hello everyone welcome back to daily value I William Wallace and I will be your host today we're discussing a pressing Global issue it's one that I'm quite passionate about and pay special attention to that topic is micronutrient inadequacies but more importantly it's Global dietary micronutrient inadequacies this topic was spurred by a recent publication in the Lancet Global Health this past August which was the first study ever to provide Global estimates of anat consumption of 15 essential micronutrients highlighting a significant Gap across nutrients and demographic groups this episode will explore the scale of this proposed problem how it differs for males and females worldwide and its possible implications for public health as always please remember that this podcast is for educational purposes only and does not substitute professional medical advice consult with your healthc care provider before attempting a nutrition or supplement based protocol that we go over here unlike more we'll call them easy to track nutrients like proteins fats and carbohydrates or total calories for that matter micronutrients can be far more difficult to keep on top of after all there are 29 essential micronutrients and there aren't even good biomarker tests that are widely available to for public use to assess the status of those 29 nutrients micronutrient deficiencies in the form of vitamin and mineral deficiencies are among the most Common forms of malnutrition and can be quite sneaky in nature as they can often slide under the radar for most people up to the point that they become so bad that a functional deficit of some kind is experienced there are several ways to develop a micronutrient inadequacy or deficiency but obviously simply not taking in enough of a specific vitamin or mineral would be a primary Pathway to developing the deficiency now any vitamin or mineral deficiency can turn out to be quite serious if left unaddressed and each with its own health consequences for instance iron deficiency is the leading cause of anemia worldwide iron plays a key role in the formation of certain neurotransmitters like dopamine by acting as an essential co-actor for the rate limiting enzyme in dopamine synthesis as such even an iron inadequacy can lead to impaired cognition it can also lead to unfavorable pregnancy outcomes and for that reason it's considered a nutrient of public Health concern for women of reproductive age in the United States past research estimating Global deficiency rates have suggested that one in two children under 5 years old are deficient in either iron zinc or vitamin A and that two and three women between 15 and 49 years old are deficient in either iron zinc or folate which is vitamin B9 the absolute best way to determine a deficiency is to use a validated biomarker test of some kind that would typically be in the form of some kind of blood work but of course not all blood tests for a given vitamin or mineral are useful for determining status on top of that nutrient deficiencies are not always caused by not taking in enough of a specific nutrient for micronutrients disease or absorption issues can also be a reason for inadequacy or deficiency development as such when looking at a large population and assessing its risk for Nutri deficiencies sometimes estimating nutritional intake is the best option albeit not perfect obviously this approach is the exact one that was taken by researchers out of the Harvard school for public health UC Santa Barbara and the Global Alliance for improved nutrition what they found was that more than 5 billion people worldwide are not consuming enough of at least three nutrients with 68% of the global population as estimated to not be getting enough iodine 67 of the global population not getting enough vitamin E and 66% of the global population not getting enough calcium this study goes on to suggest that more than 4 billion people worldwide are not taking in enough of the following four nutrients those being iron with 65% of the population not getting enough iron 55% not getting enough riboflavin that's vitamin B2 54% not getting enough folate and 53% not getting enough vitamin C those estimates were for the entire global population including men and women now when the researchers looked at the same countries and Aid groups they found that women were disproportionately affected by deficiencies in iodine vitamin B12 iron and selenium compared to men on the flip side men were more affected than women by deficiencies in magnesium vitamin B6 zinc vitamin C vitamin A vitamin B1 thamin and vitamin B3 nasin it's important to note that this study did not include supplements or fortified food intake so they were simply assessing regular food intake from unfortified sources so this could have caused overestimations of some deficiencies one example would be for iodine it's estimated deficiency was very high among women worldwide but it's also estimated that 8 9% of people worldwide consume iodized salt so in this case that nutrient deficiency could very well have been overestimated on the other hand the researchers did not take into account nutrient nutrient interactions and how that might affect nutrient absorption from food itself for instance high phate intake might inhibit zinc and iron absorption High oxalate intake can inhibit calcium absorption to a degree and so on as such it would be important to know in what regions of the world and what populations there were high intakes of other food compounds that could alter nutrient status for a specific vitamin or mineral the primary takeaway from this study and topic is that most of the global population has an adequate intake of at least one micronutrient now consider all 29 essential micronutrients and ask yourself based on my sex my age my socioeconomic status and where I live in the world which one of those 29 micronutrients am I most at risk for not getting enough of and beyond that which other ones do I do I run a higher risk of missing out on the findings from the study do underscore the pervasive nature of micronutrient deficiencies this issue becomes far greater in low and middle inome places within any country where diets May lack diversity and nutrient density at the IND idual level how do we prevent deficiencies or inadequacies for ourselves well we can lean on a trusted health professional for biomarker testing for one but that's not always practical and we can't trust any and every health professional to choose the right tests for us on top of that not everyone can afford micronutrient testing for themselves in this case a diversified diet rich in essential nutrients is an obvious play specifically seeking out fortified foods can be a great great option for many people now Natural Health Food enthusiasts might have some of us believing that food fortification is a bad thing but when you look at the actual outcome data on the topic it's done far more good than harm and on a global scale micronutrient supplementation is also of course an option in summary the global prevalence of inadequate micronutrient intakes is a major public health concern the idea that nearly all of us are under consuming at least one essential micronutrient by a large margin and probably more than one is something to be aware of further taking into account our own personal circumstances to hone in on which micronutrients those may be and resolving inadequate intake can certainly help reduce the burden of micronutrient deficiencies at the individual level and possibly at the global level thank you for tuning in to daily value if you found this episode insightful please sub subscribe and share it with others who might benefit stay informed stay healthy and I'll see you next time