A dive into the pitfalls of supplement culture
A diet based around real food; organic local seasonal vegetables, low GI fruits and the right types of healthy fats is critical to our health insurance. It is a sad fact that in today’s modern world, we cannot rely 100% upon the quality and nutrient density of even the best fresh produce, due to intensive farming.
But are we getting enough nutrients from our daily diet given the saddening trend for soil erosion and the overuse of industrial pesticides, in the name of profits? Unfortunately nutritional deficiencies and diseases are on the rise. Nutritional supplementation is becoming an essential tool to support the body’s defenses but regardless there is a need to choose wisely and discriminately. If your health is compromised why compromise it any more?
Increasing consumer awareness toward personal health and wellbeing is growing as health declines. The global natural dietary supplements market is a multi billion pound industry and yet a basic understanding of good quality effective supplements versus cheap poor quality supplements is still, to most, a mystifying experience; a minefield of choices with numerous claims and tempting offers and deals.
Most cheap vitamin and mineral supplements are isolated nutrients reduced to compounds in a tablet or capsule and full of fillers and bulking agents. These compounds once consumed have to travel via your gut and liver to be properly digested and the nutrients extracted. Unfortunately most people over about the age of 35 have compromised guts at the least and gut dysbiosis is all too common amongst the UK population. Gut dysbiosis normally occurs in our gastrointestinal (GI) tract - often resulting in inflation of the gut lining which can lead to our gut lining becoming permeable or 'leaky' leading to a cascade of other health problems.
Once digestion goes out of balance; the ability to extract and assimilate nutrients will be compromised.
The body doesn’t always fully recognise isolated vitamins and minerals in supplements. The body has a better chance of recognising whole foods in their whole natural form.
Vitamin and mineral cofactors are important, for example, Vitamin C requires bioflavonoids present for proper absorption and assimilation. Bioflavonoids can also be found in whole fruits that can be added to the mix. Co factors such as MCTS (medium chain triglycerides/saturated fats) with vitamin D as Vitamin D is a hormone like substance that is fat soluble. The Preferred source is from the sun which interacts with the cholesterol under the skin to produce Vitamin D but in Winter that is not possible. Therefore supplementation is vitally important in the winter in the northern hemisphere.
All of the Vitamins A D E and K are fat soluble and so unless you are eating enough of these fats such as butter and coconut oil in your diet, they may not be as well absorbed.
Zinc and copper need to be together to get the best benefits as they are antagonistic; if you have too much of one it can cause the other to decrease on your body.
Having a harmonized balance of both Zinc and Copper is essential for regulating good health, both physically and mentally.
When the right balance is achieved, Zinc helps control the excess Copper in the body, from supplements and from food.
There are various ethical reasons why we have chosen the products on here but we are very focused on food based and highly bioavailable supplements that offer better results.
Family run company Bionutri are a classic example of using whole foods to improve better uptake and assimilation in supplements, hence why we choose them. Aquasol teas are finely ground herbs that are dispersed fully in the water and consumed so more of the herb is absorbed.
To glean the best results choose products that are either food based or have food and herbs as co-factors. We offer the best we can find in the most bioavailable form.
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