Supplement is defined as, “Something added to complete a thing, make up for a deficiency, or extend or strengthen the whole.”
Need is defined as, “A condition or situation in which something is required or wanted.”
Fad is defined as, “An intense but short-lived fashion; craze.”
There is a great hue and cry over the need for supplementation for healthy living. Many physicians and laymen are of the belief that just eating a “balanced diet” is all that one needs to stay healthy. According to the World Health Organization, “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” Well, that means physically and mentally you need to be fit in order to be termed as healthy. So in order to be “WHO healthy” you need to do four things: eat well, sleep well, exercise well and think well. Quite a task, isn’t it?
Let me take the first task and discuss about it since that is the topic of discussion.
Man needs to have food and water to survive apart from air to breathe for the oxygen. The purpose is to convert these into energy for day-to-day functioning of the body. We eat macronutrients and micronutrients. Protein, carbohydrate, and fat are the macronutrients and vitamin and minerals are the micronutrients. As the name suggests, macronutrients are needed in more amounts than the micronutrients. Our main vegetarian food sources are fruits, vegetables, cereals and pulses. Non-vegetarian food supplies nutrients from the animal which has been feeding on the plant source. They are supposed to give us all the above 5 main nutrient groups for maintaining health.
Now the story begins…………
The soil in which these crops and trees grow is supposed be rich in minerals. Oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon are obtained from water and air. The soil has nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, calcium, and magnesium in larger quantity. Manganese, copper, iron, zinc, boron, chlorine, and molybdenum are needed in smaller quantities. Apart from these there are 60-70 more minerals present in an ideal soil which truly would make the plant nutritionally rich. But the sad part is that plants nowadays are fed only with nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium based fertilizers since it was found that when added these give a good yield and do not allow the plant to die in spite of lacking in essential nutrients. The plant remains nutritionally poor since the farmer is not supplying the other essential ones. Farming repeatedly on the same farmland without replenishing the soil is stripping the soil of its mineral content. By just adding three components back, you can have a huge yield, but the plants are of plus quantity and minus quality. This fact has been accepted worldwide. Further, since the plant is nutritionally weak, it is susceptible to pest attacks and fungus infestations. The solution is insecticides and pesticides. Thus we have removed the nutrition from plants and added toxins to it. Neither the pests benefit, nor do we get anything worthwhile.
The fruits that we eat nowadays are plucked from the trees before they ripen naturally and are then artificially ripened with chemicals. What sort of nutritional value do you think we get from such fruits? We still need to eat them since that is the best we have got. We are thus eating crops of poor quality and with an additional helping of chemical-rich pesticides as a bonus. Nutritionists all over the globe now believe that we are now suffering from a mixture of deficiency and toxicity related illnesses. Most of the so called disease diagnoses are nothing but syndromes of multiple deficiency and toxicity symptoms bundled together.
The solution is eating crops grown organically, but that is a practical impossibility in cities.
Our earlier generations lived up to 90-100 years by having 2-3 meals a day without supplements because the food was giving them those antioxidants and vitamins and minerals, which we are not that fortunate to have nowadays.
Due to the above factors, the wellness industry is coming up in leaps and bounds and is supposed to be a major force to reckon with in the coming years as far as health and nutrition is concerned. Supplementation is the solution which will bridge the gap created by these nutritionally deficient food sources. The industry is criticized for the high prices these supplements cost, but let us not forget that organic foods too are expensive when you go to buy them from the hypermarkets. Spending on nutritional supplements is far better than spending on medicines. Again, I am making no claims about becoming immortal from taking them. Nutrition is just one pillar from the four pillars of good health. Do not forget that. Food, rest, exercise and a good attitude is what will keep you healthy. Just popping supplements is not the solution. So let us not have false hopes about it. But it definitely needs consideration in today’s time. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, said, “Let food be thy medicine and let medicine be thy food.”
Let me also clear one more fact: Supplements are to be taken with food and not as a substitute to food. Supplements are called supplements because they supplement what is lacking. We can’t live on supplements alone; they are to be taken in addition to food.
Many doctors have no clue about nutrition because we are taught about illness not health. We are taught how a disease evolves, not how health is maintained. We are a part of the sickness industry. Nobody goes to a doctor to ask him how to stay healthy; we only visit him when we are not well. There is only a small part about nutrition in the curriculum. It is said that if the doctors of today do not become nutritionists, then the nutritionists of tomorrow would become doctors.
There is one aspect related to supplements which is the most important one, but the most ignored one and that is we need to eat natural organic supplements. Synthetic supplements are made in the laboratory and it is not advisable to take them for a long time. They can be taken for short duration, ideally never but economic restraints sometimes make them a better choice. Natural supplements have no such limitations since they are food equivalents. Natural supplements cost more but they suit the body better. Synthetic supplements are treated like drugs by the body and utilized. Natural supplements are treated like food by the body and digested. There is a big debate on this and each one is free to choose what they would like to have.
Supplementation surely is not a fad, but a need to balance our poor dietary patterns in modern times to keep us healthy. Ultimately, prevention is anytime better than cure.
DISCLAIMER: NO CLAIM IS MADE TO OFFER ANY MATERIAL ON THIS SITE AS A REPLACEMENT FOR MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS CONSULT YOUR DOCTOR BEFORE ATTEMPTING ANY SUGGESTIONS GIVEN ON THIS BLOG.
