Do We Need Supplements?

It is a bit of a paradox that in this world of plenty, most of us are deficient in vitamins and minerals. The question is why we became deficient and what to eat or take in order to overcome these deficiencies. Many people has the mistaken belief that a bad diet will be rebalanced by taking supplements.

Nuts, Seeds and Grains

The kind of bread we are consuming today is a far cry from the bread consumed by ancient populations. This sentence can be applied to any kind of nuts, seeds and grains.

About Protein...

Parsley

Vegetarians and vegans are often asked where they get their protein from. For vegetarians the answer is a bit easier as they consume dairy products and eggs. In vegans case, it is a bit harder to understand that even vegetable sources contain proteins, and here is an example from Young and Raw: Everything you need to know about protein.

Hungry Planet - Chad

This is the Mustapha family (9 members) living in the village of Dar Es Sallam with 210 inhabitants (from the book Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio).

Hungry Planet - Bhutan

For today's detailed diet study I chose this Bhutanese family from Hungry Planet.

Nutrient Density

This presentation by Mathieu Lalonde, PhD gives an insight into the nutrient density of different food groups. The conclusion is very surprising:

Traditional Diets and Dental Health (Switzerland)

After reading this article about the relative absence of tooth decay in hunter-gatherers, I immediately thought of the work of  Weston Price about dental health.

Nutrition and Dental Health

Most of us are born with a perfect genetic blueprint. If we give the right nutrients during our lifetime to our body, then the genetic expression will be perfect. If our food is deficient in nutrients, then our body will try to adapt to a poor diet, we still survive, but develop chronic diseases. The genetic expression depends on the building material we provide to our body. As we age, genetics play less and less role in the development of chronic diseases, meanwhile nutrition and lifestyle become more and more important.

Grains - Health Hazards

Our best guide for a healthy diet is evolution. The longer we've been consuming a certain type of food as a species, the less harm it is likely to do. If we want to avoid chronic disease, the best way would be to restore "biological normality - that is ... the conditions to which presumably we are genetically adapted." (George Rose - Sick Individuals and Sick Populations, 1985)

Vitamin and Mineral Deficiencies

I've already wrote about deficiencies that might occur in vegetarians and vegans. Today, I will talk about deficiencies occurring when eating a western diet, as I receive more and more emails from people taking supplements, even though they seem to be consuming a "healthy diet" (low fat, high in fruits, vegetables, healthy carbohydrates) recommended by different health authorities.