Food Supplementation

    I can say that not many of us realize what food supplementation is, in fact some of us assume that it is kind of diet weirdos. The worst part is, they choose, not to say the wrong way of supplementation but they do not know the fact reason to add food supplements in their diets. There are quite numbers of reference that we can refer to and not only that, there are also some of supplementation or nutrition short courses that we can attend. One of the reference that I can suggest is to read Dr. Bruce Miller’s book – Food Supplements, How to Begin. Dr. Miller is clinical, specialist, nutritionist and member of several health and nutrition institutions. This book is one of his Better Health series of health and wellness books.
Why to supplement?
As most of us find our foods nowadays are no longer nutritious as they used to be, during father or perhaps our grandfather lifestyle. We can see healthier food or balanced diet campaign by our health institutions and concurrently millions of ringgits have been spent annually on the food and beverage advertising, influence us of high-cal, fat, sugar and poor nutrient food and beverage.  Now the way food processed, depleted soil, shipping, fast food availability and etc., all this effect to the nutritional disaster. As we are now in the instant or speed eaters or grazers, claimed Dr, Miller in his book. It is hard to get 3 home-cooked meals a day, spending dining table time with entire family present. Even then, we usually get fast food or microwaved or over-processed food. We are no longer eating raw, wholesome, nutrient-loaded foods of yesterday. According to dieticians, the following recommendations are exactly what we should consume each and every day:-

• 6-11 servings of bread, cereal, rice and other pastas
  
• 3-5 servings of vegetables
  
• 2-4 servings of fruits
  
• 2-3 servings of milks, yogurt and cheese
  
• 2-3 servings of meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs or nuts
  
• Fats, oils and sweets should be used sparingly

Dr. Miller also mentioned that even though if we perfectly consume the recommended diet, we still have 3 following problems. So it is still inadequate for optimal health.

• Difficult to obtain some nutrient (vitamin C) in the amounts of recommended optimal health
  
• Impossible to get from our normal diet (such as vitamin E) for the amounts needed for protection from number of diseases
  
• Some nutrients (oils form cold-water fish) are not prominent in our usual diet inadequate amounts

As he stressed out that the main reason to add food supplement to our lifestyle is to bring our nutrient intake at least up to the Daily Value (DV) standard. For example like the DV (also often put as RDA) for vitamin C is 60 milligrams set as levels to prevent dietary deficiency of this vitamin, resulting in a disease such as scurvy. In other words, the DVs are set as  minimal to prevent disease or symptoms of the nutrients deficiency and this is not considered other diseases in the least. Research has shown that the intake of nutrient at higher levels of the DV not only prevent the nutrient disease but also help to prevent other diseases if beyond of the disease nutrient deficiencies.


If you cannot or will not, change your diet and ensure you get an optimal nutrient each and everyday, for goodness’s sake add some quality food supplements. The disastrous of our lifestyle when we add some more unhealthy things such as smoking, alcohol-drinking, lack of physical exercise and quality rest, etc.