Are You One Of The One In A Hundred Who?s Properly Nourished?

Are You One Of The One In A Hundred Who?s Properly Nourished?
It was observed centuries ago that sailors deprived of
fresh fruit and vegetables on long voyages became ill with
scurvy. Now of course, not many of us today have to live
on salt-preserved meat and dry, weevil infested biscuits,
and no doubt our modern Western diets are usually
sufficient to protect us against disease. But for how many
of us do they provide truly optimal health?

Those unfortunate sailors of old were quickly restored to
health when given foods rich in Vitamin C, and we're all
well aware today of the crucial importance of including the
full range of vitamins in our diets.

But what's less often appreciated is that the vital
functions of these vitamins are inextricably bound up with
those of the equally vital minerals we require. Senate
Document 264 (74th US Congress, Second Session 1936) was
unequivocal on the point: "?..vitamins control the body's
appropriation of minerals, and in the absence of minerals
they have no function to perform. Lacking vitamins, the
system can make some use of minerals, but lacking minerals,
vitamins are useless."

In fact human beings require around 60 different minerals
for optimal health, and although it's true that many of
these are present in our bodies only in minute amounts, it
doesn't follow that these trace minerals are unimportant.

To give just one example ? the ageing process within the
body is to a great extent driven by the action of so-called
free radicals. These are the unwanted but entirely natural
by-products of normal metabolic processes in cells, but if
left unchecked they will damage and even eventually destroy
those same cells. Chief amongst the body's weapons against
the free radicals are the potent anti-oxidant enzymes
superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione, and the
manufacture of these enzymes within the body is highly
dependent on the working together of an abundant supply of
vitamins B and C with trace minerals manganese, copper and
zinc.

But Senate Document 264 noted that 99% of Americans were
deficient in necessary minerals and in the light of the
continued intensification of farming methods it seems
highly unlikely that the situation has improved in the
intervening years. Indeed, the 1992 Earth Summit reported
that mineral concentrations in US farm soils were 85% lower
than those of a hundred years ago.

The figures for other wealthy Western nations are almost as
alarming, and the problem doesn't just lie in the soil.
The modern prevalence of highly refined grains, and the
treatment of fruits and vegetables with preservatives,
dyes, pesticides and even radiation is a proven disaster
for vitamin and mineral retention in our food, as well as a
significant toxic assault with which the human organism
simply wasn't designed to cope.

Of course this crisis in the quality of our food should in
no way prevent us from seeking to eat as healthily as
possible, but as Senate Document 264 noted; we are no
longer likely to be able to obtain all the nutrients we
need from our food alone. In the case of minerals in
particular, said the report, our stomachs are simply not
big enough to accommodate all the fruits and vegetables we
would need to eat, so depleted of nutrients have our foods
become.

Many physicians nevertheless insist that a balanced and
varied diet including all the main food groups should
generally provide adequate nourishment. And in a sense of
course they're right. In an ideal world if everybody ate
three well balanced meals a day, including an abundance of
fresh fruit and vegetables, there might indeed be no need
for supplementation.

But even orthodox medical opinion will often concede the
validity of supplementation for those suffering from
specific conditions - the use of iron in the treatment of
anaemia is perhaps the best known example. So if
supplements can be used as treatments for the ill, might
they not also be used as a means of improving the health of
those who while displaying no clinical symptoms are in
sub-optimal health.

This is not to say that supplementation can offer any
guarantee of health. But just as most of us are happy to
pay relatively small sums for insurance against an
extremely unlikely but potentially catastrophic loss, it's
a question of weighing the odds and balancing the risks.

People tend to be influenced more by their personal
experience than any amount of scientific research, and the
millions who've taken the view that it's worth paying a
little each day for this very inexpensive form of health
insurance have made supplements a multi-billion dollar
industry.

And it's never been simpler or more convenient to take a
comprehensive mineral supplement. The days of the foul
tasting, tough to swallow and absorb, "horse pills" may
soon be coming to an end if, as advocates claim, as little
as a fluid ounce of a modern liquid supplement may provide
all your requirements and more.

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Steve Smith is a freelance copywriter specialising in
direct marketing and with a particular interest in health
products.
Find out more about liquid minerals at
http://www.sisyphuspublicationsonline.com/LiquidNutrition/In
formation.htm