How Different Situations Affect Our Nutritional Needs
Our nutritional needs are affected by a range of factors. Depending on the demands we put on our bodies and our lifestyle choices we may need to think about supplements differently. At Wild Nutrition, we often get asked about this subject. Our Head of Nutrition, Lorna Driver-Davies, talks through some common situations which may increase our nutritional needs. We will explore some of the demands your body is juggling and what these demands can look like.
- 7 Situations Which May Increase Your Nutritional Needs
- How Wild Nutrition Can Help You Manage Your Nutritional Needs
7 Situations which may increase your nutritional needs
The following are some really common everyday examples as well as one off examples of situations which affect our nutritional needs.
- Stress
- Busy with Commitments
- Recovering from Illness
- Pregnancy
- Post-Pregnancy & Recovering from Birth
- Recovering from Injury
- Staying Active
1. Stress
Our nutritional needs can be affected by stress. This is a really common situation and something that we are probably all familiar with. What stress might look like and feel like can vary for different people. Therefore, the different organs and systems in the body can be affected in different ways in order to cope with the stress. This in turn affects our nutritional needs and our body’s demand for supplements.
2. Busy with commitments
If you have a busy or hectic kind of life this can alter your nutritional needs. Whether that is your work life, family life, social life or juggling a combination. Again, this is a very common situation that affects many people’s nutrition levels. When you have a busy lifestyle, this means that you're going to have higher needs for nutrition but also that your body is probably going to be losing some nutrients much more quickly as well. This can make it harder for you to build up nutritional reserves.
3. Recovering from illness
Another situation which may affect your nutritional needs is if you are recovering from illness. When you are working on getting your body back to where it was and feeling stronger, your body will prioritise where it sends nutrients to. The body will send the nutrients you take in from food and supplements to the part of the body which needs it most. For example, if you've been recovering from an infection, the body will prioritise nutrients for the immune system. This is perhaps why your sleep and energy aren't as good or why you notice that your menstrual cycle changed that month. Your body is being really clever in giving out more nutrients to the bodily functions which need it most.
4. Pregnancy
Pregnancy is a good example of a positive situation which changes your nutritional needs. When you’re pregnant you're going to be giving out more nutrients to support your growing baby. Again the body is very cleverly prioritising the baby. In this situation when your body is being more demanded upon you're going to need to pay attention to your nutritional needs and look after your health a bit more than usual.
5. Post-pregnancy & recovering from birth
Following on from pregnancy, your nutritional needs after-birth are likely to change again. If you are a new mum, recovering from birth or breastfeeding your body is experiencing new demands. What’s more, with babies waking up at night and you getting less sleep, your body is being even more demanded upon. Therefore, meeting your nutritional needs with the right diet and supplements is going to be very important.
6. Recovering from injury
Another example when your nutritional needs might change could be if you are injured. Say you twist your ankle or break your leg, your body will prioritise remedying that area, in a similar way to how it will support the immune system when you are ill. If you are injured, the body will expend nutrients helping your muscles and healing the bone over and above everything else. Your nutritional needs may change to take this into account. This is a more one-off example of a situation where our nutritional needs may change.
7. Staying active
If you're into fitness and physically active, either through work or sports and leisure, this is another example of a positive situation that can affect your nutritional needs. Say you're playing tennis multiple times per week and you're running around working hard, you are probably going to need to take in more nutrients to support your body compared to somebody more sedentary. This is an instance where consistency with taking supplements is really key because your body is so demanded upon. If you have gaps in taking your supplements, you're not going to be giving your body the support that it needs each day and you might struggle when it is pulled upon again to function during activity.
How Wild Nutrition can help you manage your nutritional needs
If you're confused about what supplements to take to best support your nutritional needs, Wild Nutrition can help. We offer a fantastic video consultation service. Simply book an online nutritionist appointment for 15 or 45 minutes and talk about your health and what demands you have. Our expert can then work out what supplements you need and we should get you feeling better in no time.
