Whole Food Nutrition, Page 2

I really don't like beating a topic to the ground, but some topics are pretty huge---and rather than having an extremely long blog entry, my goal is to give more 'bite-size' pieces of information.

So...a bit more on nutrition & supplements---NOT the boring stuff---just the stuff that is VERY important for you to know to help you in your decision-making processes for you and your family.

A powerful reference book that I never loan out to anyone (and I loan out alot of books!) is "Your Blood Never Lies" by Ted Aloisio. Ted is a Nutritional Microscopist and renowned lecturer on solid nutrition information. He bases his info on over 10,000 nutritional assessments. Pretty solid, I would say!

His book covers a variety of topics, including the world of nutritional supplements. A few facts from Ted:
*Supplements can be way off on active ingredient amounts" which means that we may think that we're getting a good amount of a supplement, when we're actually not. (Study from University of Toronto.)
*Ineffective blending of ingredients in many supplements can render them basically useless in the body. (Example: Vitamin B12 costs the most of B vitamins so it is usually supplied in lower than optimal quantities in supplements. This imbalance not only effects B12 levels, but also affects the utilization of the other B vitamins.)
*Questionable manufacturing techniques by some companies include the use of substances like shampoo, polyethylene glycol, cork & sand (to name a few). These may be used as binders to hold the pills together or to make them 'pop' out of the molds more easily.
*The amount of pressure used to compress some pills is sometimes hundreds of pounds. (I wonder how well those would dissove in the body!)
*The Journal of Chiropractic Economics reported a few years ago that 250,000 pounds of undigested multi-mineral and vitamin tablets and pills are pulled out of the Seattle, WA sewage filters every 6 weeks, many of them with the brand names still readable.

All this adds to the case for Whole Food Supplements, by which we can avoid 'all of the above!' Couple that with a healthy diet of 'whole foods' and your body will be smiling and saying Thank You in many different ways--

Be Well....
Sana

Whole Foods---Aren't All Foods Whole Food??

Good question---about whole foods. One would think that 'whole foods' would refer to most, if not all, foods we eat.

Let's check it out:
Whole foods are defined as those that are unprocessed and unrefined, or processed and refined as little as possible before being consumed. They typically do not contain added ingredients, such as sugar, salt, or fat. They're also defined as natural foods and especially unprocessed ones (as vegetables or fruits).

A whole-food supplement, is one comprised of foods--not extracts, but entire foods, that have been concentrated into supplemental form. Isolated supplements are singular (or groups of individual) vitamins, minerals and/or amino acids.

Here's the BIG difference--that can make a BIG difference in our health: Whole foods contain vitamins, but vitamins never contain the rest of the whole-food "complex." Most of the nutritional supplements people are buying at their local drug store or grocery store fall into the 'vitamin/mineral' category---the synthetic version that has quite limited benefit in our bodies. That's not what our bodies are designed to benefit from. Our bodies most easily recognize 'whole food' supplements that have enzymes, cofactors, antioxidants, etc. that make it a complete source of nutrition.

Take the time to learn about synthetic vitamins/supplements vs. whole food supplements. Take the ultimate test and give your body a 3-month trial of whole food supplements and notice the difference. You won't switch back---and your body will thank you!

To your Total Wellness...
Sana