Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.
If you think there is no difference between one vitamin
supplement and the next, think again.
There is nothing more valuable than your health, just ask a
sick person. No matter how much you love your house, your car or your hobbies,
you won’t enjoy any of it without your health.
So, why do so many people simply buy whatever vitamin is the
cheapest, easiest or fastest to get a hold of? If your health is a top
priority, why would you settle for that? Do you buy the cheapest oil and old
gas for a beautiful new car, just because you can save a buck? Then why buy a
multivitamin with unknown effectiveness and inert ingredients?
Simply eating right isn’t enough anymore. Even the best diet
falls short of adequate nutrition. Minerals are responsible for over 300 biochemical,
life-sustaining reactions in the human body. The problem is, minerals are not
found in the same abundance today as they used to be.
Agricultural practices have changed over the years, leading
to declining nutritional value in produce. Using 2006 data from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Dr. Donald Davis, a biochemist at the University of
Texas of Austin, discovered that of the 13 major nutrients found in fruits and
vegetables, six have declined substantially over the years. He found there is up
to 38% lower levels of protein, calcium, vitamin C, phosphorus, iron and
riboflavin.
Dr. Davis found the reasons for this are tied to farming
practices. Farmers use the latest techniques to increase crop production. They
use faster growing produce that does not have as much time to develop vital
nutrients. They are paid for their produce by weight, so fruits and vegetables
are grown to larger sizes, thereby diluting the concentrations of nutrients in
them. The higher the yield, the lower the nutrients, was his conclusion.
“Breeding of plants to increase yield at the expense of all other things seems
to be the problem, as well as depleting the soil and not rotating crops
properly,” says Jeff Cronin, at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
Researchers have discovered that since the 1930’s, our soils
have become progressively depleted of organic complexes, microbes and soil
based organisms. We have continually added toxic chemicals, herbicides and
pesticides. This has triggered soil imbalances, leading to an inability to
neutralize the toxic chemicals, and inhibiting new organic complexes and other
minerals and nutrients from being created.
We spread petrochemical fertilizers instead of manure. Thus, our foods have become full of inorganic,
toxic chemicals, in place of natural complex nutrients.
This loss of nutrients does not mean you should stop eating
fruits and vegetables. They are still, clearly, more nutrient rich than highly
refined foods, flours, sugars and processed grain oils.
If the body is deficient in some nutrient or substance, it
will “rob Peter to pay Paul.” As an example, a certain level of blood calcium
must be maintained for vital body functions. If it drops too low, your body
will pull calcium from your bones to increase the blood levels, leading to
osteoporosis.
So, what is one to do? Well, firstly, you must go organic as
much as possible. Organic foods are not always available in the foods we want,
and even if they were, it is not enough.
Second, we must eliminate processed and synthetic food from
our diet, as much as is possible. Even then, there is always a lack of
completeness.
It is no wonder we are a nation of overweight, sick people,
with the highest usage and cost of “health” care on the planet. Most people
simply don’t think of supplementation as they ought to.
So, we need to supplement. Won’t any supplement work? The
government wouldn’t let just anything on the shelf, would it? What are the best
supplements to take? What are the differences in supplements? We will look at those
questions next week.