Cutting though the supplement clutter

We look at dietary supplements and pharmaceutical medicine far too much as a source of health and wellness instead of the things they often try to duplicate. Once again, confusion and tactful marketing often convince us that we need these laboratory created items to burn fat, stay healthy or to get well, when many times by simply adjusting our dietary and lifestyle habits, we can often not only offset the problem, but we can also address the root cause of the problem. 

Often when there is a particular food that helps certain body functions, whether it’s to release stored fat, use up cholesterol in our blood (to make bile), lower blood pressure etc., a laboratory will then try to duplicate this by singling out the main ingredient that causes this effect on our body. They will isolate this ingredient, concentrate it, and make it available for purchase to the market so that we can enrich our diet without consumption or extra consumption of the original source(s). 

 There are a few questions we can ask when considering a supplement:

1. Am I deficient in this particular nutrient or do I have reason to think that I am deficient?
   A need for protein due to increased demands from physical activities such as sports, physical labor, or exercise routine. Protein powder and Amino Acids help supplement a diet when your intake of meat, eggs, milk, and beans is low.
   A need for a multi-vitamin-mineral due to a shortage of fruits and vegetables in the diet. 
2. Will I increase these foods in my diet, or will I supplement my diet? We can very easily enrich our diet with almost anything by doing an Internet search for foods rich in this particular nutrient.
   If you need more protein in your diet, simply type in (foods rich in protein) or if you need more potassium to lower your need for water pills, type in (foods rich in potassium). 
3. If my decision is to purchase a supplement to my existing diet, do I trust the source/manufacturer? Quality is very important because if your body cannot properly absorb the nutrient your body will have to figure out how to cleanse it out of the body and if it is unable to it could cause potential toxicity.
   

These are the things we need to supply to our body, oxygen, hydration, protein, fat, carbs, vitamins, minerals, micro-nutrients and enzymes, and we can get these from the air we breathe, the fluids we drink and the choice of foods we make for ourselves, and our health largely relies on the quality and balance of these along with adequate activity and rest. 

Always remember that supplements are simply a supplement to counter a deficiency in the diet. One reason that foods rich in a certain nutrient can work so much better at supplying this particular nutrient then in isolated supplement form, is all the other nutrients in the food that work together and they understand exactly why they are there and they help each other absorb into the body in perfect unison. 

I have a sheet I like to hand out with a list of over 400 known nutrients that are in an apple, there are many more un-named nutrients in an apple as well! Foods, especially whole foods can have over 1000 individual nutrients in them and many times do not work as well when isolated and taken away from their micro-nutrient family. 

We may not know what all these individual nutrients are for or what their purpose is, but they work together and have been created by nature’s laboratory that was designed by a Creator who knew exactly how and what it took to supplement our life!