99% of us are deficient in vital nutrients!

The trouble is that so many of our staple foods now come from soils that are severely depleted by the intensive use of artificial fertilisers and other mass production methods.  If you need evidence of this just take a look at U.S. Senate Document #264 which way back in 1936 reported that as many as 99% of the American people were likely to be deficient in one or more vital minerals.

It's safe to assume that with ever more intensive farming methods matters haven't improved since then - a fact depressingly confirmed by the 1992 Earth Summit report which stated that mineral concentrations in North American farm soils had been reduced by an average of 85% as against those of a century ago.

The figures for other wealthy Western nations are almost as alarming, and it's not just about the soil.  The modern prevalence of highly refined grains and the treatment of fruits and vegetables with preservatives, dyes, pesticides and even radiation is a proven disaster for vitamin and mineral retention in our food; as well as a vicious toxic assault upon the entire human organism.

Be in no doubt - evolution just didn't design us to cope with these kind of physical stresses

Another point which is often forgotten about minerals, but which the Senate document was at pains to stress, is that they're absolutely vital to the proper functioning of vitamins within the body.

Of course it's been known for centuries that specific diseases can follow from a deficiency in a specific vitamin - scurvy and vitamin C is the best example.  But what's much less commonly realized is that vitamins work by controlling the body's absorption of minerals, and if the body is deficient in those minerals….

….the benefits of vitamins are severely restricted or even eliminated.

To give just one example - the body's manufacture of the anti-oxidant enzymes which are vital in slowing down the ageing process is highly dependent on the working together of an abundant supply of vitamins B and C with trace minerals manganese, copper and zinc.   

To my mind, in these circumstances..

..it's only common sense to supplement your daily diet

Not because it'll guarantee your health, or because you're guaranteed to get ill if you don't

- but because it's a very simple way to stack the deck in your favour.

Like taking out insurance it's a question of balancing cost against risk and taking inexpensive precautions against catastrophic loss.

And I can think of no more catastrophic loss than that of your health.

But when considering how to supplement you have to bear in mind that the body functions holistically..  

..take all the vitamin supplements you like, but if you're not ensuring that your body also gets all the minerals it needs you'll likely be wasting your time and money.

So it's rarely any use to take specific supplements in isolation except in the very short term. And research has shown that healthy animals, including humans, require at least 45 different minerals as well as essential vitamins, amino acids and fatty acids.   

But trying to take all these as individual supplements is a time consuming and tiresome process.  

As a not very palatable alternative you could try the torpedo size multis or "horse pills".  But you'd better swallow them quickly if you can - before the taste hits you.