even when we're asleep it's like our bodies are never completely at rest because while we're dreaming away oxygen's got to get delivered hormones are being created wounds are being healed and bones are being built and these things that happen while we're asleep while we're awake a lot of it is with thanks to minerals so that's what we're going to chat about today how we can increase our bodies absorption of certain minerals like iron calcium magnesium zinc selenium iodine these are really essential nutrients that come from soil and they're absorbed into plants as they grow and
those plants we then eat and with a few simple tips and hacks we can actually increase our body's absorption of some of these minerals so that the body can keep growing and healing and finding balance and today's video is in partnership with the incredible folks over at audible we're going to chat more about them at the end for now let's dive right in [Music] iron is a nutrient we've all heard of and it's super important especially because of the role that it plays in our blood cells helping oxygen get carried around to our lungs and
brains and other tissues that might need it and considering that iron deficiency is one of the most common nutrient deficiencies in the world i think it helps to know which plant-based foods are high in iron if you're interested in a more comprehensive list we actually have a free pdf for you can check it out with a link in the description box but for now let's just say iron rich foods are things like lentils and beans some grains seeds tofu and loads of leafy greens so if you think you might not be getting enough iron a
really quick tip is to actually just combine iron-rich foods together with vitamin c rich foods vitamin c helps to convert the iron into a form that's more readily absorbed by the body sometimes increasing iron absorption by as much as five to six times which is huge and when we think of vitamin c rich foods i think a lot of us think of citrus fruits which is true but i don't know if you knew this a single red bell pepper contains three times more vitamin c than a lemon pretty cool right [Music] so let's explore some
ways that we can increase iron absorption with a few sample meals we'll start off with this breakfast here which has got some iron rich oats and seeds in it and if we were to add just a few pieces of some fresh vitamin c rich strawberry slices bam more iron would be absorbed moving on we've got a burrito here that's got some iron-rich tofu and beans in it and if we wanted to increase the iron absorption we would just add a little bit of some chopped red bell pepper to the top now we know it's high
in vitamin c bam more iron will be absorbed and finally we've got a really warm comforting curry that's got some iron rich lentils and spinach in it and if we wanted to increase the iron absorption we could just squeeze some lemon juice right over top and i think you get the idea now one little quick tip here or something that's kind of just good to keep in mind is that vitamin c is destroyed or at least some of it is destroyed when it's cooking so we could have added this lemon juice straight into the curry
while it was cooking but if you want to reap the maximum benefits try to enjoy your vitamin c rich foods in their raw form so where vitamin c helps to increase iron absorption tannins do the opposite and tannins are these compounds that are usually found in things like black tea or coffee or red wine so if you think you might benefit from increased iron absorption it might be an idea to enjoy these drinks in between meals as opposed to with meals sprouting feels like it's a modern trend but it comes from some pretty ancient practices
i learned to sprout many years ago i've been doing it since especially with lentils and mung beans because i find that they're really easy to work with and we can think of these legumes as these sleeping seeds that have the potential to wake up because when we sprout them the nutrient and antioxidant content in them flourish the enzymes come to life which make certain minerals like iron and calcium magnesium and zinc all of them become a lot more available for absorption and even amino acids which are proteins in their most digestible form even those become
more available for absorption when we sprout so how do you sprout i'll walk you through the steps i first actually like to sterilize the jars by pouring some boiling hot water into them let it sit for a minute or so and then once the jars are drained and cooled we can then add to it about half of a cup of dry legumes we do actually want loads of space in here because the lentils are going to expand a lot as they sprout and then we can rinse the lentils and drain it of any residue before
we then totally submerge it all in water and then we can let the jars sit overnight so that the seeds have a chance to absorb the water and rehydrate so in the morning you're going to notice that the lentils have absorbed a whole bunch of water they're taking up a lot more volume in the jar which is perfect that's what we want now what we're going to do is we're going to drain the water that's in here then fill the jar up with some fresh water just to rinse the lentils and then we're going to
drain it one more time we want to make sure that as much liquid that can drip out from the jar does drip out because we don't want the drained lentils to be sitting in a pool of water so this is perfect at this point we can then cover the jars with a cheesecloth a fabric coffee filter just needs to be able to breathe and then we can let it sit on the counter away from any direct sunlight because that can cause it to dry out and then twice a day we want to repeat the process
of rinsing and draining the lentils this is really really important after about a day you're going to see that the lentils are already starting to sprout which is really cute and then after about three to four days the lentils are already ready and when they are you can spread them out onto a clean kitchen cloth for about an hour so just to dry out before you then store these in the fridge where they can be kept for up to five days and then you can add these sprouts to just about anything robin and i always
like to add it to our salads or into our stir fries on soup is also really nice because it's got this really earthy crunchy filling delicious kind of taste and just a little note as well the humid conditions that's needed for these seeds to sprout and to grow also happens to be the perfect conditions for certain bacteria to grow as well which is fine if you've got a healthy immune system but if you're elderly pregnant or wanting to feed this to toddlers i definitely actually recommend cooking it up first you're still going to get all
of the beneficial minerals that way too selenium is a mineral and a very powerful antioxidant that's needed in super tiny amounts but how much of it we get from our diets actually depends on the quality of the soil in which the plants grew and in some places it's awesome and in other places not so much so let's introduce you to the brazil nut technically it's a seed but we call it a nut and it's pretty much the boss when it comes to selenium just half of one large brazil nut a day gives us our selenium
needs for the entire day so the hack here is to maybe consider enjoying a single brazil nut a day it's something that robin and i try to do most mornings just having it with our breakfast we always consider it like a little supplement but it is good to know that there is such a thing as too much of a good thing because selenium in excess is considered toxic so i wouldn't recommend going out and buying an actual selenium supplement and maybe limit your brazil nuts to no more than about three or four a day and
in case you don't love brazil nuts or can't find them then whole grain pastas and grains and nuts and seeds are pretty good sources too iodine like selenium is needed in really small amounts it's a really important component in thyroid hormones and so therefore it's really important for our health most of the world's iodine actually comes from or is found in the ocean and whether or not crops have iodine in them that's absorbed from the soil varies a lot from region to region so for those following a plant-based lifestyle one of the highest sources of
iodine-containing foods is seaweed but the amounts in seaweed can vary a lot and considering that it's not something that most of us eat and enjoy every day we kind of need to look for a more consistent and reliable source of iodine and for a lot of us that's going to actually be salt but not just any salt we want iodized salts meaning that iodine has been added to the salt and to be sure we've got to read the label and if it doesn't say it's iodized then it likely isn't so i totally recognize that this
here says yodium which looks a lot like sodium and that's very confusing but in dutch that means iodine so this has got iodine in it yay now in case you're nervous about adding salt to your food there's a few things that are kind of helpful to know first is that you only need about a third of a teaspoon of iodized sea salt or table salt a day to meet your iodine needs so it's really not that much at all and then it also helps to know that most people most of us for the average person
over 80 of our salt intake actually comes from processed foods so think of anything that comes in a box bag can jar even things like soy sauce or takeaway those typically the salts in them aren't iodized so if we're looking to be more mindful and decrease our salt intake we can start with processed foods first but adding a little sprinkle of either iodized sea salt or table salt to our food while we're cooking can actually be a good thing and as with most things and most minerals that we've chatted about today we really don't want
to get excess of this one because it can be harmful in really high amounts so don't go supplementing with iodine unless your doctor has told you to do so um and food first that's always a good approach but in case you're interested in learning more about different kinds of minerals like aluminum and copper and iron and how actually getting too much iron can be harmful for our health especially our brain health i'd highly recommend checking out an audiobook one that i just recently listened to it's so so good it's by dr neil barnard and it's
called power foods for the brain he's a physician so he shares a whole bunch of evidence-based research on different foods that we should be enjoying more of and which ones we should perhaps limit or avoid in order to empower and strengthen our brain function if you want to get this audiobook for free you can by visiting the link in the description box below or go to audible.com forward slash pickup lines or if you prefer you can get any other audio book that you'd like instead plus you're going to get a 30 day free membership of
audible which now means that you get access to something called the audible plus catalog this is where members can go to get access to thousands of audible originals audiobooks podcasts guided fitness and meditation programs included in your membership since they started it up i've actually downloaded 15 new audiobooks at no extra fee just by being a member which i think is so so cool these are like audiobooks i've wanted for quite a while so check out the link in the description box below to learn about that and there's one other mineral we actually didn't discuss
today which is calcium and that's just because we've done an entire dedicated video on it so i'll link it for you here and at the end of today's video in case you want to check it out and i think that's it for today thanks so much for hanging with me really appreciate it hope you learned something new and that you enjoyed pick up lime signing off i'll see you in the next video refreshing and country crunchy country because it's got a really nice refreshing and country texture country texture
