I eat well, so I don't need supplements, right? Think again.

Informed and purposeful supplementation is important regardless of how healthy your diet and lifestyle are. Even those that go to great lengths to eat a high nutrient diet consistently (and are successful in doing so) often struggle to get the nutrients they need. As an American, that’s not your fault. I’ll say that again – it’s not your fault. If there’s one thing the Covid pandemic has taught us, it’s that America is one of the unhealthiest first world countries. Our food system is at the core of that problem. 

A high quality diet doesn’t mean you won’t benefit from supplements.

            For brevity’s sake, I’m going to skip over the well-known problems of commercialized, profitized, processed food and the massive body of science detailing the many ways and reasons individual lives suffer. I’m also consciously skipping the tirade about how this food system has made healthcare delivery an albatross for our society. Instead, let's skip to the example of someone blessed with enough resources to buy and prepare quality food regularly. Resources needed for this essential, life and health-sustaining act include money, time, a basic yet scientifically grounded nutritional education, and a functional kitchen. Why might individuals who have these rudimentary privileges (perhaps in spades) still suffer nutrient insufficiencies? 

I’ll chalk my answer up to two words: Minerals and Modernity.  

Minerals

            Minerals are crucial for nearly all body processes to function. Everything from blinking to sleeping, and healing a paper cut to beating cancer, requires adequate mineral supplies. We need a broad scope of minerals too. Calcium, zinc, copper, magnesium, and iodine, just to name a few. Many people struggle with a lack of minerals due to poor digestion and insufficient stomach acid to prepare minerals for absorption, but let's assume this blessed person also has divine digestion. Even with great digestion and all the rest, there are two reasons this person can still end up mineral deficient and struggling to do basics things like fall asleep.             

            First, the plants we eat absorb their minerals from the soil they're grown in. If minerals aren't in the earth, they won't be on your plate. Minerals extracted from the ground through farming need time for replenishment. Many commodity crops such as soy and corn leave the land especially depleted of minerals. Small farmers whose primary focus is not cash crops but feeding humans can’t afford to let their fields “rest” long enough to replenish mineral stores. Secondly, climate change has led to ever-increasing topsoil erosion rates, which carry minerals out of the crop field. Of course, climate change could easily be in the modernity section as well. 

Modernity

The modern lifestyle comes with an unprecedented amount of stress to the body and mind. Stress depletes vitamin and mineral stores faster than relaxation, so our toxin saturated lives create drastically increased demand for nutrients to keep pace. Our food system has evolved to deliver precisely the opposite – less nutrition instead of more. Bear in mind also, the term “stress," as I'm using it, is about as general as modernity. 

            Stress can be psychological or physiological. Examples of psychological stress are an overly critical internal dialogue or knowing a parent is dying in a nursing home where you aren't permitted entry. Physiological stresses come through the body and affect its delicate biochemical balance. Examples are chemicals and toxins in processed foods, beauty products, air and water pollution, or even long hours of sitting at a desk. Modernity comes with an exponential increase in the amount and types of stress our bodies handle every day. This increase demands better and more consistent nutrient intake to thrive.

            Naturally, we rely on our food system to meet this need, and it does not for several reasons.  Picking food before it’s ripe so it will be pretty at the market a week later delivers fruits and vegetables with significantly less nutrient content. The vitamin and nutrient development in plants comes to fruition just before and during peak ripeness. Additionally, a cultural notion that "bigger is better" has led commercial growers to design an apple so big one wants to eat the whole thing. Even if they do, the amount of nutrition received is about 1/3 of what it was 30 years ago from an apple half the size. It’s called nutrient dilution. 

            These are just a few ways a commercialized food system, food policy, farming subsidies, and farming practices are directly affecting your ability to get the nutrients you need. For all these reasons, I invite you to be open to the idea that you may benefit from a supplement here and there. I wholeheartedly agree that in an ideal world, we would get all our nutrition from food. The problem is our world is so far from ideal that most of us will need an assist sometimes.