“I don't eat a lot of sugar, I eat healthy foods, I don't eat fast food very often, so why should I take supplements?”
That’s a great question, and here’s the truth.
Unfortunately...
Modern farming practices, food processing, and even environmental factors have stripped many foods of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients, making it nearly impossible to get everything our body needs from diet alone, even if you’re among the healthiest of eaters.
That’s why vitamin and mineral supplements aren’t just a nice option—they’re an important tool for maintaining and optimizing your overall health.
Yes, they’re often labeled as “unnecessary” by big health agencies, but I believe that the right supplements are essential for preventing deficiencies ensuring our body functions at its full potential.
Worth it or Worthless? Why Supplements Are So Confusing.
There are lots of conflicting reports about the benefits, effectiveness, and even safety of vitamin and mineral supplements. Unlike drugs, which are designed to have specific, targeted effects, these nutrients are natural substances your body already uses.
What’s more, one nutrient can influence many functions in our body.
Because of this, the effects of specific vitamin and mineral supplementation can be harder to isolate and measure, leading to varying study results. This is one reason there’s so much contradictory information about them in the media.
What Vitamins and Minerals Actually Do For You.
Most of us know “vitamins and minerals are good for us,” but we often don’t realize how crucial they really are.
These compounds are key players in countless chemical reactions in our body—literally millions a day and are involved in everything.
They help us process the oxygen we breathe.
Fight off viruses.
Turn food into energy.
Enzyme Supply.
Vitamins and minerals also supply important enzymes - the “kick-starters" to our metabolism..
Our body relies on enzymes, the tiny machines that speed up reactions that help our body break down food, build tissues, and carry out many other essential processes efficiently.
Every enzyme has a “helper” called a cofactor or coenzyme. These helpers assist in its function and vitamins and minerals are their helpers.
For example, vitamin B12 acts as a coenzyme in the process of making red blood cells. So without enough vitamin B12, our body can’t produce healthy red blood cells. This leads to fatigue and other health issues.
Are Hidden Deficiencies Tanking My Health?
In our Western world, deficiencies in calories and “macronutrients” [carbohydrates, fat, and protein]are not the concern, because getting enough food isn’t a problem for most Americans.
Approximately 99% of the American population is deficient in at least some essential vitamins and minerals, particularly trace minerals. Trace minerals, are needed in very small amounts but play crucial roles in many bodily functions.
Deficiencies.
A deficiency can lead to an obvious illness, like a vitamin C deficiency which leads to scurvy or low vitamin D levels resulting in rickets. This is termed a “frank deficiency” because it's clinically evident and unmistakable. These are the ones we are most familiar with.
However, a "subclinical deficiency" is harder to identify.
This means you’re not getting enough of a nutrient to meet your body’s optimal needs, but the deficiency isn’t severe enough to cause immediate, obvious symptoms.
Yet, over time, these hidden deficiencies can lead to serious health issues.
Hidden Issues.
Low calcium levels can lead to weaker bones and increase our risk of osteoporosis and frequent breaks.
Atherosclerosis a leading cause of heart disease can be linked to deficiencies of vitamins B6, B9, B12 and D.
On the outside, we may appear fine, but internally, our body is experiencing deficiencies that can lead to inflammation, oxadative stress, and impaired cholesterol transport.
Understanding and addressing these hidden deficiencies is crucial for maintaining health and preventing long-term damage.
What Optimal Levels Really Mean.
Optimal levels refer to the amount of nutrients we need to achieve the best possible health outcomes.
Vitamin C - to avoid a deficiency that leads to scurvy, we need only 10 mg of vitamin C daily. But for optimal protection, a daily dose of 500mg 2 times a day will provide optimal antioxidant protection.
Vitamin D - to prevent rickets 600 IU/day of vitamin D is needed. But to achieve optimal protection, between 2000-5000 IU daily is required.
The RDA [recommended dietary allowances] are designed to prevent deficiencies not for optimal health for us to thrive and are often far below what our body needs.
Why Are We Deficient in Minerals?
Because, we are “overfed but undernourished”!
The foods we eat today are highly refined, stripping away many essential minerals during processing and are about 30% less nutritious than foods in 1940.
This drop in nutrient density is one of the biggest contributors to chronic disease and premature death.
Did You Know?
To get the same level of minerals as someone did 80 years ago, you’d need to eat 30% more food.
Consider This:
The average American consumes about 134 pounds of sugar per year, plus other refined foods like doughnuts, cakes, cookies, ice cream, potato chips, candy, and soda. These popular and common refined foods drain our nutrient reserves.
Eating too many highly refined foods does more than just load us up with empty calories. These foods are stripped of minerals, so unfortunately, our body takes the needed minerals from within, draining us and causing deficiencies.
We need adequate vitamin and mineral stores to metabolize the food we eat. When we are operating in a sub-optimal level, our body suffers.
Eating a diet of highly refined foods causes a greater level of stressors [inflammation]. In this deficient state, our body has to work harder, because it now requires a greater amount of enzymes to combat these stressors.
This leaves us with fewer enzymes available for other important functions.
Consuming too much sugar raises insulin levels, which can cause calcium and magnesium loss through our urine.
Over time a diet high in sugar and starches, can lead to insulin resistance—where our cells basically become “numb” to insulin. When that happens, our body struggles to absorb important minerals like magnesium and potassium.
The more refined foods you eat, the more depleted your body becomes of these crucial micronutrients.
Low Vitamins & Minerals - The Ripple Effect On Your Health
We experience trouble maintaining or loosing weight, because our body is low in essential nutrients, so it craves more food, trying to get what it needs.
Unfortunately, no amount of those highly processed foods will truly satisfy that craving, because they are lacking in vital nutrients.
But, when we eat real, nutrient-rich food we will feel more satisfied and the urge to over eat diminishes.
Getting enough vitamins and minerals improves;
How our body burns calories
Regulates our appetite
Lowers inflammation
Boosts detoxification
Aids digestion
Balances stress hormones
Helps cells respond better to insulin
Soil Erosion, Fertilizers, Pesticides, Herbicides, and Insecticides.
Industrial farming methods, such as intensive tillage and the overuse of herbicides and pesticides can destroy the delicate soil microbiome.
This is the vital ecosystem that helps plants pull nutrients from the soil and when that’s disrupted, the soil itself gets depleted. Now the plants have less nutrients to use, the animals that eat those plants get fewer nutrients and we loose out too.
Between 1940 and 1999, the amount of magnesium in vegetables dropped by 24%, in fruit by 17%, in meat by 15%, and in cheese by 26%.
Add to all this, the widespread use of synthetic fertilizers, which are designed to boost crop yields by adding nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium to the soil focuses on just a few nutrients. This can lead to an imbalance of other essential minerals like magnesium, zinc, iron, and iodine in the crops.
As a result, the fruits, veggies, and animal products you’re eating today just don’t have the same nutrient profile they did a few decades ago.
If you’re not eating foods that are grown regeneratively or organically, chances are you’ll need to supplement to fill in the gaps. Also, our daily exposure to stress and toxins that deplete nutrients in our body leads me to urge you to consider some supplementation.
Heavy Metals
Heavy metals like lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury, and aluminum have made their way into our food supply, due to industrial pollution. Once in our system, they compete with essential minerals for absorption and enzyme binding, which effectively pushes out the vital minerals our body needs to function properly.
Our best defense is to eat a diet rich in essential minerals!
The Missing Link to Thriving Health
The most important step we can take to support our best health is to eat whole, real food.
But, because of modern agricultural practices, long transport times, and depleted soils, we have to be very intentional about getting all the vitamins and minerals our body needs. Taking a few well-sourced supplements to safe-guard our health is a wise practice.
Jan’s Essential 5*.
I’m cautious about actually suggesting specific supplements on this blog as I believe we are all unique and our needs are specific to us. That said, I will suggest you consider adding these supplements to your daily routine.
High-quality Multivitamin
Vitamin D3+K2
Omega-3
Magnesium
High-quality Probiotic
*Specific brands and actual amounts require an individualized protocol.
Would you like to find out how you can support your health and actually begin to feel better?
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This is a deep dive into what you’re currently eating, your lifestyle habits [movement, sleep, stressors, light environment], along with supplement suggestions. I will suggest easy to follow ideas that can be the key to unlock your best health ever. You can find out more here;
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Thanks for reading,
Jan
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