometimes makes it harder to get the full suite of nutrients we need to keep us in good health.
When determining your nutrient needs, don’t look at your age. Instead, the experts say you should look at what life stage you’re in: Puberty, pregnancy, breastfeeding or post-menopausal.
If you’re pregnant or breastfeeding, you would need more of certain types of nutrients, such as protein, calcium, iron and folic acid, to support your health and the baby’s development, said Chia.
