Stay Healthy with Proper Nutrition

My business partner recently told me a story about his dad. His dad works at a waste treatment facility, where once a year they have to close the facility so they can sweep the undigested vitamins off of the floor. How gross is that? But it brings up a really good point. Everyone needs a multivitamin, but is yours doing you any good? A daily multivitamin is inexpensive, easy to take and can make a big difference in your health. It’s one of those no brainer things. So I get frustrated when I hear traditional docs tell me they don’t recommend a multivitamin to their patients because in their words, “You pee out 99 percent of vitamins.” I am not sure where that statistic comes from, but let’s assume for a minute it is true. Our cells do millions of functions every minute of every day. To do what they do, your cells need nutrients and oxygen, which they get from your blood. But the nutrients in your blood come from what you eat or from supplements taken throughout the day. Is your diet giving your body everything it needs to maintain perfect health? Most of us do not get the nutrition we need from our foods. We eat way too few fresh fruits and vegetables. We drink too much soda and coffee. And even if we eat really good food all the time (which almost nobody does) the actual soil that our food is grown in has been over-farmed and lacks essential nutrients. Check this out: Our government did a study and found that only four percent of Americans are getting their recommended daily allowance (RDA) of essential vitamins. Considering most experts in the field of nutrition recommend much higher doses than these, that means 96% of Americans aren’t getting enough nutrients from their food. 65% of us are deficient in zinc. You need enough zinc to have a healthy immune system, proper wound healing, and proper cell division. Your sense of taste and smell also require zinc. It’s easy not to have enough Zinc because your body can’t really store it, and so you need to get it every day.

Dr. Tim Health Hint: Men, Zinc is really important for you to take. If you’re over 35, you need extra zinc to help protect and safeguard your prostate.

70% of us don’t get enough fruits rich in vitami C. Vitamin C doesn’t just prevent scurvy. It protects all the blood vessels in your body from damage, from the little capillaries in your eyes, to the big vessels of your heart. Everyone needs enough Vitamin C.

Dr. Tim Health Hint: If you bruise easily, you don’t have enough Vitamin C in your diet.

80 % of us don’t get enough carotene-containing vegetables. Bata-Carotene is essential for good eye health, especially as you age. And even more importantly, your body uses carotene to make sure that your cells are reproducing exactly as they should be.

Dr. Tim Health Hint: If you have dry eyes or hair loss, you might not be getting enough carotene.

And don’t even get me going about magnesium. The latest government study shows a staggering 68% of Americans do not consume the recommended daily intake of magnesium. Even scarier, this study showed that 19% of Americans don’t even get half of the government’s recommended daily intake of magnesium. Magnesium is needed for more than 300 biochemical reactions in the body. You need it for muscle and nerve function, to keep your heart rhythm steady, for a healthy immune system, and to keep your bones strong. Magnesium also helps regulate your blood sugar and helps keep your blood pressure in check. Magnesium is so powerful and so necessary for your health, people have suggested we put it in the water so everyone gets enough. “But Dr. Tim,” you say, “I eat really well. Are you sure I need a multivitamins?” Even if your diet is perfect, modern farming has sapped the life out of our food. Can you believe that it would take 60 servings of spinach to get the same amount of iron you could get from just one serving in 1948? First, our soil has been over-farmed. There are very little nutrients left. How bad is it? In 1992, the Earth Summit did a Soil Mineral Depletion Analysis, and found that the United States has the worst soil in the world – 85% mineral depleted. Then, the foods grown in nutrient poor soil are picked before they are ripe and allowed to ripen in transit, so we lose more nutrients again there. Now consider the additives, preservatives and known cancer causing pesticides, insecticides and fertilizers used to “care” for the food….and you have a “perfect recipe” for nutrient deficiency. The bottom line: You can’t eat enough good food to give your body what it needs. And if your cells don’t have what they need, they can’t keep you healthy. I could go on and on about the really bad things that can happen to you when you don’t give your body what it needs, but you already know. We’ve all seen sickness and none of us wants to be sick. So what do you do? Most of the focus of traditional medicine has been in the management of “sickness.” What we have not done a good job at is the prevention of these illnesses. There are no illness prevention experts out there. That is where every person must become their own expert. But in my opinion, good nutrition, exercise, good mental health, and some basic preventative measures is the key. We live in a society that is overfed and unde ourished. We eat too much and yet we are deprived of the very nutrients we need for good health. We eat our meals out of a sack where the food has been deep fried and pre-packaged. Our genes however are still of the opinion that we need wholesome natural foods much like our caveman ancestors ate. This includes fresh fruits and vegetables and quality meat. So if the enemy to our health is the environment in which we live and the things we eat, one of the most crucial things we can do is to take a daily multivitamins to combat those very stresses. Sure you can try and eat healthier and I highly recommend it. But in addition, to be on the safe side, take a good supplement to go with your food. A word of caution about choosing your multivitamins: 1) Don’t believe a vitamin company that says you only need to take one pill a day. There is no possible way you can put all the nutritional value you need in one pill. 2) A supplement that is outrageously expensive does not mean it's better. Supplements are not expensive to make so don’t be fooled by expense. Higher cost doesn’t always make for a better product. Make the commitment to yourself to be your illness prevention expert and find a good multivitamins to safeguard your and your families’ health.

[Ed. Note: To learn more about the vitamins Dr. Tim uses and recommends to his patients, check out Active Life Vitamins .]