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Some Facts about Nutritional Supplementation
by Don Bennett, DAS

Why Nutritional Supplementation?

Humans, as with all animals, have certain nutritional requirements. Deficiencies in certain nutrients become very apparent very quickly (lack of vitamin C results in scurvy, insufficient thiamine/vitamin B1 results in beriberi), but certain nutritional inadequacies take a long time to manifest noticeable symptoms (insufficient B12 results in pernicious anemia).

In Nature, where out ancestors came from, we'd get our nutrition from our natural diet that grew "wild". We'd eat a variety of foods thus assuring that we got enough of all the nutrients our bodies need to thrive (not just survive). But in today's culture, most if not all of our food is agricultural-based and one of this industry's "movers" is financial profitability (as with most businesses). And as such, certain foods may be lacking in certain nutrients. If they are they contain less than they would in Nature, but still have enough to supply our needs, then it's not a problem, we simply store/excrete less of what's not needed. It's when there is not enough of a certain nutrient that we are put at risk of not thriving and instead surviving, and this can mean inefficient healing/dealing with chronic, degenerative disease.

The flip side of availability is need. In our modern society, our nutritional needs are more than they were many centuries ago. This is due to degraded genetics and more stress. Long ago, stress was momentary and infrequent. Today stress is pervasive; it has become part of most people's daily lives. Some stress is observable/noticeable, but a lot is not; it occurs in the "background", but it is just as health-damaging as the stress we recognize. And dealing with stress requires nutrients, both to deal directly with the processes invoked by the stress, and for the repair work necessitated by the stress.

Vitamins D and B12 are in a class by themselves. Firstly, they are not vitamins, but have been lumped into the vitamin category for simplicity's sake. D is normally generated by the body from the action of sun on our skin; it is not present in food. But in many parts of the world, there is not enough sunshine during some parts of the year to produce enough D. When we discovered this, we began fortifying commonly consumed foods with D (and with B12 and other nutrients that were hard to get when eating foods that we are not designed to eat). But when we transition away from non-health-enhancing foods to foods that support a vital and disease-free life, we no longer eat fortified foods, making supplementation even more important for the reasons outlined in this article. B12 is normally made by the body IF the body has a perfectly healthy digestive tract... which very few people have. When we transition to a truly healthy diet -- which normally contains no B12 -- many people need to take supplementary B12 to prevent a deficiency of this very important nutrient; and I say "very important" because a deficiency of this nutrient can result in irreversible neurological damage.

Reasons for Insufficient/Inadequate Nutrition in Our Natural Foods

1. If the food is grown in nutrient-poor soil
Some farmers do not take as good care of the soil as others. Some will only fertilize their soil with the three nutrients (N-P-K) that are required for the plant to grow, but that plant will not contain all the nutrients it would in the wild, and it will not taste good unless the stock has been manipulated in some way to taste sweeter even though it is not a nutritious plant. This underscores the importance of buying, whenever possible, organically grown foods because they tend to be higher in nutrition than their conventionally grown counterparts. Organic farmers will rotate fields and fertilize with rock dust so their crops get all the trace minerals and rare earth elements (in addition to the macro nutrients) that they should have.

2. If the food is grown from Genetically Modified seeds
For example, corn grown from "Terminator Seeds" will not pick up zinc or boron from the soil even if these nutrients are in the soil. It is hard to determine just what percentage of foods you are eating are grown from these types of seeds.

3. If the food is not allowed to remain on the tree/vine/bush long enough
We all know that nutrients from the soil are "absorbed" through the root system of a plant into the plant and then "combined" with carbon dioxide from the air, water, and sunlight to become the edible plant we eat. But not many know that not all the nutrients that are uptaken by the plant enter at the same rate/pace. Certain trace minerals, chromium for example, enters a lot slower than other nutrients. So if the plant is picked before it is perfectly ripe and ready to eat (as most are), it often is lacking in these "slowpoke" nutrients. Yes, some foods can ripen off the vine, but this only means that the starches will turn to sugar after being picked. But once that plant is disconnected from the earth, it's accessibility to the soil's nutrients is over. And if it doesn't have what you need, neither will you.

Why the Debate on Nutritional Supplementation?

1. The "shotgun" approach to supplementation
Some natural health practitioners are aware that buying and taking vitamin supplements, every bottle from A to Z, is not considered an intelligent nutritional regimen. And some therefore simply dismiss out-of-hand all nutritional supplementation.

2. There is junk food and junk supplements
Some natural health practitioners are aware that most if not all vitamin supplements sold in health food stores are not efficacious, and therefore worthless, giving consumers nothing more than expensive urine, so they dismiss out-of-hand all nutritional supplementation.

3. Personal opinion
Many natural health practitioners and laypeople are simply of the opinion that we should not have to take supplements if we're eating a healthy diet. In a perfect world, this would be true. But today even the healthiest of diets can be lacking in some nutrient(s) that prevents a person from having the healthiest (most efficient) maintenance/defense system ("immune system") they can have, which would give them less than the BEST odds of avoiding degenerative disease. I'd love to believe that we shouldn't need to take supplementation, and once had that belief. But when I realized that this belief of mine was not based on anything concrete, I began to research. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but everyone is not entitled to their own facts... I wanted the facts.

All Nutritional Supplements are Not Created Equal

Things you can consume - whether they be food, supplements, or medications - can be manufactured to one of two standards in this country: "Food Grade" or "Pharmaceutical Grade". These two standards have very different regulations and requirements that must be met by the FDA. Most (99%) of the supplement market is made to a "food grade" standard... to the same standard as a potato chip. What it says on the bottle does not necessarily have to be in the tablet, and the dissolution rate (what constitutes the product's bioavailability) is not overseen by the FDA. Supplements made to pharmaceutical grade standard are of a much higher quality by the very nature of the regulations they adhere to. But even some pharmaceutical grade supplements don't have the best formula (this is not part of the standards). Keep in mind this chilling thought: 78% of all the prescription prenatal supplements do not contain the recommended amount of folic acid! And the supplement industry is surely aware that lack of folic acid in pregnant moms can and does often lead to neural tube birth defects (like spina bifida). So nutritional supplementation is a perfect example of "Let the Buyer Beware"; no where else is being an educated consumer more important than with nutritional supplementation.

According to NASA's head of nutrition for the astronaut program (which will be sending people to Mars in eight years), "humans are designed to eat fruits and green leafy vegetation". Knowing that they can't send people on prolonged space missions with enough foods of their biological adaptation to last for two years, NASA had to look to nutritional supplementation. They came up with their own formula for an extremely efficacious, bioavailable, and worthwhile daily supplement, then asked all the nutritional supplement manufacturers (in the world) to submit their top formulas, and intended to give their nutritional supplement contract to the company that came closest to their formula. Many criteria were taken into consideration: type/form of nutrients, amounts, formulation, quality of excipients (binders, disintegrants), scientific basis for including it, etc. And no organization on earth has a higher level of scrutiny than NASA. The most popular brands of multivitamins sold in supermarkets either didn't bother to submit anything or ended up way down on the resulting list. I continued to research and get to know the formulation scientist (and company execs) of the firm that won NASA's contract.

How Do I Know if it Works?

I've experimented with many supplements in my life, first the common store-bought varieties (worthless), then the "top-notch" health food store brands (which didn't seem to do anything noticeable). After being on a 100% plant-based, uncooked, fruit and veggie diet for 14 years I began taking the supplement that is now on the International Space Station. It resolved certain "conditions" I had all throughout life, things that wouldn't be considered serious, or even annoying, they were just there for as long as I can remember. One condition did deal with blood sugar regulation, and is the reason I mentioned chromium above (chromium playing a key role in the management of blood sugar levels). Do I need to take this daily multi every day? No. Why not? Because I eat healthier than 99% of the people in this country -- so says the supplement's formulator. If you take it every other day, it lasts twice as long and therefore costs half as much per month. More information about the ones I recommend can be found here. And by-the-way, if you take a multi-vitamin and it appears to give you "energy" -- i.e. you feel invigorated by it -- it is probably having a stimulatory effect on your body, and this is not a sign that it is "working".