SUPPLEMENTS

Supplements ........an often  elusive subject , when one tries to get to the heart of the matter.  Do  we need  them ?  Do we get enough nutrition in our diets ?  How do we know ? If we need  supplements, which ones do we need ? 

There are lots of opinions. Some are scientifically based , some are not. Popular scientific and medical wisdom asserts that people receive an adequate supply  of nutrients in a balanced diet. As a matter of fact , few could argue with that point of view. One could even say that it’s obvious, because that’s the way nature intended things to be. Nature , in fact ,is quite clever and even supplies different nutrition  , through different foodstuffs , at different seasons of the year. That way we could be expected to get what we need , as and when we need it , especially if we were able to enjoy a balanced diet.

We , however , in our wisdom have changed the rules. We have changed the way nature works,or rather we have changed away from how nature works. We have soil that is over-used season after season ,year after year, and naturally plants  absorb the nutrition from the soil. Nature has a way of putting it back, but amongst other things, it takes time, bacteria, fungi, insects, worms , cattle processed and distributed  fertiliser , the right climate and decomposing vegetation.

We have discovered ways of growing plants without all these inconvenient givens of nature  ; and are able to grow crop after crop, using chemical fertilisers  and other  wondrous  devices to kill nuisance insects , weeds, fungi  and anything which gets in the way of visually acceptable, high yield  crops.

Unfortunately ,the yield and the visual aspects are not those which provide us with nutrition . The  nutrients provided by natural ,mineral rich soil, processed by , seasonally  appropriate  plants which,  then process the  nutrition  , combining the molecules in a way which is most convenient for our digestive and metabolic processes :  these are the nutrients we need.

Our food chain now presents  for our consumption , good looking , nutrient deficient, unseasonal produce . We add to the problem by changing taste and texture and   by encouraging consumption  in a  way which is disproportionate to the needs of our bodies. That is one reason ,in itself , why naturally and organically grown ,locally produced , food is not as comparatively  expensive as it may at first seem. Organic food ,to be most effective, does ,however  ,have to be grown in soil  which ,in itself, has sufficient minerals and ecological activity.  The lack of chemical additives , taken up by plants, from pesticides, fungicides, insecticides  and  fertilisers  is of course another important reason for trying to follow  an ‘ organic-where –possible’ diet.

So the bottom line is that , in a perfect world ,living in an area producing seasonaly crops with all  nutrients well-balanced, ready for our consumption, we would get all our nutrition without supplementation. The truth is that few such  areas exist. Most are deficient in one or more essential minerals, even without our man-made constructs. So, even in good soil , with good organic foods, there will be reason  to be concerned about deficiencies.

Added to the above, we must realise that our bodies are all different : and we need differing amounts of particular nutrients, both for this reason and for the fact that we do different things, and even do so at different times of our lives. Energy  expenditure,recovering from disease,studying ,growing : these are all variants which dictate our needs  and more reasons why we cannot simply accept that we  have the nutrition scene covered at all times. We all, almost certainly, need  and benefit from  some supplements some,if not all ,of the time . The important thing is to know  : which supplements?  When ? And which are those best designed for assimilation into our metabolism.