The Nutrient Gaps You Didn’t Know You Had

Are you unknowingly missing key nutrients in your diet? Dr Carlene Starck joins us to break down her Priority Nutrients research, revealing the vitamins and minerals Australians and New Zealanders are lacking. From energy to immune health, these hidden micronutrient inadequacies could be holding you back. Tune in to find out what your diet might be missing—and how to fix it!

We cover: 

• 3:00 Why this research was undertaken 
• 6.00 Common nutrient inadequacies in Aus/NZ 
• 8.00 Protein intake target - should it be higher? 
• 9:45 Are the Nutrient Reference Values (NRVs) outdated? 
• 11:45 Nutrients that have Suggested Dietary Targets (SDTs) 
• 13:15 Methodological approach of the research 
• 29:10 Key findings from the research
• 31:30 Vitamin D deficiency in Aus/NZ
• 32:30 Calcium targets, absorption and what do we know to be true about calcium and bone health and calcium and fractures. 
• 39:20 Calcium bioavailability - how is this researched? 
• 41:00 How to get vitamin D from food?
• 45:00 How and when to get your vitamin D status assessed 
• 47:30 Omega-3 intake 
• 50:00 Interesting omega-3 findings 
• 51:30 Adult men - the forgotten group? 
• 53:10 Teenagers - 15 inadequate nutrients! 
• 54:00 Findings in females 19-45 years 
• 56:20 How to know if you are not getting enough of certain vitamins and minerals?
• 60:00 How does exercise impact vitamin and mineral needs?
• 62:45 How can someone maintain healthy eating habits while still enjoying what they eat? 
• 65:45 How can your research findings be used in the real world? 

One-liners you don’t want to miss:

“We know that calcium intake is low, what we didn’t know was just how low and how severe that inadequacy was.” 

“It looks like higher intakes of vitamin C are really beneficial of 150-200mg/day. It doesn’t sound very much when you can go and buy vitamin C tablets which are 1000mg/day but the key with that is our body can’t absorb all of that at one time.”

“People are only over-consuming in nutrients of concern.”

“How we live, where we live, our lifestyles, our overall diet composition, how much exercise we are doing; all of these things really effect magnesium intake.” 

“Your body is not going to run out of calcium in terms of your blood levels. But what happens is when you don’t have enough calcium in your blood it will start to leach out of your bones.” 

“Vitamin D intake will help to decrease fracture risk. We need sufficient vitamin D to make sure we can adequately absorb calcium.” 

“Iron, vitamin D, calcium and the omega-3s, if you are exercising and very active. If you are concerned about priority nutrients those are the four. The other one that is also highlighted is selenium, that’s because it has antioxidant function. Selenium and vitamin E also work together, so getting both of these in.”

Reference
Starck CS, Cassettari T, Beckett E, Marshall S, Fayet-Moore F. Priority nutrients to address malnutrition and diet-related diseases in Australia and New Zealand. Front Nutr. 2024 Mar 13;11:1370550. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1370550. PMID: 38544756; PMCID: PMC10966131.

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