To lose weight – make sure to focus on your diet’s energy distribution, Q10, and three minerals

Forget about keeping track of calories if you want to shape up. Weight loss is about eating the right kinds of food, and ensuring an optimal blend of carbohydrates, fat, and protein that guarantees satiety for four to six hours so you are not tempted by quick energy fixes. Continue reading and find out more about why it is so important to get plenty of Q10, iodine, selenium, and chromium for permanent results. The question is, why is it difficult to get enough from a normal diet? And why are so many people suffering from weight problems caused by metabolic disorders and insulin resistance?

The energy in food comes from carbohydrate, fats, and protein, and we need vitamins, minerals, and Q10 to burn calories. As a general rule, it is essential to eat the right foods and limit your food intake. However, it is every bit as important, perhaps even more so, to ensure the right balance between carbohydrates, fat, and protein in all your main meals.
Karsten Kristiansen, Professor of molecular biology, has conducted research and found that:

Mice must eat seven times more to gain a single gram when they eat plant oil in combination with protein compared with when they consume plant oil together with carbohydrates (sugar).
In other words, protein is important for their metabolism (combustion), and carbohydrates make calories more likely to turn into fat deposits. The more carbohydrates, the worse it gets.

It is therefore important to get plenty of protein with all your main meals. Reduce your carbohydrate intake and avoid refined carbs. Choose carbohydrates from coarse foods such as whole-grain and vegetables, and make sure to get healthy fats from e.g. avocado, nuts, kernels, and olive oil.

How do Q10, iodine, selenium, and chromium affect your waistline and weight?

Get the answers by reading the following or by clicking on the different nutrients:

• Q10 for energy turnover and fat burning
• Thyroid hormones require iodine
• Selenium activates the thyroid hormones
• Chromium for stable blood sugar levels

Q10 for energy turnover and fat burning

Q10 is a coenzyme that helps cells convert calories to energy with help from oxygen. Our primary Q10 source is our endogenous synthesis of the compound. The body’s own production gradually decreases from the age of 20 years, and many people notice at the age of 40 or 50 that their vitality drops.
When trying to lose weight, it is vital to have enough energy and surplus to feel motivated to change your dietary habits and lifestyle in general.

Did you know that meat and fish contain carnitine, an amino acid that helps channel fats into the cells?

Muscle enzyme and Q10 contribute to the body’s fat metabolism

Muscles burn fat and carbohydrate as part of their energy turnover, and they contain an enzyme called UCP3, which contributes to the actual burning of fat. Studies show that one can activate UCP3 with moderate physical activity that does not cause exhaustion (aerobic combustion) combined with supplements of Q10. This is useful knowledge for anyone who does not have the stamina for vigorous training. Therefore, make sure to include in your daily life as much moderate physical activity as possible such as walking, climbing the stairs, cleaning house, bicycling, dancing, and use every opportunity to get up from your chair to boost UCP3 levels in your muscles. The goal is 5,000 to 10,000 steps every single day. Remember, it is the total weekly number of steps that counts in the long run. It may be a good idea to use a pedometer.

Thyroid hormones require iodine

The hormones of the thyroid gland stimulate cellular oxygen uptake. They have a direct influence on the metabolism, and you can compare them to the air supply of a wood burning stove. The thyroid gland produces two different thyroid hormones:

• T3 with three iodine atoms (the active hormone)
• T4 with four iodine atoms (the passive hormone)

It is important to get enough iodine from the diet to enable the thyroid gland to produce its thyroid hormones. Good sources include seaweed and algae, fish, shellfish, fish sauce, eggs, and sea salt. It can be difficult to get enough iodine from the diet, and it turns out that halogen minerals such as fluoride, bromine, and chloride impair the body’s iodine status. Lack of iodine in the diet often contributes to the increasing rate of metabolic disorders that are linked to overweight. It is also important to get enough selenium, as selenium and iodine work in close collaboration.

Selenium activates the thyroid hormones

In order to activate the metabolism in the body’s different tissues, a selenium-containing enzyme removes an iodine atom from T4, thereby converting it to active T3. This process adjusts itself to the body’s needs. Other selenium-containing enzymes work as important antioxidants that protect the thyroid gland against inflammation, which plays a key role in some of the most common metabolic disorders such as Hashimoto’s disease and Graves disease.

How do we get enough selenium?

The average selenium intake of Europeans is lower than the recommended intake level (RI) – especially because of altered dietary habits and nutrient depletion of the soil. According to Danish research, even if you eat fish (a very good selenium source) five days a week, it is difficult to saturate selenoprotein P, which is considered a useful marker for the body’s selenium status. Many people can benefit from taking a selenium supplement. The best source is organic selenium yeast, which contains the same variety of different selenium species as a balanced diet with many different selenium-containing foods.

Chromium and stable blood sugar

It is important to have stable blood sugar if you want to lose weight and maintain your weight loss. As mentioned earlier, make sure to eat main meals that are rich in protein. Also, make sure to get enough chromium, a trace element that plays an essential role in the metabolism of carbohydrates.

Chromium improves the effect of insulin

When we ingest dietary carbohydrate, it is broken down into glucose that is absorbed in the blood as blood sugar (glucose). The pancreas then produces insulin, a hormone that works by channeling glucose into the cells. Figuratively speaking, insulin is like a door key. At the same time, chromium (in a complex with other compounds) helps activate this “key”, whereby the cells are sure to receive the optimal amount of sugar for their energy turnover.

Chromium and elevated insulin levels set the stage for overweight and diabetes

If the body lacks chromium, the pancreas is forced to produce more insulin as a way of helping sugar enter the cells. The elevated insulin production may eventually lead to insulin resistance, a very common condition where the cells’ ability to take up sugar is reduced. This also explains why people feel hungry, as only a limited amount of the carbohydrate they ingest is converted into energy inside the cells. This can easily turn into a vicious cycle with constant hunger, fatigue, and weight problems.
In addition, because of the elevated insulin levels, excess blood sugar is stored as fat, typically in the abdominal region.
As time goes by, there is an increased risk of developing metabolic syndrome (a combination of insulin resistance, abdominal fat, hypertension, and elevated lipid levels in the blood). This is a widespread problem and an early stage of type 2 diabetes.

What causes a chromium deficiency?

Consumption of white bread, pizza, French fries, cookies, soft drinks, and other fast carbohydrates causes blood sugar levels to rise rapidly and drop again soon after. At the same time, as much as 20 percent of the body’s chromium in the blood is lost. For that reason, chromium deficiencies are very common among people with unstable blood sugar and diabetes.
A chromium deficiency may also be caused by alcohol, coffee, and other stimulants that have a huge impact on blood sugar levels. Other contributing factors are pregnancy, lack of chromium in the soil, and too little vitamin C and fiber in the diet.

Natural chromium sources and different recommendations

Good chromium sources are mushrooms, beans, lentils, whole-grain, brewer’s yeast, black pepper and apricot. In Denmark, the reference intake (RI) level is 50 micrograms, while it is 200 micrograms in the United States

References:

Thomas Hoffmann. Hold fiskeolie væv fra sukker. Videnskab.dk 2009
https://videnskab.dk/krop-sundhed/hold-fiskeolie-vaek-fra-sukker

Pernille Lund: Q10 – fra helsekost til epokegørende medicin. Ny videnskab 2014

Editorial team. Selenium deficiency promoted by climate change. ETHzüric 2017 https://www.ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2017/02/selenium-deficiency-promoted-by-climate-change.html

Lutz Shomburg. Dietary Selenium and Human Health. Nutrients 2017

Pernille Lund. Sådan får du styr på dit blodsukker og din vægt. Ny Videnskab 2013