So if you had asked me this 6 months ago I would have firmly said NO if you have a good balanced diet. I ate a great diet, I was very nutritionally aware and incorporated daily the necessary food sources to accomplish that. And as a vegan I didn’t take any vitamin B12 supplements either, prefering to source my requirements from nutritional yeast and yeast extract and my bloods were all easily in the right range and my vitamin B12 had actually increased since adopting my daily yeast consumption.
So what changed? February I didn’t feel 100% - winter is never great for me and my Greek heritage, I need sunshine, anyway I noticed that a few people who had started on the supplements I sold without any recommendation from me I should add commented how much better they felt. So I thought what the hell let's give them a go! With a 30 day money back guarantee I couldn’t exactly go wrong.
Within 2 days I felt more energised and well, it was remarkable, now not everyone gets such an obvious response sometimes they don’t notice til they stop them thinking they are doing nothing and then wham they realise that they did and start back on them! So I was pretty hooked but the medical side of me said did they actually match up?
I then, coincidentally, started my diploma in nutrition and so I went through the supplements I sell with a fine tooth comb and found that yes they in fact do!
So why if I had this amazing diet did I benefit and don’t think it is because my vegan was not healthy -the science is there to prove that it is and I could wax lyrical about it but let's stick to the case in point, so what I found from doing my nutrition diploma was that how our soil fertility has decreased massively and estimates are that within about 40 to 50 years the soil fertility will be completely eroded.
Why is this? Well modern farming methods employ the use of tillage that is where you see those heavy ploughs going around and turning over the soil - what they actually do is only turn over the top 18 inches of soil and actually compact the area underneath. This means that the biodiversity that we need in the soil to provide fertility is massively reduced because there's only 18inches now because the underneath of it is compacted like concrete from the impact. This also means that for this area of soil the rainwater can't be absorbed in the field and is one of the contributing factors to the reason we have got so many flooded areas when we have periods of intense rain because the soil can't drain away as the water is effectively lying on something akin to concrete. This floodwater also washes away the nutrients in the soil. It’s been proven that this intensive farming method actually yield less produce due to the reduced nutrients in the soil and reduced nutrients means less going into the fruit and vegetables that we actually eat.
So what can we do? Well, switch to organic produce yes but not all organic farmers employ no tillage methods and definitely look towards smaller farmers as well that will help the environment and your health. Interestingly the no tillage methods are popular in the USA but the UK still slow to embrace the change.
What are these methods?
1. Continuous no or minimum mechanical soil disruption
2. Permanent mulch on soil surface to protect and feed soil life
3. Diversification of species - through rotational, sequences or associations
So what this means is that even with the best will in the world and adherence to good quality produce it is very likely we will still be lacking in essential nutrients plus our bodies are subjected to more toxins in the environment than ever before from the pollutants in daily life meaning that we need extra support than we can currently always get. It would be great if we could all live somewhere by the sea or in the countryside breathing beautiful fresh air and eating from our gardens but that sadly isn’t always possible and although, I grow a lot of my own stuff I live in a city centre subject to the air pollution plus the soil is poor quality from old building rubble. And even if we are not lacking in nutrients (I wasn’t) stress and other factors that can affect our well-being all require a bit of a boost at times.
So supplements are worth having but not all supplements are created equally and for further investigation I decided to look at all the supplements that were for sale in a well known chain store and compare them. So regulations state that as long as you have a certain level of ingredient in the supplement you can put that on the label and that doesn't have to be the recommended daily allowance level. Therefore, all multi-vitamin & mineral supplements are not created equal. I was quite shocked with the results.
So let’s use Vit D3 as an example the recommended daily allowance is 600 international units daily for men and women rising to 800 international units for the over 70s the vast majority of these supplements had 400 IU or even less and I found one product only had 100 IUs in them.
Yes I sell supplements and so I have a vested interest in promoting them but this is what I have come to learn after a lot of research, and a bit of eating of humble pie as I was totally and utterly against them.
Get in touch if you would like to know more about the lifelong vitality pack and a 30 day money-back guarantee and feel free to do your own research and let me know your thoughts.
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