Why You Need to Check Your Nutritional Status Today
Your nutritional status reveals practically everything you need to know about your overall health, energy levels and any symptoms or mind/body concerns you may have and much more. Essentially, nutritional status is a report on your health revealing how the levels of nutrients contained in your body are managed by balancing food consumption and adequate utilization of nutrients. It’s important to receive a regular nutritional status update as it directly helps you identify whether there are deficiencies in your diet and if so, what actions you can take to address them before they cause any serious problems. This is especially vital for anyone recovering from illness or who has a compromised immune system, is experiencing chronic weakness, fatigue, mental fog or digestive issues, or has a demanding lifestyle, or is unsuccessfully trying to lose weight or build muscle.
How is nutritional status measured?
A comprehensive nutritional assessment includes the (anthropometric) measurement of your height and weight, which are used to calculate your body mass index (BMI). When employed at a population level, BMI helps correlate your risk of diseases with weight. It can be helpful if put into a bigger context, but BMI is not by itself an adequate predictor of your nutritional status; BMI is dependent on information regarding height and weight without taking into account variations in body fat based on factors like age, sex, or physical activity. As a form of measurement, it has been found to overemphasise fat mass (adiposity) in some cases while underrating it in others.
Another way of measuring nutritional status is by keeping a food journal for 24 hours, in which everything you eat is comprehensively recorded, ideally including quantities of food as well as the time and place of consumption. However, this method can be unreliable because it depends on the memory of the person recording information of what they ate, as well as their knowledge of food quality and the difference in nutritional benefits in foods (eg. an organic, fresh banana compared to a bad quality banana). Also, the way we each absorb nutrients differs from person to person, thus we cannot know which foods we personally are benefiting from and which are rejected or only minimally absorbed by our system.
How A Blood Test Helps You Discover Your Nutritional Status
According to the majority of dieticians and nutritionists, the best way to assess your nutritional status is by testing your blood. Blood tests are the only reliable way to accurately measure your nutrient levels.
Nutrients play a crucial role in nearly every physiological activity in your body, from immunity and metabolism to digestion and hormone balance. If left unchecked, nutritional imbalances can lead to symptoms such as weight loss or gain, muscle and joint pain or muscle mass and/or bone density loss, fatigue, poor memory and low focus, insomnia and even life-threatening diseases.
Testing your blood enables physicians to diagnose physical or psychological imbalances, disease and pains, allergies, anxiety, high-stress levels and insomnia. Nutrition blood testing evaluates the levels of micronutrients and macronutrients in the blood, which help doctors diagnose nutritional deficiencies. The nutrients that are tested are: Macronutrients (proteins/amino acids), fats (saturated fats, trans fats, unsaturated fats), carbohydrates (sugar, starch, fibre), water; Micronutrients such as minerals (calcium, iron, potassium, sodium, magnesium, etc.); Vitamins (B, C, A, D, E, K) and Antioxidants.
Decode your health and discover your nutritional status by ordering a Biostarks blood test kit here . The process is fast, painless and easy. Use the test in the privacy of your own home, and send it to us and our labs in Geneva, which will produce a thorough, information-packed nutritional status report for you and along with customized, practical, easy-to-follow and empowering tips by our experts designed to meet all your needs. Click here to order your test kit now.