It is easy for people to become a little confused with this topic.
That's because on one hand it sounds as if we are saying there are not enough nutrients in food so you must take supplements, and then, if taken on face value without reading through the details adequately, it can be mistakenly seen that by decreasing the value of wholefood supplements, and saying people should eat natural foods, it can sound contradictory.
So I need to be more specific here.
What you have said in your comment is something that we both agree on.
Soils ARE depleted, nutrients ARE lacking in natural foods (wholefoods) "AT THE LEVELS WE NEED THEM TO BE FOR SOLE DIETARY HEALTH". Therefore nutritional supplementation IS needed for optimum health to make up for these deficits.
However, where wholefood supplements are concerned, as I mentioned in my original response to Deb, there is very little value.
This is because the source of these wholefoods are in fact the "whole foods" that I mentioned above. The only difference is that these are processed and put into supplement form for convenience.
So, wholefood supplements are taking "whole food" nutrients, that are already lacking in their natural raw form, and depleting them further by freeze drying them and processing them.
All kinds of processing of whole foods to get them into a dry powder or liquid form carries the detriment of stripping the whole food further of essential amino acids and enzymes which they would normally contain to help digestion.
It also lessens your body's normal function of digesting such foods. So this action has a 2-fold effect - processed foods that lack even more nutrients than in their raw form, and making the body lazy in digestive processes that would otherwise help it to keep healthy.
Wholefoods, in their natural (raw)form, although lacking in essential nutrients that we can now only get from supplementation (of nutritional elements, NOT whole food supplements), do still have many good nutritional and digestive benefits to help keep the body as healthy and as functional as possible.
I hope this clarifies what I was trying to get across in my response to Deb's original question.
Stay well
Brett
Apr 06, 2008 Rating
Misleading with no real knowledge of whole food supplements. by: Anonymous
You are right about the supplement industry.Buyer beware,most of the vitamins/supplements sold are junk.You are misleading the public about the nutritional value of most food available for human consumption..Mineral depletion from soil during the past 100 years shown by science is telling us that we are eating empty food.North American soil is 85% depleted.South American Soil-76%,Europe-72%,Asia-76%.The need for real organic whole food supplements is overwhelming.The key is to find real supplements from a real company.
Mar 09, 2008 Rating
Great answer by: Anonymous
Thanks for a great answer. I have been taking a whole food supplement but not anymore. I know understand what a waste of money its been!
