Sunday
September 16, 2012
Do I need supplements?
WOMEN'S
WORLD
By DR NOR ASHIKIN MOKHTAR
By DR NOR ASHIKIN MOKHTAR
Dietary supplements may not be for
everyone, but they could have a role to play in your life.
THE title of this article poses one
of the most frequently-asked questions by people today.
As we become more concerned about
our nutritional well-being, we are understandably worried about whether we are
getting proper nourishment from the food that we eat.
Not only do our busy and stressful
lifestyles prevent us from eating well, but even the food in our markets and
supermarket shelves may no longer be the healthiest sources of nutrients.
Due to these reasons, it is no
wonder that I hear the question “Do I need supplements?” so often. Dietary
supplements may not be for everyone, but they could have a role to play in your
life, depending on the quality of food that you eat every day.
Here are a few reasons that
supplements may be necessary for you.
Quality of soil and crops
The idea of dietary supplements is
to make up for nutrient deficiencies in our diet – often deficiencies of
micronutrients, like vitamins and minerals, instead of macronutrients, which
are quite abundant in our food.
The idea of dietary supplements is
to make up for nutrient deficiencies in our diet – often deficiencies of
micronutrients, like vitamins and minerals, instead of macronutrients, which
are quite abundant in our food.
Vitamins and minerals cannot be made
in our body, therefore we have to obtain them from the food that we eat.
Plant foods, such as vegetables,
fruits, legumes and grains, are one of the main sources of minerals, as plants
absorb minerals from the soil that they are grown in.
But did you know that even if you
eat plenty of plant foods, you may not be getting as much minerals as you think
you should?
This is because our soil is becoming
increasingly depleted of minerals, due to the land being used repeatedly for
agriculture. When plants are grown over and over again in the same soil, the
mineral content of the soil decreases over time – much like a well that becomes
empty after you keep drinking the water from it.
As a result, most agricultural soils
today are low in zinc, manganese, chromium, molybdenum, calcium and magnesium.
Research shows that this can lead to up to a 75% decrease in the trace minerals
in plant foods.
To make matters worse, the intensive
form of farming taking place today has further reduced the level of nutrients
in crops. High yield crops contain less nutrients because the crops are
competing for nutrients from a finite amount of soil.
For instance, wheat farmers today
plant 10 times the amount of wheat on the same land, compared to the amount
grown 100 years ago. As a result, today’s wheat consists of only 6% protein,
half of the 12-14% level from a century ago.
Making polished rice causes 75% of
zinc and chromium to be lost.
You can counteract this problem by
eating organic fruits and vegetables as much as possible. Organic farmers
practise “crop rotation” to reduce the likelihood of soil depletion, although
this does not completely prevent soil depletion.
Modern fertilisers, pesticides and
herbicides
Before modern fertilisers came into
the picture, farmers would use manure to encourage crops to grow better.
Unfortunately, this is no longer the case as manure has been replaced by
superphosphate fertilisers, which contain mainly nitrogen, potassium and
phosphorus.
Modern fertilisers are used for the
purpose of stimulating crops to grow, but as they do not contain trace minerals
that are vital for health, they do not serve to enrich the crops.
The use of pesticides and herbicides
further deteriorates the soil content, as they kill the microorganisms living
in the soil that make minerals and other nutrients available to plants.
As we ingest traces of these
pesticides when we eat plant foods, our bodies need more nutrients to remove
these toxins. This places a heavy toll on the body, which is already deprived
of micronutrients.
Food transportation and processing
When was the last time you ate fresh
produce, harvested just hours or days before it reached your dining table?
Chances are, it was so long ago that you don’t remember anymore.
As much of our produce today is
imported, the food often takes days or weeks from the time it is harvested
until it reaches our supermarkets or markets.
Many vitamins are unstable and are
easily destroyed when exposed to environmental factors like heat and light.
Therefore, by the time the food is handled, packaged, transported by airplane,
train or truck and unpacked on our shelves, it has lost a lot of its
nutritional value.
Similarly, food processing causes a
lot of nutrients to be lost, particularly minerals.
We consume a lot of refined,
processed, canned and frozen food today for convenience and economic reasons,
but they are far less nutritious than fresh and natural food.
The process of refining wheat to
make white flour removes 80% of magnesium, 70-80% of zinc, 87% of chromium, 88%
of manganese and 50% of cobalt.
Making polished rice causes 75% of
zinc and chromium to be lost, while making white sugar from sugar cane causes
99% of magnesium and 93% of chromium to be lost.
The use of food additives, such as
artificial flavours, colours, conditioners, stabilisers and preservatives, can
also deplete the body of nutrients.
Unhealthy lifestyle
One of the biggest reasons that many
of us do not meet our daily nutrient requirements – in the right proportion –
is that we lead very unhealthy lifestyles.
We often skip meals and then binge
on one heavy meal to make up for it, or make poor food choices that do not
provide the variety of nutrients we need.
Wheat farmers today plant 10 times
the amount of wheat on the same land, compared to the amount grown 100 years
ago. As a result, today’s wheat consists of only 6% protein, half of the 12-14%
level from a century ago.
If you get through the day on
coffee, soft drinks, instant noodles, doughnuts and chocolates, you are
certainly deprived of a lot of important nutrients.
High stress levels will also deplete
nutrients, including calcium, magnesium and zinc. Stress also overstimulates
the sympathetic nervous system, which causes poor digestion and weak absorption
of nutrients.
Finally, as we age, it is inevitable
that our bodies will produce fewer enzymes that are needed to properly digest
the food that we eat. That is why older people tend to be vulnerable to
nutrient deficiencies.
Supplementing a healthy diet
“Supplements” came by their name
because they were meant to complement or enhance the daily diet, not replace
it. Fundamentally, you still need to eat a healthy, balanced diet consisting of
a variety of foods.
However, supplements will come in
useful if the fruits, vegetables and plant foods that you eat are of poor
quality (due to depleted soil, as explained above) and cannot provide an
optimum amount of nutrients.
You may also need supplements if you
are going through a particularly stressful period and your body needs a helping
hand to meet its nutrient requirements and balance the hormone levels.
If you are pregnant, lactating,
elderly, vegetarian or have a chronic illness, you are likely to have special
nutritional needs which may not be met by your diet alone.
However, you cannot rely on
supplements forever. They are useful to help you get through a tough period and
bring your body back to balance, but you have to be able to maintain good
nutritional health through natural means.
Get advice from a dietitian or
pharmacist before purchasing dietary supplements, so that you do not overdose
on nutrients or consume poor quality – or even toxic – products.
Once you know what it feels like to
get all the nutrients you need, you will start to pay more attention to your
diet and lifestyles.
■ Datuk Dr Nor Ashikin Mokhtar is
a consultant obstetrician & gynaecologist (FRCOG, UK). For further
information, visit www.primanora.com.
The information provided is for educational and communication purposes only and
it should not be construed as personal medical advice. Information published in
this article is not intended to replace, supplant or augment a consultation
with a health professional regarding the reader’s own medical care. The Star
does not give any warranty on accuracy, completeness, functionality, usefulness
or other assurances as to the content appearing in this column. The Star
disclaims all responsibility for any losses, damage to property or personal injury
suffered directly or indirectly from reliance on such information.
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