Why Ordinary Nutrition Isn’t Enough

Americans appear to be so overfed, but undernourished, it seems impossible that we aren’t getting enough nutrients. How it can be? But study after study has shown that most of us don’t get adequate amounts of key vitamins and minerals. How can it be true that ordinary nutrition is not enough?

Most of us aren’t eating enough of the right things. We eat a lot of what I would call non-food: fast food, over-processed food, food with highly refined sugar, simple carbohydrates, preservatives, and large quantities of trans fats. We ingest stimulants that actually get in the way of our bodies’ ability to absorb vitamins and minerals. In fact, some foods are anti-nutrients - meaning they take more nutrients to process them in our bodies, than the value we receive from them! That's sad. It's discouraging.

Another reason is that our fishing and farming methods have changed drastically. In the past our harvests fully embodied the vital nutrients of the soil and sea, and those nutrients nourished us fully. Now we pump pesticides, inorganic feeds and fertilizers, and waste–treated water to grow a lot of food quickly and cheaply in soil and water that would otherwise be unable to support life. These practices produce crops that are big and colorful but nutritionally depleted, sometimes harmful, and mostly tasteless, too! (Think of what store-bought tomatoes taste like now compared to when you were a child). I was shocked to know that our soil in US depleted from 1906 to today in 40 times. It means it will take 40 times of nutrients to get the same results. Since soils are empty and depleted, so plants don’t have enough minerals in them. So is our body. Research has verified that crops cultivated using organic methods are not only free of the toxins our bodies don’t need, but superior in the micronutrients we do.

We also import our food from vast distances, so it must be variously wrapped, coated, a sprayed chemically to keep it from spoiling. We buy lettuce in a bag because it’s easier than washing it. But did you know that pre-bagged salad greens go through “post-harvest processing” in which the greens are exposed to a variety of gases before the bag is sealed to ensure crispness for weeks? By the time you make your salad, the vital enzyme activity of those greens is only a memory.

Vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates and yes, fats, are critical to a healthy body. Every day your body makes about 2 billion new cells. They need certain raw food to do that. Our body uses whole foods to repair, build, and promote many biological functions that are vital to health. If those foods are missing, how is the body can make strong, healthy, functional cells? Every organ and tissue in your body has to be rebuilt continually. Without raw materials, slowly over time, our bodies start to break down. The word "degeneration" means that you are breaking down faster than you are rebuilding.

I would like to first emphasize that nothing can replace the nutritional value of real wholesome food. You always want to remember "real food is the best food." If we don't eat the real food, we should supplement our diets with the next option - concentrated food - whole food supplements.

Between the poor nutritional quality of our diets and the nutritional burdens added by modern stressors, you can understand why I tell every person that she or he should be taking Whole Food Concentrated Vitamins and Minerals every day. This small step translates into a huge leap for our bodies, which after all are miraculously good at healing injury and preventing illness if they are given adequate support.

There are always two sides to a good debate, and trying to give Americans a one-size-fits-all solution in the form of a multivitamin is no one’s idea of a solution. But one thing I do know is that a daily, top-of-the-line multivitamin may do you a world of good. At my practice and on a personal level, I see on a regular basis the dramatic positive effect taking a good multivitamin has had on my patients, my family, and my friends.