Whole Foods not Supplements!

It appears that the wisdom of Hippocrates is once again validated.  ”Let food be thy medicine and let medicine be thy food,” was his prescription for all ailments.    By food, of course, he meant whole, fresh, non-adulterated plants and animals, NOT that which is served today in so many cases.  After all, there are 25 more vitamins and nutrients in Whole Wheat Flour than there are in stripped Wheat Flour.  Even my eight year old can do that math.

In order to try to get the upper hand on their nutrition, many people take pills or supplements, which can make dubious and unsubstantiated claims as to their benefit.  Often, these supplements are not made from whole foods and contain the most easily extracted and available forms of certain vitamins, not necessarily the best ones.  These hastily extracted “nutrients” can be often problematic and can contain unwanted residues.  And if you thought that the FDA would regulate this you are right, they will…AFTER there is a significant amount of public reaction to a “supplement” on the market.  Now, I will say that I do believe in supplementing your diet with WHOLE FOOD derived substances such as wheat grass juice or spiralina, but that is a far cry from some of the miracle concoctions that you can purchase.

Now, it seems, studies are showing that taking supplements is not necessarily beneficial to your health and in some cases can be detrimental.  And these are not short-term, small studies, rather very large, long term, and comprehensive ones.   See the article below:  Studies Consistently Fail To Show Benefits Of Dietary Supplements – Experts Think It’s Time To Reevaluate via Studies Consistently Fail To Show Benefits Of Dietary Supplements – Experts Think It’s Time To Reevaluate | Singularity Hub.

The message that we must take from this is that we cannot outsmart nature.  Eating Whole Foods is the way our bodies were designed to assimilate our nutrients.  Trying to make up for a stripped diet apparently does not work.