Could
There Be Holes In Your Diet?
Even if you're a star eater, you may be missing crucial nutrients.
Here's why, and what to do about it.
You make an effort to eat well. You’ve built your diet
around whole grains, plenty of fruits and vegetables, lean protein,
and good fats. So you may reason that you don’t need to
take vitamin and mineral supplements. But in my 27 years of
reporting and writing on vitamin and mineral research, I’ve
come to realize that there are some important reasons why diet
alone simply isn’t enough.
Reason
#1
Your Diet Is Probably Worse Than You Think.
Despite
their best intentions, most people don’t eat enough nutrient-rich
vegetables and fruit. (Depending on the study you cite, only
9 to 32 percent of Americans eat the recommended three to
five servings of vegetables every day.) But even those who
do may benefit from some nutritional padding. “Let’s
say you’re one of the 10 percent of Americans who does
eat three to five vegetables daily. Do you still need a supplement?”
asks Jeffrey Blumberg, Ph.D., an antioxidant researcher at
Tufts University in Boston. “Almost certainly because,
on any given day, your choice among those foods is likely
to fall short in something.”
And
even if you do eat your required fruit and vegetable servings,
some of your other food choices may sabotage your efforts.
Fried foods, for example, are loaded with oxidized (free-radical
damaged) fats, which increase your risk of heart disease.
Supplementing with extra vitamin E can help block the free-radical
oxidation of fats in your body. (Of course, it would be better
to cut out the fried foods.) On top of that, most over-the-counter
and prescription drugs interfere with nutrient absorption;
a high-potency multivitamin can compensate.
Reason #2
Your Food Has Lost Many of Its Nutrients. Today,
even the highest quality foods suffer some nutritional losses
from the farm to the fork.
When
soils are low in essential minerals because of overfarming
or geographical variations, plants grown in them will also
be low in minerals. Soil in parts of the Northeast, Northwest,
and Florida, for example, contain virtually no selenium. Low-selenium
soil yields low-selenium foods, and a low-selenium diet may
increase your risk of cancer, says Harold D. Foster, Ph.D.,
a medical geographer and professor at the University of Victoria
in Canada.
In
addition, levels of water-soluble nutrients, particularly
vitamin C and B vitamins, decline after harvesting and during
storage, cooking, refrigeration, and reheating. In one striking
example, half the folic acid in food is destroyed by cooking,
says Hugh D. Riordan, M.D., a nutritionally oriented physician
and head of the nonprofit Bright Spot for Health clinic in
Wichita, Kan.
Reason
#3
Your Body Could Be Mishandling Nutrients.
Almost
50 years ago, nutritional biochemist Roger Williams, Ph.D.,
coined the term “biochemical individuality” to describe
how our anatomical, biochemical, and genetic differences affect
how we handle nutrients, and how supplements can compensate
for those differences.
If
you have blue eyes instead of brown, you may need more lutein
to prevent macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness
among older adults. If you’re depressed, you may need
more B vitamins than other people. If you smoke or drink,
you need more vitamin C. If you’re older than 65 and
suffer from a decreased production of stomach acid (which
affects one-third of older adults), you may need larger doses
of vitamin B12. And if you have cystic fibrosis, a disease
that interferes with fat absorption, you may need to supplement
with fat-soluble nutrients like vitamin E and beta carotene.
Unfortunately,
it’s not always easy to figure out your biochemical weak
links. Riordan recommends asking your doctor or a clinical
nutritionist to test your blood levels of vitamins and minerals.
(When I underwent testing, I had low vitamin B1 levels, despite
getting plenty from my diet and supplements. Larger doses
of B1 supplements helped my body overcome that problem.) Without
testing, it’s a trial-and-error process that works best
if you’re trying to ease a specific health problem, like
arthritis, because you can clearly measure the results after
taking supplements for a month.
Reason
#4
You Need Extra Help Fighting Diseases and Aging.
Supplements
are no fountain of youth, but evidence suggests some can slow
the aging process and reduce your risk of age-related diseases
like heart disease and cancer. For example, volatile molecules
called free radicals chip away at your body’s cells and
age them. Antioxidants like vitamins E and C limit free radical
damage. But it’s tough to get enough vitamin E from your
food to ward off disease and slow aging; Blumberg favors vitamin
E supplements because you would have to consume a large amount
of calorie- and fat-laden foods, like salad dressing, to get
adequate amounts of the vitamin from diet alone.
Incredible
as it might sound, supplements can even compensate for many
genetic defects. Beginning in the 1940s, the late pediatrician
Henry Turkel, M.D., used a comprehensive vitamin regimen to
treat children with Down syndrome. The earlier children started
the program, the more normal their physical and mental development.
The supplements seemed to help overcome some of the symptoms
of the disability. Another example: Many people carry genetic
defects in a key enzyme involved in folic acid metabolism,
which increases their risk of heart disease and, in women,
raises the risk of delivering children with neural tube defects.
Folic acid supplements can compensate for this defect.
The
Bottom Line
The Best Way to Get the Nutrients You Need Is with Diet and
Supplements. Study
after study has found that people with the highest intake of
vitamins, minerals, and other micronutrients tend to be the
healthiest. The best way to achieve that intake is to use both
supplements and food in smart ways.
The
first step is to eat a diversity of fruits and vegetables
(at least five servings a day), cut way back on refined carbohydrates,
and eliminate harmful fats, including the partially hydrogenated
oils found in most processed foods. (For more on diet, see
“Why Food Is the Foundation.”)
To
build your supplement regimen, start with a high-potency multivitamin-multi-mineral
if you’re in relatively good health. If you’re a
man or postmenopausal woman, avoid supplements with iron,
because this mineral is associated with an increased risk
of heart disease. If you start taking a supplement for a specific
condition, give it 30 days and then ask yourself whether it
has made a difference. You might consider working with a clinical
nutritionist or a nutritionally oriented physician. (You can
locate one through the Designs for Health Institute at www.findanutritionist.com
or the American College for Advancement in Medicine at www.acam
.org.) A complete work-up, including measurement of your vitamin
and mineral levels, will identify what you’re not getting
from your diet or not absorbing from food.
Finally,
studies show that certain supplements are a sure bet to prevent
or treat illness. Here are five to consider:
COENZYME Q10. Sometimes used to help treat heart failure
and cancer, CoQ10 boosts cell-energy levels, and may be a
good all-round energy booster. Take 30 mg daily.
LUTEIN. Growing evidence points to lutein’s essential
role in maintaining eye health. Supplements contain either
natural lutein esters or free lutein. Take 5 to 10 mg daily.
OMEGA-3 FATS. About 2,000 scientific studies support
the importance of omega-3 fats (fatty acids) to health. Research
has found that they reduce the risk of heart disease and arrhythmia
and also have powerful anti-inflammatory properties. Take
3 to 4 g daily, or eat at least two servings a week of cold-water
fish like salmon or mackerel. Vegetarian sources include flaxseeds
and flaxseed oil.
VITAMIN C. You might have seen recent news stories
about a study that found that vitamin C can damage DNA. But
it’s unwise to give up on vitamin C based on one test-tube
study; hundreds of existing studies show that it helps prevent
diseases including cancer. Take 500 to 2,000 mg daily. (High
doses of vitamin C may cause diarrhea. Reduce your dose if
this occurs.)
VITAMIN E. Maybe the most-studied supplement, vitamin
E is the vitamin of choice for reducing the risk of heart
disease. Take 400 to 800 IU daily of the natural form, d-alpha-tocopherol.
(Check with your doctor before combining E with a prescription
blood thinner.)
Jack Challem, Natural
Health 8.01
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