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Are You One
Of The One In A Hundred That’s Properly
Nourished?
It
was observed centuries ago that sailors deprived of fresh fruit and vegetables
on long voyages became ill with scurvy.
Now of course not many of us today have to live on salt-preserved meat
and dry, weevil infested biscuits, and no doubt our modern Western diets are
usually sufficient to protect us against disease. But for how many of us do they provide
truly optimal health?
Those
unfortunate sailors of old were quickly restored to health when given foods rich
in Vitamin C, and we’re all well aware today of the crucial importance of
including the full range of vitamins in our diets.
But
what’s
less often appreciated is that the vital functions of these vitamins are
inextricably bound up with those of the equally vital minerals we require. Senate Document 264 (74th US
Congress, Second Session 1936) was unequivocal on the point:
“…..vitamins
control the body's appropriation of minerals, and in the absence of minerals
they have no function to perform. Lacking vitamins, the system can make some use
of minerals, but lacking minerals, vitamins are
useless.”
In
fact human beings require around 60 different minerals for optimal health, and
although it’s true that many of these are present in our bodies only in minute
amounts, it doesn’t follow that these trace minerals are
unimportant.
To give
just one example – the ageing process within the body is to a great extent
driven by the action of so-called free radicals. These are the unwanted but entirely
natural by-products of normal metabolic processes in cells, but if left
unchecked they will damage and even eventually destroy those same cells. Chief amongst the body’s weapons against
the free radicals are the potent anti-oxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione, and the manufacture of these
enzymes within the body is highly dependent on the working together of an
abundant supply of vitamins B and C with trace minerals manganese, copper and
zinc.
But
Senate Document 264 noted that 99% of Americans were deficient in necessary
minerals and in the light of the continued intensification of farming methods it
seems highly unlikely that the situation will have improved in the intervening
years. Indeed, the 1992 Earth Summit reported that
mineral concentrations in
The
figures for other wealthy Western nations are almost as alarming, and the
problem doesn’t just lie in 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 significant toxic assault with which the human organism
simply wasn’t designed to
cope.
Of
course this crisis in the quality of our food should in no way prevent us from
seeking to eat as healthily as possible, but as Senate Document 264 noted; we
are no longer likely to be able to obtain all the nutrients we need from our
food alone. In the case of minerals
in particular, said the report, our stomachs are simply not big enough to
accommodate all the fruits and vegetables we would need to eat, so depleted of
nutrients have our foods become.
Many
physicians nevertheless insist that a balanced and varied diet including all the
main food groups should generally provide adequate nourishment. And in a sense of course they’re
right. In an ideal world if
everybody ate three well balanced meals a day, including an abundance of fresh
fruit and vegetables, there might indeed be no need for supplementation.
But
even orthodox medical opinion will often concede the validity of supplementation
for those suffering from specific conditions - the use of iron in the
treatment of anaemia is perhaps the best known example. So if supplements can be used as
treatments for the ill, might they not also be used as a means of improving the
health of those who while displaying no clinical symptoms are in sub-optimal
health.
This
is not to say that supplementation can offer any guarantee of health. But just as most of us are happy to pay
relatively small sums for insurance against an extremely unlikely but
potentially catastrophic loss, it’s a question of weighing the odds and
balancing the risks.
People
tend to be influenced more by their personal experience than any amount of
scientific research and the millions who’ve taken the view that it’s worth
paying a little each day for this very inexpensive form of health insurance have
made supplements a multi-billion dollar industry.
And it’s never been simpler or more convenient to take a comprehensive mineral supplement. The days of the foul tasting, tough to swallow and absorb “horse pills” are rapidly coming to an end when as little as a fluid ounce of a modern liquid supplement may provide all your requirements and more.
Steve Smith
June
2007
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