Should you supplement?

A common question I get from patients is if supplementing a diet is necessary or not. Some patients don’t even ask if it’s necessary  but rather know that it’s not necessary due to the fact that our ancestors didn’t supplement  for the hundreds of thousands of years of humanity’s existence.

Good point.

Though some of it got addressed in a previous post here, a little more details on our view on this matter to help clarify the concept.

The only real challenges that posed as a threat to our ancestor’s lives were normally physical in nature (attacked by predators or battles with neighboring tribes) or an issue of sanitation (open wounds, lack of refrigeration, etc). How is it that our hunter-gatherer ancestors have, not only survived, but thrived for all these centuries and, suddenly, a supplement is needed to nourish your body?

Let’s expand on the question: how does the same thing apply to dentistry, chiropractic, gyms, amongst other things that are more of a necessity than luxury for the modern man?

These are very important questions to pose before making a decision.

The answer is simply this: we live in a very different time from our ancestors from the food we eat to level of physical activity we make on a daily basis. When it comes to food,  we have managed to produce quantities of food that did not exist in nature in both abundance and composition.

Abundance:

     One major change that has happened to the human food supply is that it is available in an abundance that is unprecedented in the planet’s history. What our ancestors managed to consume in a day paled in comparison to what we can today. We’ve gone overboard  in terms of caloric intake and are extremely deficient in terms of nutrient density in our modern diets. By consuming much more calories, and expending much less energy, we have set the stage up for conditions ranging from obesity and diabetes to heart conditions among others. To try to combat the resulting problems by searching for cures without addressing the cause is only one part of the solution.

Composition:

     The other change in our diets that make supplementing a necessity rather than a luxury is the very content of the food we eat.

    

and the nutrients available within the food itself is far reduced due to heavy processing and depleted top soil that is the food for the plants, which in turn nourish us and the animals that we consume.

A last part of composition is toxicity. The introduction of synthetic chemicals and compounds that is a detriment to our bodies when consumed needs more energy and antioxidants for the body to flush out of our systems.

As mentioned before, the life we live is unrecognizably different from those who have come before us and we need to address these changes accordingly in order to lead a healther life.

Make sure your supplements are whole food based, bioavailable and as minimally processed as possible to make the most out of your supplementation regimen.

At Complete Chiropractic, we have gone through the rigorous process of digging through a lot of the stuff that is out there to bring what we believe is the best of the best. You are more than welcome to come in and inquire at our office through our Complimentary Consultation.