5 Simple Hacks to Boost Nutrient Absorption by 300%

You’re eating salads, smoothies, organic everything, making your own bread at home, eating all the ‘right’ foods… so why are you still tired, bloated, or struggling with weak hair and nails?

Maybe it isn’t what you’re eating—it’s how much your body is absorbing and utilizing.

Today, we’re going to unlock opportunities to boost your nutrient absorption by up to 300%, through simple every day decisions.

The first thing to consider is what you’re putting into your body. It’s already an extremely complex process to get nutrients from our gut into our bloodstream even with a pristine food routine, let alone when ultra-processed foods are showing up on the daily.

Ultra-processed foods are devoid of vitamins and minerals, but loaded with calories, stripping our body of its own nutrient stores.

Food can lose up to 50-90% of B vitamins or vitamin C when it travels 1000s of miles to reach you or has sat for weeks on the shelf at the grocery store.

This is one of the reasons why it’s important to buy out of season fruits and vegetables frozen instead of fresh.

Freezing is an amazing way to stop the enzymatic degradation of vitamins and minerals as it halts the enzymes that breaks them down.

Some of the best fresh foods that hold their nutrient density for long periods of time are: carrots, beets, radishes, sweet potatoes, and turnips.

Also, whole grains with intact husks like wheat berries, black rice or quinoa, preserve their B vitamins and magnesium well.

Unfortunately, most are using store bought flours for their homemade sourdough breads which make for a tasty fluffy bread loaf, but the vitamin and mineral content has been decimated through months of sitting on the shelf without an intact husk. 

For the homemade bread makers, I would aim to go all the way and mill your own flours and get the family’s tastebuds recalibrated to a heartier bread.

How to boost nutrient absorption by 300%

1. Pair Iron with Vitamin C

Pair plant-based iron, like spinach or lentils, with vitamin C-rich foods like oranges, bell peppers, or tomatoes. Studies show this can boost iron absorption by up to 300%! This is a big deal for runners and menstruating or pregnant women.

2. Cook your tomatoes

Cooking tomatoes releases lycopene, a powerful antioxidant linked to reduced cancer risk. The heat breaks down the cell walls, making lycopene easier for your body to absorb. Prostate cancer being a big one here.

3. Combine olive oil, fish or fatty meats with your meals

In fact the more oil added, the more nutrient absorption was had according to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. We are talking beta-carotene, lutein, lycopene, and fat soluble Vitamin E and K, skyrocketing with the addition of a fat.

4. Soak, Sprout, and Ferment

There is a reason people back in the day used these methods. They increase mineral absorption by breaking down anti-nutrients in the foods and reduce inflammatory effects on the digestive tract of grains and legumes. Want the Dr. Wholeness version of how to eat? Check out this post, Food Hierarchy.

5. Chew More, Absorb More

There is a reason you have teeth, a tongue and enzymes that secrete into your mouth.  They are there to set your stomach up for massive success. Studies show that slow eaters have less diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.

Which one of the 5 absorption tips do you plan to implement? Let me know in the comments below.

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