Super-Nutrition from Vitamins and Minerals

Almost everyone has heard of vitamins, and knows that they are essential for health and continued existence. The name itself suggests their importance (a shortening of “vital amines”).

Vitamins

Vitamins began to be discovered and investigated many decades ago, and there is now little doubt in anyone’s mind that they are essential to life. However, there has been much discussion about ideal daily intake of each vitamin, and a number of years ago levels were agreed upon among “experts” for each vitamin, called the “Recommended Daily Allowance” (RDA).

The RDA levels are now regarded by real experts as being so ludicrously low, for most nutrients, as to be dismissed without discussion. RDAs were agreed initially by people studying diseases caused by malnutrition, such as scurvy or beriberi. It is possible that the levels were set high enough to avoid these obvious diseases, but they are certainly not sufficient for vibrant health. Some examples of the inadequacies of RDA are:

¨       Vitamin E: RDA 30iu/day; the Stute brothers (doctors specialising in heart problems) in New York recommended 5000iu/day for heart attack victims.

¨       Vitamin B12: RDA 5mcg/day; suggested dose up to 5000mcg per day for nerve problems and anaemia.

Get the message?

Essential Minerals

As previously stated, most people are aware of the need for vitamins. The essential nature of many minerals is not so well known.

It is probable that a shortage of essential minerals is an even more frequent cause of health problems than shortage of vitamins, especially when eating foods produced by modern intensive farming methods. It is a known fact that fruit, vegetables and grains produced by modern methods contain roughly 50% of the minerals in crops produced organically. Mineral supplementation has become more essential than ever, because of this.

We have observed that even among nutritionally informed and aware people, most people think that by taking a good quality multivitamin/multimineral, they will be getting enough minerals. This is unlikely to be correct, especially in the case of the minerals calcium and magnesium.

Vitamin C and Bioflavonoids

We have little doubt that vitamin C is the most important of all vitamins, and is needed in greater amounts than any other. There are a set of nutrients called bioflavonoids that are always found with vitamin C in plants. They help the activity of vitamin C, and also have powerful effects of their own. Certain respected authorities have concluded that the ideal proportion of vitamin C to bioflavonoids is 6-1.

Beware

There are many multivitamin/minerals on the market with fancy names like A-Z, claiming to fulfil all your needs. Many have only RDA levels, and only include those for which an RDA has been set, so that a number of nutrients are missing altogether. In the case of multiminerals, things are even worse. There can be up to a tenfold difference in absorbability of cheap forms such as iron sulphate, and the best forms such as iron bisglycinate.

The actual requirements for vitamins, and particularly minerals and vitamin C, are so great that no single tablet could contain enough unless it was a “horse pill”. The difference between the good ones and the bad are far greater than between a Rolls-Royce and a Mini. At least a Mini works.

We are confident that, especially for those pushing themselves hard either physically or mentally, full vitamin and mineral supplementation will improve their health and performance noticeably. This needs to be a good multivitamin, a separate multimineral  and extra vitamin C with the correct proportion of bioflavonoids.

Senior Citizens (age 55+?) Please Note:

A group of people for whom strong vitamin and mineral supplementation is particularly important is the over-55s. As we get older, our ability to absorb nutrients deteriorates considerably, making vitamin and mineral supplementation more important.

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