Many people pop a multivitamin/mineral pill and feel like they are on the way to good health. However, it’s not that simple. First of all, most of these pills are made with low-cost elements/chemicals and most of these vitamins and minerals simply can not be absorbed by your body. Secondly, our body is designed to take in much more then vitamins and minerals from the food we eat. Vitamins and minerals actually only play a small role in helping us live healthy. “In fact, it is the rest of the nutrients in the WHOLE FOOD – the other 99% – that play a far greater role in orchestrating a longer life” (“NingXia Wolfberry – The ultimate Superfood”, by D. Gary Young. p. 18).
Whole foods are filled with polyphenols and phytochemicals, nutrients that are vital to our bodies. Polyphenols include flavonoids, proanthocyanidins, anthocyanidins, flavonones, flavones and flavonols, curcumin, cinnamic acid, isoflavones, and ellagic acid. Polyphenols and phytochemicals are a group of nutrients that is called “phytonutrients”; this group plays a HUGE role in our nutrition, in fact in studies performed by workers from the USDA, they outperformed pure vitamins! “Against the most common type of free radical -superoxide-the whole fruit outperformed everyone of the isolated vtiamins by at least a factor of three or four times.” (Wang SY and Jiao H. “Scavenging capacity of berry crops on superoxide radicals. J Agric Food Chem. 2000 Nov; 48 (11): 5677-84)
I invite you to research the subject yourself. Research “phytonutrients”, “polyphenols” and “flavonoids” on the internet and in nutrition books and articles. You will be amazed. Just suffice it for me to say that WHOLE FOODS and WHOLE FOOD SUPPLEMENTS are so much better for you than just taking a “regular” cheap multivitamin/mineral pill that you can find in Walgreens or Target.
In conclusion, I advice you to eat lots of fruits and veggies and whole-grain foods. Include berries also, since they are really high in antioxidant power. If you need a supplement, search for a supplement made from whole foods, don’t just purchase a cheapo supplement at your local store.
Mirdza Hayden
Helping People Lead Healthier Lives
http://www.mirdza.ws
