[groan] Don't bother.
Malnutrition IS associated with obesity. So the first suggestion that people hear is "take a multivitamin/mineral." Unless your diet is 100% GARBAGE (and some people do have such a diet) it's not going to fix much.
What are the worst imbalances in the common diet? Maybe, lack of pantothenic acid? Hardly (by dictionary definition, it's everywhere). My vote is for TOO MUCH omega-6 fats, TOO MUCH fructose, TOO MUCH insulin-stimulating foods of all kinds, TOO LITTLE protein, TOO LITTLE omega-3s, short- and medium chain fatty acids.... No vitamin in the world is going to balance these problems.
Then, what good is it going to do you to take calcium, if your low K2 just sends it into your circulatory system instead of your bones and teeth, where it'll actually do you some good? What good, all the minerals in minuscule quantities, which compete with each other for absorption? What good vitamin C, when all the sugar in your diet ties up the receptors?
Thanks to SOME researchers, who have determined how nutrients perform in the body (NOT in vitro, which tends to mean about as much as epidemiological studies do), we can approach the subject of supplementation intelligently. Read up on anything you have doubts about, from a reputable source -- people get themselves into trouble supplementing single substances when they don't. Heard the stories about Hashi's patients getting sick on iodine? That's because somebody didn't do their homework, and make sure they were sufficient in selenium too....
I don't think that there's much doubt, nutrients are BEST acquired through whole foods ... UNLESS there are absorption issues. Nature, which formed us, also put our ideal food together -- though not in that order -- and the way nutrients arrive through a pre-agricultural diet require less adaptation by us to assimilate. Less STRESS to our bodies (don't we have enough stress with modern lifestyles?).
But the next time your body doesn't act quite right, it's only reasonable to ask yourself, "could i be deficient in something" rather than "can i get a prescription to fix this."
Yes--avoid pills if possible. I just found out someone I know is on benzos--and has been going through misery with them for three years.
ReplyDeleteOT: the cat picture is from icanhascheezburger.com.
thanks, Lori! :-)
ReplyDeleteThe cat rocks Tess! Well I have to agree with this wholeheartedly. My sister had a cerebral anurysm two months ago. Spent a month in the ICU. Medicine saved her life no doubt. The three coils they installed, the surgical intervention a week later to clear out blood clots so she wouldn't have a stroke from the spasms, then finally, a permenant stint (shunt?) To Drain the fluids. All wondrous things that without she'd be gone from us, however, when she got home she had terrible headaches, bone crushing tiredness, confusion and dispair. On a desperate whim I went and got her a bottle of mct oil. The change was that very day, and lasted for the last week!! Almost no more headaches,(for sure no more debilitating ones), shes no longer sleeping 18 hours a day! Even her facial swelling has subsided. Her emotions seem more hopeful and strong. Im so delighted and everyone in my family is facinated at how fast and sure the ketone therapy accelerated her recovery. ------- Medical science can perform miracles, but the combination of medicine and nutrition is what ppl really desperately need! I can say now Ive witnessed a fatty acid miracle!
ReplyDeletehurrah!!! i LOVE nutritional success stories like this! :-) all that has come out recently just confirms my confidence in LC and ketones! anecdotes may mean nothing to self-described scientists, but how can one ignore something that happens before YOUR very eyes?!
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