Vitamins: To Be or Not to Be?
Nutrition as it applies to our daily lives means that we take in
what we need to maintain our body's healthy state. Nutrition has
become an important word thanks to the involvement of the USDA
in our daily food requirements, and the FDA's involvement in
determining what is and is not dangerous for us to consume.
But what is our responsibility in the nutrition game? Do we
understand what our nutritional requirements are, how to fulfill
those requirements, and how to look for real nutritional value
in our foods? I'm not sure that nutrition has been successfully
addressed in its own right. We hear nutrition in relation to our
vitamin intake, our fortified cereals and milk, and in the
context that we need "nutritional value" from our food choices.
But we don't often stop to think, what do we really need in
nutritional supplements?
Vitamins and minerals are more readily available to us than
ever before, and we're still no better equipped to actually
determine what we need to take, than we were forty years ago.
Just because we see the latest advertisement about a particular
vitamin and decide the symptoms of deficiency apply to us, does
not mean we need to rush out and purchase the product. The
symptoms of deficiency for lots of vitamins and minerals are the
same or overlapping. What we need is a way to detect, on an
individual basis, what our body's lack, and then plan a
suggested nutritional solution.
The complete lack of unity between our medical field and the
herbal field, (this is the field that vitamins and minerals
belong to) is a disgrace in a country so forward thinking as the
United States. But it is also where we fall short in providing
our citizenry with the tools they need to make better, informed
decisions. The medical field has long resented any contact that
patients might make with herbalists, vitamins and minerals, or
any other proposed health aid, that wasn't directly related to
medicine.
Thanks to this prevalent attitude among most all doctors, we
have missed great opportunities to advance a generation's
health. If you were to take a cross section of the population,
and check for adequate levels of the most used and fortified
vitamins and minerals, you would probably find the as high as
80% or the population is lacking in a least one of the vitamins
and minerals. Now, that doesn't sound too bad, until you stop to
think, what if it's calcium? A calcium deficiency brings on
osteoporosis, a deteriorating of the bone. This disease alone
costs millions in medical expense to the population.
Can you see how a little more cooperation and open-minded
participation on the part of our medical field could result in
far fewer health problems? It would also have provided the
general population with a viable way to discern their vitamin
and mineral needs, accurately. Blood tests, urine tests, and
other simple office procedures would provide the vast majority
of the information needed for us to arm ourselves, and head off
to the health store. Preventive medicine comes in all shapes,
forms, and tablets!