This is a practical blog post.
If you are practical, read on. If you are impractical, read on also. The question of supplements, as in vitamins and minerals (not insurance), is often asked in our office. There is a whole host of nutritional advice that can be bewildering and ever changing. At least on the surface. What is our bias when we hear the word nutrition? Do we cringe, do we congratulate ourselves, or do we just dismiss it because it will change in 15 minutes anyway? Now hear this! The perfect diet, the perfect performance, the perfect night sleep, the perfect anything, does not exist. (except perfect wife, HT to Mrs. Swaim)
What????
You mean all of my striving and straining has been for naught? Not exactly. Ask yourself this question when looking to add something to your diet in the form of a supplement. What is close enough to perfect?
In most cases nature.
Nature balances things in such a way as to maximize the benefit incurred for eating the food in the first place. For example, of all the thousands of compounds in an orange, they are all necessary to get the most out of vitamin C, which besides the taste of an orange, is why we want an orange. Yes there are easier ways to consume vitamin C, but when it is separated from all of its friends(enzymes, factors, co-factors etc) that make it work in the orange, it is not even close to being as effective. So besides eating a dozen oranges, what is best? Whole food nutrition. (and no, you don’t have shop at Whole Foods) Are there supplements around that more closely resemble the real deal(nature) and pack a nutritional punch with a concentration of nutrients that can quickly assimilate? Yes! and you don’t have to look very far to find them. Look for supplements that consist of the whole food, nothing taken out, and in large enough concentrations to be effective. This will increase the bio-availability(ability to be absorbed) of the nutrients are made with whole foods. Start with this one, Trader Joe’s, Very Green capsules. You can read the next blog if you are interested. Cheers ks