Your Wellness Lifestyle Starts Here
Did you know the human body is specifically designed to extract and utilize nutrients from food? If we truly needed vitamins pills and fortified foods for survival, our species would have become extinct a long time ago.
A few vitamins and nutrients are commonly found in supplements and fortified foods, but there are tens of thousands of nutrients in foods and new ones are still being discovered. These include thousands of flavonoids, hundreds of carotenoids, and tens of thousands of phytochemicals. Nutrients as they occur naturally in food exist in complexes, which are comprised of several nutrients in synergistic form. These are all combined in endless numbers of combinations and delivered to humans in nature’s perfect packages – food!
Nutrients in food work together to supply energy and to facilitate an endless number of biochemical reactions in the over 30 trillion cells that comprise our bodies. Studies have shown that nutrient needs vary from person to person and from day to day based on the environment and changing circumstances.
Foods contain the full spectrum of nutritional complexes and eating them allows the body to choose what it needs, and excrete that which is not needed, a process known as selective absorption. Consuming isolated nutrients leaves the body no choice – it must metabolize what is ingested, which can mean taking the missing co-factors that would normally be "packaged" with these nutrients from the tissues and organs of the body in order to create a recognizable complex. (Stephen Wood, Science News, 1994 July;146(1):3)
Did you know that medical journals are filled with tens of thousands of articles on supplements? Most show disappointing results – the supplement fails to deliver the promised result – but a surprising number report negative side effects. Some studies have even been stopped early because those taking the supplements were worse off than those taking the placebo.
A Cochrane review of 67 randomized trials including over 232,000 people taking antioxidants found that the pills were worthless and added this caution, "Vitamin A, beta-carotene, and vitamin E may increase mortality. Future randomized trials could evaluate the potential effects of vitamin C and selenium for primary and secondary prevention. Such trials should be closely monitored for potential harmful effects. Antioxidant supplements need to be considered medicinal products and should undergo sufficient evaluation before marketing. (Bjelakovic G, Nikolova D, Gluud LL, Simonetti RG, Gluud C. "Antioxidant supplements for prevention of mortality in healthy participants and patients with various diseases." Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2008(2). Art. No: CD007176. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD007176).
Did you know that most people have not been shown how to lower cholesterol properly? For example, a high-fat diet, regardless of the dietary source of the fat – will elevate plasma cholesterol and contribute to the progression of coronary artery disease. Rudel L, Parks J, Sawyer J. "Compared with Dietary Monounsaturated and Saturated Fat, Polyunsaturated Fat Protects African Green Monkeys from Coronary Artery Arteriosclerosis." Arteriosclerosis Thrombosis and Vascular Biology (Impact Factor: 6). 01/1996; 15(12):2101-10.
Blankenhorn, D.H. et al, "The Influence of Diet on the Appearance of New Lesions in Human Coronary Arteries." JAMA March 23, 1990. 263(12):1646-1652
Degirolamo C, Rudel L. "Dietary Monounsaturated Fatty Acids Appear Not to Provide Cardioprotection." Curr Atherscler Rep 2010 Nov;12(6):391-396 A diet that includes high amounts of animal food, including fish, also contributes to higher plasma cholesterol levels.
Blankenhorn, D.H. et al, "The Influence of Diet on the Appearance of New Lesions in Human Coronary Arteries." JAMA March 23, 1990. 263(12):1646-1652
Degirolamo C, Rudel L. "Dietary Monounsaturated Fatty Acids Appear Not to Provide Cardioprotection." Curr Atherscler Rep 2010 Nov;12(6):391-396 A diet that includes high amounts of animal food, including fish, also contributes to higher plasma cholesterol levels.
Did you know that Vitamin C when taken in supplement form instead of consumed in food often acts as a pro-oxidant (chemicals that induce oxidative stress)? Best to rethink this supplement for daily use. It’s likely that the B vitamins are useless unless B12 is taken due to either a diagnosed deficiency or after adopting an exclusively plant-based diet.
Did you know that Vitamin D toxicity can cause hypercalcemia and acute kidney injury? A recent case report showed a 25-year-old man had taken 50,000 IU of vitamin D daily for seven months in response to diagnosis of vitamin D deficiency. He stopped taking it two weeks before admission to a hospital. At time of admission his serum levels were 126 ng/dL. Twenty-nine days after the last dose, his serum level rose to 492 ng/mL and 81 days after last dose the level was 274 ng/ml.
Vitamin D levels can remain elevated for months after high-dose vitamin D supplementation is stopped. It’s stored in the fat tissue, so accumulation – and toxicity - may not show – at least not immediately – in serum levels.
Vitamin D levels can remain elevated for months after high-dose vitamin D supplementation is stopped. It’s stored in the fat tissue, so accumulation – and toxicity - may not show – at least not immediately – in serum levels.
Liz Fattore
Nurture Your Health
Licensed Food Over Medicine Professional
www.lizfattore.com
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