The foods we eat today are subjected to numerous processes that affect their nutritional value. Therefore, nutritional supplementation is critical to incorporate into our body those nutrients that are no longer contained in our diet.
The extra contribution of supplements in our diet and ensuring adequate levels of micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), antioxidants, and others, is one of the best options to prevent premature aging and the onset of numerous diseases. Therefore, nutritional supplementation is one of the bases of the treatment used by preventive medicine to combat the many situations of imbalance, weakness, or even disease that can occur throughout our lives.
Today, with all the information available to us, we can experience a great deal of confusion regarding the actual benefits and harms of nutritional supplementation and the need or not to include them in our diet. Therefore, it is essential to counteract the different theories, investigate their scientific rigor and, above all, consult with the actual nutrition experts and clarify all our doubts in this regard.
Our health professionals will know how to answer our questions and guide us in the right direction so that our diet is balanced and has a beneficial effect on our health and aging. Conversely, blind belief in specific theories or information that is not very rigorous or without a proven scientific basis can have a very negative impact on our health, both in the short and long term.
While the genetics of human beings have undergone very few changes in the last 10,000 years, everything around us has experienced significant and profound transformations. Thus, farmland, after centuries of exploitation, is no longer the same and has lost nutrients.
Crops are treated with chemicals (pesticides and preservatives), livestock is fed with feed mixed with hormones and antibiotics, the air we breathe every day is more polluted and has higher CO2 levels – in 2015 where we already referred to its harmful effect.
Therefore, all the processes that the vast majority of the foods we eat today go through are subjected – from the time they are a “simple seed” until they are in our refrigerator – to numerous processes that profoundly affect their nutritional value.
For example, spinach in 1948 contained 158 milligrams of iron; 25 years later, the same amount contained less than 2.2 milligrams, so how much spinach should we eat today to ingest the same amount of iron as 25 years ago? The correct answer is about 75 servings?
It is a widely demonstrated fact that the foods that reach our table today are not the same as 25 years ago, not even those we grow in our garden using traditional methods because it is no longer the same air that farm animals breathe, nor are our crops the same, nor the conditions of hunting or fishing… This inevitably affects our biomarkers, showing us that we may have significant deficiencies even if we lead a healthy life with good stress management and a balanced diet.
Therefore, nutritional supplementation is necessary to incorporate into our organism that is no longer contained in the food we eat. But it is essential to keep in mind that an excessive, uncontrolled, or indiscriminate (not personalized) supplementation can also be detrimental to our health.
To start with nutritional supplementation, it is essential to know which biomarkers are altered in our analytical profile and to assess the appropriate concentrations so that it has the beneficial effect we are looking for and does not negatively affect our health. This assessment can only be made by a health professional who knows how to interpret this information. As with any pharmacological product, no matter how “natural” it may be, it must be previously measured and adjusted to the condition of the “patient.”
Not just any product or concentration will do, but the one that exerts its beneficial effect on each individual. When a nutritional supplementation does not have an impact on the corresponding biomarkers, it is because it is not adequate, hence the feeling that “they do not work” that we can feel in all those cases in which we take food supplements without the control of a specialist, influenced by fashions or industrial pressure.
Supplementation, in addition to ensuring adequate micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), antioxidants, and others, is one of the best options for preventing premature aging and the onset of numerous diseases. However, nutritional supplementation is especially effective in adulthood and when the first symptoms and signs of aging appear.
The SENECA study (Study of The European Nutrition of The Elderly, Concerted Action) reveals that, in Spain, despite the consumption of fish and being a country with many hours of sunshine, vitamin D levels are much lower than in northern European countries. Therefore, despite living in favorable conditions, the Spanish population needs vitamin D supplementation.
It is important to remember that “nutritional supplement” refers to an additional contribution to a balanced diet. Therefore, nutritional supplementation is meaningless without a balanced diet and vice versa.
At Neolife, we have been working for years to prescribe a safe, effective, personalized nutritional supplementation adapted to the diet of every one of our patients, providing them with all the necessary information for its correct consumption.
In our centers, we rigorously measure the biomarkers (homocysteine, 25-OH-cholecalciferol, iron, calcium, omega 3…) necessary to assess and adjust the nutritional supplementation following periodic analytical controls, since without them, it is not possible to evaluate the effectiveness of nutritional supplementation in general.
At Marcare Clinic, we review, maintain, and offer a quality health service in Hamilton, Ontario.
If you need to visit your doctor for a general medical review or receive advice on improving your quality of life, do not hesitate to contact us.
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