Why should I take supplements?

One of the most repeated beliefs among health conscious people is that you can – and should – get all of your nutrients from food. However, natural and herbal supplements can help to restore the body to a place of balance.  

Here are the top reasons why it is important for everyone to take natural, whole food supplements:

1. The American Diet. Grains, legumes, and most forms of modern dairy are nutrient deficient.  Grains and legumes also deplete nutrient stores and interfere with nutrient absorption; they are toxins in themselves, which increases your nutrient needs.  Grains and legumes both cause intestinal damage which further decreases your ability to absorb nutrients.  Due to inflammation caused by other foods toxins, dairy protein is often extremely inflammatory.  Conventional dairy also contains mycotoxins which are extremely damaging.  Raw, unpasteurized, unprocessed, full-fat dairy can be good for you, but the kind most people buy at the grocery store is not healthy. Even if you’ve stopped eating these foods, you may be in nutrient debt or have lingering intestinal damage which is interfering with nutrient absorption.

2. Depleted Nutrition Within Food Itself. Even if you eat a healthy, predominantly plant-based diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables, the chances are that your food comes from soils that have insufficient mineral content.  Improper farming practices deplete the soil of nutrients.  When plants are repeatedly grown on the same land, the soil loses nutrients faster than they can be replaced.  Over time, the plants have fewer nutrients to grow.  Fertilizer contains just enough nutrition for the plant to survive until harvesting, but not enough to support human health, which results in plants that have 75% fewer micronutrients.  Also, most modern fruits and vegetables are grown to increase their sugar content, not their nutrient value.  As a result, the most common fruits and vegetables are artificially high in fructose and sugar and lower in key nutrients.  When plants contain fewer nutrients, the animals that eat these plants are also malnourished. 

3. Long Transit Time for Delivery. There is an increasing amount of produce in your grocery store from other countries. Produce is not just cut at its peak ripeness, then immediately boxed, rushed to the airport and shipped overnight to your favorite grocery store.  Sometimes, foods are picked weeks and even MONTHS before we see it on our shelves; they sit on trucks, shelves, and counters for weeks before being eaten.  Over time, the nutrient content of these plants decreases.

4. Overcooking Our Foods. Americans have a habit of overcooking all foods, resulting in a massive loss of nutritional value, meaning far fewer vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and enzymes to go around. What’s more, eating these depleted foods over time creates its own set of health problems. Consuming your food in as close to a raw (uncooked) state as possible is always the best way.

5. Not Eating Regular Meals. Many people skip meals. Eating a grain based product and a cup of coffee does NOT constitute a meal. Making up for it later in the day at an “all-you-can-eat” buffet is not in the best interest of our bodies either, as it puts much undue stress on the digestive system and will eventually cause a lot of uncomfortable symptoms. Skipping meals slows your metabolic rate, which explains why it goes hand in hand with burning fewer calories.

6. Normal Aging = Digestion Issues. As we age, our bodies produce less good enzymes and more bad enzymes, including all the important ones needed to properly digest and assimilate the foods we eat. Eventually, this results in “common” stomach complaints, like reflux, heartburn, upset stomach and chronic constipation.

7. Stress + Stress, + Stress = Compromised Immune System. Between commitments to your family, school, work, community, faith and other obligations, our lives are stressed, which takes a toll on your body and weakens your immune system. Taking supplements can help to bridge that gap and give your body some of the nutrition it needs to function optimally