Vitamins and minerals are substances found in food and are indispensable for the maintenance of health, normal metabolism, growth, and development of the body. Many chronic health problems are a result of nutritional deficiencies. If organs in the body are not getting the nutrients they need, over time they begin to wear out and break down, ultimately leading to disease.
The best source of nutrition is from healthy food. However, the typical diet of most Americans is not healthy! Even for those who try to eat a healthy diet, according to a report to the U.S. Senate in 1936, the soils of America are devoid of the necessary nutrients for good health due to mass agriculture and poor crop rotation. Nutritional deficiencies in good food have continued to spiral downward since then.
For this reason, nutritional supplementation can be very beneficial, and for some it is a must. However, the quality of a supplement is extremely important. Some supplements are made from whole foods and some are synthetically made chemicals. Food contains complex blends of vitamins, enzymes, minerals, and other factors. However, synthetic vitamins only contain one small chemically made portion of the vitamin complex. The FDA has classified the chemical “ascorbic acid” as vitamin C. While ascorbic acid is part of the vitamin C complex, naturally occurring vitamin C also contains mixed bioflavonoids, K, J and P factors, and tyrosinase (a copper bearing enzyme), as well as many unknown factors yet to be discovered. The body cannot use ascorbic acid in the same way it uses the whole Vitamin C complex because a single synthetic “vitamin” does not have all the components contained in food. In fact, many recent studies are showing that synthetic vitamins are actually creating more health problems than they are helping. Whole food nutritional supplements are far superior to synthetic vitamins. Whole food supplements allow the body to get the whole vitamin complex in its most useful form.
Another important consideration in nutrition is that we are all unique. Because we are all different, we each have different nutritional needs. For this reason, the synthetic one a day multivitamin with everything from A to Zinc that is recommended for “everyone” is not a good choice. In nature however, different foods contain unique blends of nutrition to meet each of our unique nutritional needs from day to day.
At the Institute of Chiropractic & Acupuncture Therapy we have the ability to evaluate your supplements for quality as well as the ability to check for what your nutritional needs are. What are your specific nutritional needs and is your diet and supplementation meeting them?
