During a graduate nutrition course at the University of Minnesota, a professor
posed a challenge to the class: Construct a 2000 calorie-per-day diet that
at least met the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) for vitamins and
minerals without the use of supplements. Most of the graduate students
thought that this was going to be a simple assignment. After all, we had
been told over and over again that people can get all of the nutrients
their body needs simply by eating a well-balanced diet. Well, the professor
was putting that statement to the test.
To everyone’s surprise, no one was able to come up with a sustainable
daily diet that met the minimum RDA requirements. The graduate students
discovered that it is impossible to get everything that you need from the
food we eat. But how could this be? Certainly people have lived on this
planet for a long time and must have been able to get everything they needed
from their diet. The answer has to do with modern farming techniques, fertilizers
and environmental stresses.
Following the Second World War, chemical manufacturers were sitting on
huge stockpiles of phosphates and nitrates that were initially intended
for use in explosives. They discovered that when they spread these same
phosphates and nitrates on the soil where plants were growing, the plants
grew bigger and looked healthier. Thus began the boom of the fertilizer
industry.
The problem with modern fertilizers is that they don’t replace soil
trace minerals, such as chromium, zinc and copper, as do cow manure and
other natural fertilizers. Over time, these trace minerals become more
and more depleted from the soil and, consequently, our food supply becomes
more depleted as well. The bottom line is that in order to get enough trace
minerals in our diet to at least meet the minimum RDAs, it is necessary
to take a good quality supplement.
All vitamin supplements are not created equal. Supplements are just like
anything else- there are some good ones out there and a whole lot
of supplements that are not as good. Here a few keys to determining whether
a particular vitamin is good:
- In general, supplements sold through a health care professionals are top
quality. They tend to be a little more expensive than the supplements
you find at your local drug store because the ingredients that go into
them tend to be of a higher quality. - High quality vitamins have chelated minerals. This makes a huge difference
in how well the minerals are absorbed by your body. If you have any questions
about specific supplements that you are taking, be sure to ask your chiropractor. - Most high quality vitamin formulations require that you take more than
one capsule or tablet per day. This is simply because high quality ingredients,
such as chelated minerals, take up more space than their cheaper counterparts.
Taking supplements as part of your overall daily health regimen is a simple
and inexpensive way to ensure that your body has everything it needs to
be healthy. When combined with regular chiropractic care, taking a high
quality multivitamin will help to slow the aging process and decrease your
risk of a number of degenerative diseases. Be sure to talk to your chiropractor
to determine which multivitamin formula best fits your individual needs.