Are you eating Enough Fresh Produce?

Well Friday’s post was long but it really said well what I believe to be true. There are a lot of products available to us intended to better our health. Most people I know are taking medicine, vitamins and/or minerals to improve there health. I honestly believe many of the products people are taking today are not helping them and in some cases are detrimental to their well being. God had a beautiful plan and place for us in the Garden of Eden. Unfortunately we no longer have an ideal place to live so we need to work at making it the best we can. Eating natural whole foods is a good start. Eating organically grown fresh raw fruits and vegetables is the best source of nutrients, enzymes, fulvic minerals and probiotics that I know of. I am not promoting that we all become vegetarians, but I do think we would do well to increase the amount of vegetables, fruits and berries we normally eat. Our own government is recommending 5 to 9 servings a day. For most of us that would be very difficult to do. Although not impossible it is hard to find a good source of fresh, organically grown produce. Add to this it should be a diverse array of different produce to get a good synergistic mix of nutrients and vitamins. Do the best you can and then consider a natural whole food supplement to help complete your diet. There are a few good ones available on the market today. Just be sure to pick one that is as close to the actual real raw whole foods as can be done.

Real or Synthetic: The Truth Behind Whole-Food Supplements

By Daniel H. Chong, ND


Americans are now spending more than $17 billion a year on supplements for health and wellness. Strangely enough, the rates of some forms of chronic disease have not changed, while the rates of others have actually increased. There are a number of reasons for these poor statistics and many things remain a mystery.

One thing seems fairly clear, however. Most supplements aren't helping very much.

I'm not saying there are no helpful supplements out there. There certainly are. What is becoming more apparent, however, is supplements will not help much if one does not first address the necessary basics of health and healing.

What is also clear is that not all supplements are created equal. The basics of health and healing were discussed in another of my articles, The Six Foundations of Healing. I believe these areas must be addressed for true healing to occur in any chronic disease. In this article, I will discuss some things you should consider if you need to or want to take some supplements. Specifically, I will address the differences between whole foods versus synthetic or isolated nutritional supplements.

Whole Food Nutrients Vs. Synthetic, Isolated Nutrients


Most people who read the eHealthy News You Can Use newsletter are at least somewhat familiar with the idea that whole foods are better for you than refined foods. Although there are numerous viewpoints on what kind of foods we should or should not be eating, as well as the ideal ratio of these foods, everyone from all corners of the diet and nutrition world seems to agree on one thing: No matter which foods we choose and in what ratios we eat them, whole foods are better for you than refined foods.

This fact has never really been argued. Everyone agrees raw honey is better for you than white sugar or that brown rice is better for you than white rice. Why should it be any different for vitamins?

Often, I have been puzzled by the average naturopath or nutritionist who goes on and on about the value of whole foods and how refined foods -- having been robbed of all the extra nutrients they naturally come with -- are not healthy for you. Then, they go on to prescribe a shopping bag full of isolated, refined vitamins for you to take!

Just like refined foods, these refined vitamins have been robbed of all of the extra accessory nutrients that they naturally come with as well. In turn, like refined foods, they can create numerous problems and imbalances in your body if taken at high levels for long periods of time. They can also act more like drugs in your body, forcing themselves down one pathway or another. At the very least, they won't help you as much as high quality food and food-based supplements.

Whole Food Supplements

Whole food supplements are what their name suggests: Supplements made from concentrated whole foods. The vitamins found within these supplements are not isolated. They are highly complex structures that combine a variety of enzymes, coenzymes, antioxidants, trace elements, activators and many other unknown or undiscovered factors all working together synergistically, to enable this vitamin complex to do its job in your body.

Nutrients from within this complex cannot be taken apart or isolated from the whole, and then be expected to do the same job in the body as the whole complex is designed to do.

The perfect example of this difference can be seen in an automobile. An automobile is a wonderfully designed complex machine that needs all of its parts to be present and in place to function properly. Wheels are certainly an important part of the whole, but you could never isolate them from the rest of the car, call them a car or expect them to function like a car. They need the engine, body and everything else.

The same analogy applies to the vitamin C (ascorbic acid) or vitamin E (delta tocopherol) you can find on most health food store shelves. They are parts of an entire complex that serve a purpose when part of the whole. However, they cannot do the job of the entire complex by themselves.

With similar logic in place, one can analyze what a typical multivitamin truly is. The automobile equivalent of creating a multivitamin would be going to a junk yard, finding all of the separate parts you would need to make up an entire automobile, throwing them together in a heap (or capsule in terms of the multivitamin) and expecting that heap to drive like a car!

Obviously, there is a difference. Science cannot create life. Only life can create life.

Synthetic or Isolated Nutritional Supplements

Isolated nutrients or synthetic nutrients are not natural, in that they are never found by themselves in nature. Taking these isolated nutrients, especially at the ultra-high doses found in formulas today, is more like taking a drug. Studies show the body treats these isolated and synthetic nutrients like xenobiotics (foreign substances).

By the same token, food-based supplements are never treated like this by your body. For example, your urine will never turn florescent yellow, no matter how much meat (a good source of B vitamins) you eat. This sort of rapid excretion happens only with foreign substances in your body.

Not only are isolated nutrients treated like drugs or other chemicals by your body. Like drugs, they can create problems for you too. Nature does not produce any nutrient in an isolated form. The nutrients in foods are blended together in a specific way and work best in that format. For an isolated nutrient to work properly in the body, it needs all the other parts that are naturally present in the food too.

If the parts are not all there from the start, they are taken from the body's stored supply. This is why isolated nutrients often work for a little while, then seem to stop working. Once your body's store of the extra nutrients is used up, the isolated nutrient you're taking doesn't work as well anymore. Worse yet, a deficiency in these extra nutrients can be created in your body.

And, because most nutrients are isolated from the foods they come in -- using a wide array of potentially nasty solvents and other chemicals -- taking high amounts of these products can also expose you to these potentially toxic chemicals, if care is not taken to remove them. With the burden we are already facing from the high number of chemicals in our environment, why would anyone want to add more?


Synergy and Potency

The various parts of a natural vitamin complex work together in a synergistic manner. Synergy means that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Nutritionist Judith DeCava puts it best: "Separating the group of compounds (in a vitamin complex) converts it from a physiological, biochemical, active micronutrient into a disabled, debilitated chemical of little or no value to living cells. The synergy is gone."

In other words, the automobile, in its original form, will drive better than a pile of its individual parts. Most people don't follow this logic when examining a nutritional supplement.

Supplement makers typically try to stuff as much as possible in a capsule, telling us that the more we take, the better it is for us. This is simply not the case. As you now know, it is not necessarily the amount of a nutrient you ingest that is important, but its form and how much is bioavailable that counts the most. In fact, remembering that ingesting single nutrients can actually create imbalances in the body, logic would dictate the higher the level of a single nutrient that you take in, the quicker this imbalance will occur.

What all of this means: The potency of a supplement has much more to do with synergy than with actual nutrient levels. It is a combined effect of all the parts of the food, rather than the chemical effect of a single part, that is most important.

Don't Forget the Basics

I fear all of this talk of supplements -- food-based, isolated or synthetic -- has detracted from the most important part of health and healing. The basics of proper diet, exercise, detoxification, structure, mental/emotional and spiritual health must all be in order for true healing to occur. No supplement will work on its own if these foundations are not in place.

However, even when these foundations are in place, or if the situation is acute enough to necessitate a more immediate treatment response, supplement support may still be needed for a while. You may also want to take one or more food-based supplements to ensure you are getting an adequate array of nutrients in your diet. When these situations arise, I strongly recommend food-based supplements be your first choice.

Keys to a Good Nutritional Supplement

How do you tell whether or not a supplement you're looking at is a good choice? For starters, make sure it has the following characteristics:

It is as close as possible to its natural form.
The utmost care has been taken in all phases of its production, from growing its ingredients, to manufacturing, testing for potency and quality control.
It works! I always try to select from companies that have a long track record of providing high quality products that produce good clinical results.

Dr. Daniel Chong is a licensed naturopathic physician practicing in Canby, OR. His practice focuses on the management of "functional health conditions" such as digestion problems, hormonal imbalance, diabetes, fatigue and allergies. Aside from his private practice in Oregon, Dr. Chong is also available for consultations via telephone and the internet. He may be contacted at:

178 SW 2nd Ave.
Canby, OR 97013
503.266.4329
NaturalMedicineConsultations.com

Resources

Decava, Judith, The Real Truth About Vitamins and Antioxidants
Frost, Mary, Going Back to the Basics of Human Health
West, Bruce, Health Alert (Health and wellness newsletter)

Back to the Basics - Natural Whole Foods

Back to Basics . . . Our Past Reveals the Future of Nutrition!
With natural whole food supplements and health awareness at an all-time high, why have health problems skyrocketed over the last 100 years? While our ancestors lived difficult lives, they were not burdened with many of the complicated health challenges we face today. So what has changed in our modern world? What is the secret to enjoying the health and vitality experienced by our forefathers?

The answer is simple and indisputable: Live Whole Food Nutrition!
For centuries, our ancestors received nourishment from whole food sources; Vegetables, berries, seeds, greens, sprouts, fruits, grains and nuts grown in chemical and pesticide free soil – soil that was rich in probiotics, fulvic acid, enzymes and minerals.

In today’s world, our bodies still require the complete balance of pure nutrients and energy provided by live whole foods. The modern demands of our fast-paced world have led to the processing of food to the point of non-nutrition. Authentic food value has been sacrificed for convenience. Natural whole foods have been replaced with chemically modified products that can promote illness and disease. Today we are not only eating food – our food is eating us. In an attempt to counteract the impact of poor nutrition, we supplement our diet with “processed nutrition” in the form of isolated synthetic vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that are only slightly more beneficial than the processed foods that created the problem!

The URI solution to the nutritional crisis facing our world is pretty simple … “Back to Basics” Back to a complete balance of live whole-foods, just the way that nature intended for healthy living. Supplementing your diet with URI live whole food nutritional products provide that balance. Feed your body the live whole food nutrition your body knows, Nutrition your body needs.

Get “Back to Basics” with naturally powerful, naturally pure, naturally complete, live whole food nutrition… only from URI International

ORAC Count

How do you know if your supplement is any good? Supplement companies are looking for ways to prove their product is good for you. At first we just got a lot of hype but now science is producing a few tests to quantify the value of a supplement for the human body. One of those ways is called ORAC or ORAC count.

WHAT IS ORAC?

ORAC has become the latest "buzz" word in the nutritional industry. ORAC is an abbreviation for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity - a method of measuring the overall antioxidant activity of the particular ingredient, food or product being tested.

The higher the ORAC value, the more antioxidant power.

The ORAC test was developed once scientists became aware that phytonutrients such as antioxidants found in fruits & berries have such powerful health benefits. In fact berries were found to be the highest on the ORAC scale!

The greatest protection is provided when a variety of foods high in these nutrients are combined, in a synergistic mix.

An intake of 3,000-5,000 ORAC units per day is recommended for a significant health boosting impact. Because most people are already getting a portion of this value from their regular diet, research suggests supplementing the diet by at least 1000-2500 ORAC units per day.

Do you know the ORAC value of your supplement????