Secret 37: ‘Supplement Your Diet’ or better, 'Eat Your Colors!’

Supplements: do we really need them?

Secret 37 is titled: “Supplement Your Diet”. The premise is that vitamins and minerals are essential, we are not obtaining the necessary amounts via our diet, so taking these in synthetic form in doses much higher than any of our ancestors ever have is essential to our health.

First of all, the five long-living people described by Sally Beare are not reading without glasses at an old age because the supplement industry has discovered their existence.  In fact, the centenarians are healthier than specimens adhering to the Standard American diet because they are obtaining ample supplies of nutrients through their diet. So should we just mindlessly swallow chemical substitutes to make up for our careless dietary choices?  Is this the answer to our health problems?

Let me turn the question around.  Ever since synthetic vitamins and minerals have been available on the market, has the health of Americans greatly improved?

Secondly, the supplement industry is a multi-million dollar industry that can assign a generous amount of its juicy margins towards marketing. “You are not obtaining the necessary vitamins in the necessary doses – take multis and enjoy great health!” and “our soils have been so depleted that even if you eat a healthy diet you will be deficient (note: ‘healthy diet’ is very loosely defined – processed juices in the store claim to be ‘healthy’ even when the main ingredient is sugar and little, if anything of the original nutrients of the original fruit is kept since the juice has been reconstituted from water and concentrate powder).

The supplement industry is not as regulated as the food industry and I suspect it is an immensely profitable industry. Sally Beare suggests that official government guidelines cover the bare minimum and that a healthy person needs to supplement to obtain the necessary amount. “In order for our bodies to function optimally, we need at least 17 minerals and 13 vitamins, as well as protein, fiber, carbohydrate and the right fats”.  I would argue that we need many more substances than the handful identified by Beare. We most likely need substances found in fruit and vegetables that have not been officially identified yet.  Also, while we like to state the functions of individual vitamins, our bodies are complex systems and a very finely orchestrated mélange of necessary nutrients need to be available to our bodies for optimal functioning. For example: the presence of vitamin C enhances iron absorption, vitamin C increases levels of glutathione.

Beare’s admonition that ‘you need to take supplements’ is based on some of the following arguments:

       The produce available at supermarkets is excessively low in nutrients. One of the reasons for this is because the produce is harvested before it is ripe. Another is that the longer the produce travels and sits on the shelf, the lower the nutrient content.  Beare cites an example of ‘an orange you buy at the supermarket can have zero vitamin C’. Is this really true (goodness, how OLD is that orange? If that orange were lying on the ground no animal would stop to nibble at it since it has long lost any scent) and if so, how representative is this statement of oranges in supermarkets in general?  She also cites an example of ‘magnesium levels in carrots have dropped by 75% in the last few decades’.  What objective scientific studies support this statement?  Without analyzing store-bought carrots, I would suggest:

i.                    as much as possible eat produce that has been recently harvested i.e. eat local as much as possible. 

ii.                   as much as possible, choose organic.  Since this produce does not have the aid of chemicals to enhance its shelf life, it deteriorates much faster than conventionally handled produce and this would imply that the organic produce you choose in the store has been harvested more recently and would thus have a higher nutrient density

iii.        whenever possible, plant your own produce and use self-made compost as fertilizer (hopefully compost made of organic waste?)

iv.                  ensure that a large proportion of your diet consists of unprocessed food.  Try to eat ‘single ingredients’ or produce that has been steamed, that has a bit of olive oil added to it rather than TV dinners that consists of an unpronounceable, chemical alphabet

v.                     juice -- as in juice your own vegetables and fruit.  Every healthy kitchen needs a few gadgets; one of these is a juicer. To ensure that you obtain high levels of nutrients, throw various organic vegetables and some fruit in a juicer.  If you do not want to lose the precious fiber and do not want to add this to your compost heap, add the leftover fiber to soups.

vi.                     buy directly from farms or join a food coop.

vii.                 mix your food sources.  If you always purchase from one farmer, buy the same vegetable from another farmer as soils will vary and produce reflects the soil in which it grew.

What you put in your mouth is YOUR choice. You can choose a highly processed, nutrient poor diet and help subsidize the supplement industry by reacting to their fear-inspiring claims, or you can carefully select a diet that ensures the highest amount of nutrient delivery possible.

Here are some great nutritional sources for various anti-oxidants and minerals:

Vitamin A: orange, red and dark green vegetables and fruit such as carrots, apricots, spinach; liver and cod liver oil

Vitamin B-complex:

Folic acid: green leafy vegetables, cruciferous vegetables, nuts and seeds, fish, poultry, red meat, organ meat, mushrooms

            Vitamin B6: seafood, poultry, nuts, sweet potatoes, bananas

            Vitamin B12: fish, poultry, meat

Vitamin C: oranges, grapefruit, pomelo and other citrus fruit; broccoli, cauliflower and other cruciferous vegetables; blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and other berries, red peppers

Vitamin E: avocado, olive oil, fish oil, peanuts, hazel nuts, Brazil nuts and other nuts

Chromium: whole grains, nuts, seeds

Magnesium: broccoli, green leafy vegetables, nuts, seeds

Selenium:  garlic, asparagus, Brazil nuts, seafood and whole grains

Zinc: garlic, green leafy vegetables, seafood such as oysters, poultry, meat, whole grains, nuts, seeds

Alpha lipoic acid: broccoli, spinach and other dark green leafy vegetables

Coenzyme Q10: mackerel, sardines, organ meats

Glutathione: avocado, asparagus, cruciferous vegetables, watermelon

What you choose to put in your digestive tract is your choice.

Our salivary glands work in conjunction with our senses.  Which whets your appetite?

This:

Or this: