6 Unexpected Signs That You May Have A Vitamin Deficiency

When you’re on the road, getting healthy food can be a challenge. Truck stops are filled with junk food, and cooking in your truck can be daunting and time consuming if you don’t have much food preparation experience.

But if you don’t get enough of the vitamins and minerals that your body needs, it can cause some unusual symptoms over time. If you’re experiencing an of these symptoms, you might want to consider giving your diet an overhaul. Always remember, if altering your diet doesn’t make a difference in your symptoms, it’s time to talk to your doctor.

Do You Recognize Any Of These Vitamin Deficiency Symptoms?

1. Numbness or tingling in your hands. That pins-and-needles feeling in your fingers can be caused by a B-Vitamin deficiency. Try adding more poultry, spinach, eggs, or beans to your diet.
2. Cramping in your legs and feet. These symptoms are often caused by a diet lacking in potassium. Bananas are one of the best sources of potassium, but you can also get it in apples, almonds, and dark leafy greens.
3. You have weird cravings for non-food items. If you’re craving ice chips, chalk, or dirt (sounds weird, but it’s more common than you think!), you may be suffering from a lack of iron. You can get more iron by eating red meat, poultry, sea food, beans, or spinach.
4. Painful or dry cracking at the corners of your mouth. If you’ve got cracking at the side of your mouth that Chapstick just can’t cure, it could mean you’re not getting enough iron, zinc, or B-12. Try to get more spinach, sea food, and nuts into your diet.
5. Nails that break easily. Low iron levels often cause weak fingernails and toenails. Get more lean protein, beans, and (once again!) spinach on your plate pronto.
6. You’re sad for no reason. One of the most common causes for a blue mood is Vitamin D deficiency. Either try to get more sunshine, which helps your body to make it’s own Vitamin D, consider a supplement, or up your intake of salmon, tofu, fortified milk, or fortified cereals. And remember that if you choose to get more sun, you don’t need to tan or burn your skin to get more Vitamin D. You only need to expose your skin for about half the amount of time that it would take your skin to redden and start to burn.

Sources:
GQ
Bustle
Prevention
Shape