Vitamins/Supplements

By: Dr. Daniel Richter DC

I am a big proponent of taking vitamins and supplements. The foods that we eat are so void of proper nutrition these days that its actually NECESSARY now. We keep growing crops in the same fields over and over again without replacing any of the important minerals.

Farmers have learned that spraying the crops with Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium (the three ingredients in fertilizer) will yield great looking produce so they can sell it, but all the micro-minerals are missing. So big, nice looking produce is actually lacking important nutrition. For example: Broccoli from 1951 compared to broccoli in 1999 – there is a decrease in calcium of 63 percent and a decrease in iron of 34 percent per same weight(1).

On top of over-farming, many of our foods are processed by taking the live nutrition out of them. Processing helps to increase shelf life and/or changes the consistency of the food (e.g. trans-fats). Because the live nutrition is removed, these food companies add back synthetic vitamins and supplements and then call it 'enriched'. However our bodies process the synthetics differently than whole food based nutrients. This is a topic I intend to cover in the near future.

I recommend eating organic foods as much as possible. Find a good farmer who rotates the crops and uses good farming practices to buy food from. Stay away from fast foods, processed foods, and synthetic foods. Shop the perimeter of the grocery store and avoid the insides where all the boxed and processed foods are featured.

When looking for supplements, you get what you pay for. Read the ingredients list...if it sounds like a chemistry lab, it likely is all synthetic. Look for organic, whole-foods based vitamins and supplements. They are usually found at health food stores and are more expensive, however they actually will do something good for your body. Don't waste your money on cheap synthetic supplements. Along with a good vitamin and mineral supplement, I also recommend a good omega 3 fish oil. Look for fish oils taken from cold water fishes only. Also read that the fish oil is purified to removed mercury and other toxins.

1. (http://www.truehealth.org/ahealn31.html)