The truth about vitamin and other supplementation

Vitamins, Vitamin supplements, Deficiency

Before we can evaluate whether or not a particular person in a particular situation could benefit from supplementation, we need to clearly establish what we mean when we say that someone is "deficient" in certain areas of his/her nutrition.

How can we "measure" deficiency? What is it?

Health Authorities in the Western world are keen to put out lists of what they call Recommended Dietary Allowances. Let's familiarise ourselves with this concept as the name suggests that these "food allowances", recommended by the authorities, might have something to do with the food requirements needed to avoid deficiency.
The Recommended Dietary Allowances, or RDA's, were established in 1941 in response to the threat of war. They were determined in an effort to define nutrient needs for mass-feeding programmes, in which whole populations might need to be supplied with minimal diets. These recommendations are now being applied for purposes for which they were never intended. They are no guide at all to nutritional values of food ingredients, but are a very basic and rough guide to what is required for minimal food survival packages for an entire population, not any individual in particular.

How were these nutrient requirements established?

First, the mean quantity of a given nutrient that a population requires was determined according to the standard that half the people eating less than this quantity might show no signs of deficiency, and that half of those with an intake exceeding this quantity may show signs of deficiency. Next, because the mean is an estimate, to allow for variability among individuals the actual RDA is set at two standard deviations above this quantity. This adjustment is supposed to assure that 98% of all healthy persons will have their needs for a particular nutrient satisfied by the amount specified. This amount obviously exceeds by a large margin the minimal nutrient requirement for most people in the population. On the other hand, even by standards used to determine the RDA's, a full 2% of the population will suffer from a deficiency of some nutrients if they follow the RDA's.
It obviously isn't down to the RDA's to ensure the health of all of us. There is definitely more to it then that.

Let's summarise the general knowledge gained in the last century about health, diet and the changes made.

Man's body is a complex, biochemical machine that has specific requirements for health, including specific nutritional requirements. Apart from the ingredients of food, we also need air, warmth, shelter, sunlight and companionship. A deficiency of any of these essential nutrients will result in ill-health. A Western diet is characterised by dietary excesses and shortages, which have devastating effects upon the body's biochemistry and health.
Planet-wide dietary variations are enormous and the body's resilience is remarkable. It is amazing that the health and lifespan of those who are underfed, or indeed overfed, are not worse than the average.
A truly healthy or optimum diet has never been fully defined. It is true to say that no portion of the human race has lived on a completely healthy or optimum diet for any great length of time, if ever at all.
The rapidity of change in Western eating habits is unprecedented and undoubtedly accounts for many diseases affecting Western man. Before the development of modern technology dietary changes only occurred slowly. Botanical research and modern farming methods have made possible the introduction of new types and large quantities of foods into our food supply. Many of these don't reach us in an unadulterated form. Significant quantities of minerals and vitamins are lost in the process of refining and processing of foods. The more we interfere with food, the greater the potential for health risks is.
The majority of diets are influenced by market forces and, in the West, by advertising rather than by scientific recommendation. Food manufacturers have to make a profit. This means that they have to put the interests of their shareholders first, rather than altruistically providing the best foods for their customers.
What is a healthy diet for one individual or population may not necessarily be so for other individuals or populations. There is real truth in the old saying, "One man's meat is another man's poison". A failure to appreciate individual variation in biochemistry has resulted in many members of the medical profession dismissing diet as a major factor in disease.
An "average" or normal diet is not necessarily a healthy one. Repeated dietary surveys show that in many groups the intake of essential nutrients is low or borderline.
Anyone who is ill, or just has symptoms, has a different nutritional requirement from the times when he/she is perfectly healthy. The presence of symptoms or an illness indicates an imbalance in the health status of that individual, changing his/her requirements for nutrition.

So, stop believing that there is such a thing as a healthy diet, fixed and unchangeable, good for every one.
Defining a healthy, balanced diet and a nutritional deficiency is proving a bit of an impossible task. Before we go on to where that leaves us in terms of knowing what to consume to support our body in its effort to be healthy, we will need a greater understanding of what actually causes a nutritional deficiency.

General Causes of Deficiency

Whether or not an individual is deficient in one or more nutrients depends on a lot more than just the amount taken in the diet, let alone the RDA. There are four main factors that influence nutritional status:

Biochemical individuality
The quality of the food we eat
The quantity of the food we eat
The efficiency of digestion, absorption and utilisation

Biochemical Individuality

It is now widely accepted that health is an individual matter. We are all different in many ways and what is good for one today may not be good for another today, nor may it be good for the same person tomorrow. We are different and things change all the time. Yet our healthcare system is based on the presumption that we are all the same and nothing ever changes. This is, simply put, bizarre.
The medical profession fully accepts that such an assumption has to be false, but carries on playing the number-game. Everything they do hinges on statistics. If more people report being better whilst receiving a certain treatment, then it must be good for everybody. Well, we know, and they know, that this isn't true, but at least you feel your "chances" of getting better have increased. But does it make a substantial difference to you personally? Let's look at a fictional risk of getting a mutilating and crippling disease of 1 in 10 million. To doctors that is a very low risk and consequently, to the healthcare system, a low priority. For the individual who gets the disease, the risk is 1 in 1 as he/she actually has the disease, and the healthcare provisions paramount. So, in order to increase successful healthcare it must be considered on an individual basis. That, however, the medical profession classifies as anecdotal: a friendly term, meaning "meaningless to us". But can we ever know an individual's risk as opposed to a statistical risk for the whole population? Can we with reasonable accuracy predict the likely problems an individual is heading for? That, I am afraid, will take us far away from vitamins and mineral supplements, and will therefore have to wait. Suffice it to say, don't turn your back on the old knowledge that "nothing is impossible".

The Quality of Food

Dieticians know exactly how many calories there are in a tomato, what the concentration is of all the main ingredients, and how many we all should have as part of our healthy diet. What the Western world seems to have failed to take note of, is that a tomato grown in England is different from one grown in Italy and one from Mexico. Why? Because everything that makes the tomato what it is, is different: the climate, the quality of sunlight, the soil, the water and the air. The most important ingredient in the quality of our food is how and where it is grown.

Next is what we do to our food after we have grown it. Do we eat it fresh from the soil or the plant? Do we send it away to be sterilised, vacuum packed or frozen, to be preserved, so we have time to move the food to a great number of places over vast distances?
Not so long ago scientific research showed that the majority of our fruit and vegetables are seriously devoid of vitamins and minerals. It was reported in the popular press under the heading "There is no vitamin C in your orange!" The main reason for the appalling deficiencies is said to be the harvesting of unripe fruit and vegetables, which are then left to "ripen" either during their long transportation halfway across the world, or in cooling units. The lack of a natural environment prohibits the food to become what it was meant to be. The other reason for the general poor state of our pretty-looking fruits and vegetables is the poor quality soil they are grown in, which is a direct result of many years of artificial fertilisation and forced growth.

The Quantity of Food

Dependency on large amounts of refined foods is known to lead to malnutrition, even when there is no undernutrition. If nutrient-dense foods such as whole grains and unprocessed foods are replaced by processed foods that have been stripped of essential nutrients, there will obviously be an alteration of the nutritional status of the person who eats them.

Digestion, Absorption, Utilisation

An individual whose digestive system is inefficient is more likely to have a poor nutritional status than someone with an efficient digestive system. This might seem obvious, yet it is widely overlooked by health professionals and the public alike. "A bit of indigestion; … suffer from wind; …bouts of loose stools or constipation", are all mild but definite indications that the digestion is not working properly. Consequently, the food does not get broken down properly; nutrients are lost, resulting in possible nutritional deficiency.

Certain conditions of the intestine reduce the efficiency with which digested foods are absorbed. Examples of these are food allergies such as gluten intolerance, which alters the inner lining of the gut, or polyps, diverticulosis and Crohn's disease. Besides this, the presence of other substances in the diet can prevent certain nutrients from being absorbed properly. For example, tea and coffee reduce the absorption of zinc and iron. Bran fibres can reduce the absorption of calcium, iron and zinc. Foods in their natural status, non-refined, have a combination of substances within them that will aid the process of digestion and absorption. These substances are generally referred to by medical authorities as "impurities".
Some people may also have metabolic abnormalities that prevent the body from efficiently utilising the nutrients that are there. These metabolic problems can be caused by genetic factors, food intolerance, other nutrient deficiencies, food toxins and environmental pollution such as certain pesticides.

Now that we have looked at what constitutes a deficiency, what causes it and how the quality of our food plays a vital role in the nutritional status of the individual, we can move on to the place of supplementation in our diet.

Scientific Reasons for Supplements

As repeated scientific studies have shown the importance of nutritional factors in the prevention and treatment of diseases, it is now taken for granted by doctors and scientists that diet is a major factor in the diseases of the Western world. However, when it comes to the consequent treatment, we find that this is largely ignored in favour of the drug approach. There is no financial reward for sending people home with advice on dietary habits, herbs and home-made remedies. It also demystifies disease and penetrates the wall of jargon and complexity the medical profession has created around itself in order to claim the sole possession of the wisdom of health and disease patterns. Some of the commonest diseases of civilisation include heart disease, high blood pressure, dental caries, obesity, diverticulosis, gallstones, appendicitis, gout, varicose veins, strokes, diabetes and cancer. They are all more common in the Western world than elsewhere. We produce more of these diseases than anyone else, yet we claim to know how to combat them!

As well as these very serious conditions, many non-killing diseases that beset technologically advanced countries may also be linked to food. These include asthma, eczema and other allergies, chronic degenerative diseases such as osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, and mental illness. There is increasing, indeed, overwhelming evidence that many of these conditions, if not all, can be prevented and treated by nutritional means. Many sectors of the read more