Do I Need Nutritional Supplements?

Food has always provided humans with all the nourishment they needed. What is the problem today?

There are several problems, actually. Let's start with food adulteration and refinement. In centuries past, humans have either gathered or hunted their food - going to the grocery store wasn't an option. Most people assume that everything edible in the store is food, and that is simply not the case.

We have plastics masquerading as fats, for heaven's sake! Margarine, anyone? We have powders containing who-knows-what masquerading as eggs, broth, cheese, etc. We have breads doused with chemicals that can sit on a shelf for weeks. We have liquids that dissolve teeth being the most popular drinks. I could go on, but it's too painful. And I haven't even touched the GMO issue!

An educated shopper can weave through the fake foods and land on the organic section. All seems well, right? Do you know how many feet of soil that food was grown on? You don't? Then we have a problem. When western civilization landed on the American continent, the land was covered with several feet of rich soil. It was so deep that the plow would sink and get stuck in it. Whatever seed was dropped on it turned into a plant.

What is left today in most places is about six inches of soil, and nobody knows for how long such a thin layer will be able to support life, especially at the rate most of it is being doused with chemicals. The point is, if your food (plants and the animals that eat those plants) comes from unpolluted, deep soil, and you are eating all the foods your ancestors ate, congratulations - you don't need to supplement.

Why do I mention the foods your ancestors ate? Because we have become as refined as our foods. Think of foods your grandparents loved, such as animal organs, and you are totally grossed out. Just because you don't like something doesn't mean that the biological need has gone away.

Even when we eat 100% organic food, we are not getting the nutrient density that was present decades ago. For example, the amount of iron that was present in one cup of spinach decades ago now takes sixty five cups of spinach. The amount of food we would have to consume today to get the same quantity of nutrients we used to get is staggering and impossible to achieve for most of us.

Compounding the problem is the ever increasing load of chemicals (pesticides, herbicides, cosmetics, vaccines, drugs, food additives, etc.) our bodies have to deal with, which causes nutrient depletion in the attempt to neutralize them. That means we need a lot more nutrients now than we did several decades ago, or even just a few years ago, but are getting less.

How do we go about making up for the lost nutrient density of our foods? It seems logical that the more we concentrate the food, the greater its nutrient density. The problem is then in the method, because any drastic measures (extreme temperatures, chemicals, etc.) destroy intricate living processes in the foods. Unfortunately, it is quite easy to turn a living food into an inert substance, but impossible to reverse it.

The solution is in both, eating living organic foods as much as possible, and supplementing with equally living supplements. Unfortunately, most supplements are synthetic, creating a greater problem for the body. If they boast high potency, large number of units of measurement, and a list of ingredients that are not real food, you are not getting real vitamins, but just impostors - no matter the brand name. We must be detectives and find out how supplements are made before we purchase them.

For personal consultations regarding the health, nutrition, and supplementation for you and your animals, the author can be reached through her website at http://shininghealth.net/
Her latest book The Forbidden Truth About Vitamins is available at http://www.fastpencil.com/publications/4872-The-Forbidden-Truth-About-Vitamins and other booksellers

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