Vitamin Supplements..?

Hi vidasana - welcome to Healthy Pages :wave:

Interesting question. Lovely to hear you are interested in Nutrition and reading Holford's Optimum Nutrition Bible. All he publishes is based on science and the loss of nutrients from our food in the last 70 years is astonishing. [url]Figures from the Ministry of Agriculture[/url] (as it was then) support this, mostly loss of minerals - up to 90% loss in some cases. This is due partly to the pressures farmers are under to produce as much as possible from their soil which doesn't allow fallow recuperation times, and use of artificial fertilisers which lock up some of the micronutrients in the soil (eg zinc and selenium).

Added to this is the storage times, where the vitamin, enzyme and antioxidant content is lost when food is kept in cold storage - sometimes weeks or even months - so that there can be a constant supply all the year round of a variety of foods.

Processing removes many nutrients from our foods. For instance, boxes of breakfast cereals proclaim they have added this, that and t'other. Well, what a fine sales gimmick :rolleyes: - they don't tell you that the cereal has been stripped of all nutrients bar the carbohydrate part first - so by law they have to add some minerals and some vitamins. So white bread, flour, sugar and rice are a no-no for anyone interested in their health.

Then there is the fact that many of our vegetables are produced in sterile polythene tunnels which are pest and pathogen free. This means the plants are not attacked and so do not have the impetus to produce antibodies to protect themselves, so we then do not have the needed building blocks for our own bodies to protect ourselves from pathogens. Hence organic foods will have more micronutrients and phytonutrients because they are produced in more natural conditions and with fewer pesticides.

You'll find a lot of references at the back of Holford's book - do look them up. He certainly changed my understanding of what we are eating now and how it has changed.

And yes, the daily vitamin and omega oils is probably a must, but make sure it is a quality one that is actually absorbable and functions as it should - so much of what is sold in the chemist or supermarket is cheapo or artificial forms that may just get expelled without being absorbed or don't function as they should.

And if you get fed up with taking it - give it a break. But when I do that inevitably I come down with 'something' that lays me low for a few days, so I've learned to keep it as regular as possible.

One thing you can do is to try juicing. Lots of info if you google 'Juicing for health'.

Another thing to take into consideration is our genetic blueprint . Perhaps many think that when one is born they are starting over from scratch so to speak with a blank body / health canvas .

What I mean is that if our parents and our grandparents / ancestors were deficient in minerals then we are born deficient . 😮

In that respect we need more than our 5 a day (lol) we may need 10 a day 😀

Each individual is unique and that uniqueness will reflect upon what that individual needs to require and attain optimum health .

Another point to raise would be that even though one may need 10 times more oils or magnesium than the next person for example they may only be able to absorb 6 times the amount needed instead of 10 .

One also needs to understand how vitamins and minerals work together and how they don't work together as at times they counteract each other .

Personally speaking if I jump up and down, I make a rattle sound . That will be the supplements that I take . 😀

x dazzle x

In that respect we need more than our 5 a day (lol) we may need 10 a day 😀

x dazzle x

Other countries do specify more than 5 a day. I have been told it was set at 5 here because they felt it was a reachable target - and to put it at 7 or higher (which is probably what we need) would put people off from even trying..

Other countries do specify more than 5 a day. I have been told it was set at 5 here because they felt it was a reachable target - and to put it at 7 or higher (which is probably what we need) would put people off from even trying..

I think Tashanie that there are many guidelines regarding what is 'safe' or what are the correct amounts of vitamins/minerals/fruits etc that one can consume that are wide of the mark .

I agree in some respect when you speak of reachable targets . I mean if an individual eats 5 vegetables and 5 fruits a day on top of other foods they would be eating non stop 🙂

What I have ascertained though regarding the amount that one can consume regarding vitamins and minerals varies massively and are wide of the mark .

Adelle Davis a past nutritionist and someone that my mum swears by recommends perhaps 10 times the amount of certain vitamins to consume than what is recommended today .

In away and taking into consideration those that are born deficient of certain minerals that smoke and drink and don't eat a healthy balanced diet are not scratching the surface of attaining a healthy body when they take 3 yeast tablets for example with every meal . lol . when what they need is more likely to be around the 50 mark .

x dazzle x

Hi Daz

Yes the so-called RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) or Reference Nutrient Intake as it is now called, is the minimum people should have to avoid showing symptomatic signs of deficiency. Many people on the Standard Western Diet don't even reach these minimum standards of intake, and what they do consume is often in imbalance.

The optimum nutrient intake is the amount the body needs for optimal function. Very few people indeed reach this level of intake except by supplementation.

The extra nutrients needed by anyone who is a fitness fanatic or who is ill (eg with infectious or inflammatory disease) requires far higher levels, these needing to be assessed by someone knowledgeable in nutrient requirements. Too much of anything can cause problems and may inhibit the intake of other nutrients, so it requires careful assessment and monitoring.

As for inheriting nutrient imbalances, yes, and the continuation of these imbalances in families who make poor diet choices is sad to see. It is being found by biochemists and microbiologists (nutrigenomics - a new scientific format) that certain foods and the overall dietary balance can switch on and off gene expression, changing how the body functions. Re-education is a vital necessity but many are unwilling to change or learn.

Thank you all, what an interesting conversation!

I do agree that the so called RDA's seem to be the bare minimum, and as we are all different, how can they possibly meet our individual needs...

I was very interested in what CarolineN said about Juicing for Health, I will def be googling that as I would love to start off the day with a super duper healthy juice! 😀

I will carry on reading and learning, after all, if we don't have our health.. what do we have..?

Take care,

🙂

When searching on google i found an interesting book about vitamins and minerals. The book is Prescription for nutritional healing”, written by Phyllis A. Balch. So , I read that most vitamins need other vitamins and minerals to be successfully assimilated by our body.
In this matter, i think it is very important not just taking one or two vitamin supplements, but something more complex, containing a great range of nutrients.

Hi Austin - welcome to HP 🙂

I have found Phyllis Balch's Prescription for Nutritional Healing is most useful. She covers a wide range of possibles but her advice needs to be tempered with knowledge and understanding - I often look up information in her book first then cross-reference her advice with my other tomes!

And yes, vitamins and minerals do work as a team, so if taking a daily supplement for prevention it is necessary to take as wide a range as possible, plus omega oils. On the other hand if a nutrient is shown to be lacking this should be added to the general supplement. Determining whether a person is short of a specific nutrient should be done by someone with training - eg a registered [url]Nutritional Therapist[/url]. Taking a single nutrient can disrupt the balance in the body.

There is a lot of talk about the importance of vitamins, but it was shown back in the 1930's that we cannot live healthily without an adequate of minerals - which is why the loss of these nutrients in our food in the last 70 years (see my post no 2 below) could be a major concern. Adequate vitamin intake is still vital though.

Thank you, CarolineN , about your great posts in this topic 🙂