essential ingredients for a healthy body
Hippocrates got it right in one sentence: “Let food be thy medicine.”
It took an additional 2,000 years of observation, plus a century of modern scientific research to find out why food has the healing powers that Hippocrates ascribed to it—and the details are still being worked out.
Take vitamins, for instance. Ancient Greek and Egyptian physicians prescribed “liver juice” for night blindness. They had no way of knowing that their prescription contained a remarkable amount of vitamin A. It wasn’t until 1930, in fact, that Swiss researchers determined the chemical structure of vitamin A and its precursor, beta-carotene. We now know that people who don’t get enough vitamin A can experience night blindness, an early symptom of deficiency.
The discovery of vitamin C followed a parallel route. By 1601, some astute observers had noted that consuming citrus fruits prevented scurvy, a disease that wiped out countless crews of sailors who lived on salted meat and dried biscuits while at sea. It took two more centuries before British navy ships were required to carry rations of lime or lemon juice, and even then, the advocates of this practice had no idea why these tart fruits should help prevent the dreaded sailors’ disease. It wasn’t until more than 100 years later that vitamin C was finally isolated.
As vitamin C revealed the power of vitamins, iron was the telltale clue to the potential of minerals. “Metals of heaven”—iron-rich meteorites—were used therapeutically by the ancient civilizations of the eastern Mediterranean. The oldest surviving manuscript, the Ebers Papyrus, details two iron-rich remedies. In 1932, iron deficiency was officially recognized as the cause of chlorosis, a type of found in teenage girls, and we were also well into the twentieth century before scientists proved that iron is a component of hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells. Now, it’s universally recognized that we all need iron to help rebuild blood.
| What Makes a Mighty Multi? Scan the supplement shelves of your local pharmacy, and you’re likely to see a multitude of multivitamin/mineral supplements. Obviously, each contains a wide variety of vitamins and minerals, and if you carefully compare labels, you’ll find that some brands have a little more of this, while others have a little more of that. Beyond shaking the bottles, checking the prices, and comparing labels, how should you look for a multi? No matter what the state of your health, it’s smart to take a supplement that contains 100 percent of the Daily Value (DV) for most essential vitamins and minerals. The trouble is, none of the multis contains 100 percent of what you need. If you eat a healthful diet, you’ll get many of the vitamins and minerals that you’ll find in a multi, but many diets come up short on the following nutrients, experts say. You can get them by taking a multi along with a few individual supplements. Here are the suggested amounts.
Daily Multivitamin/Mineral Supplement • Vitamin A/beta-carotene: 5,000 international units • Vitamin B6: 2 milligrams • Vitamin D: 400 international units • Folic acid: 400 micrograms • Chromium: 120 to 200 micrograms • Copper: 2 milligrams • Magnesium: 100 milligrams • Selenium: At least 10 micrograms • Zinc: 15 milligrams As for iron, unless you have iron-deficiency , look for a supplement that doesn’t include it. You probably don’t need extra iron, and studies have linked high iron levels with increased risk of heart attack and atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). Some premenopausal women, however, may need extra iron to compensate for menstrual blood loss. Additional Supplements You won’t find the optimal dose of the following nutrients in any multi, so buy these supplements separately. • Vitamin C: 250-milligram tablets. The optimal dose is 500 milligrams a day, but you’ll absorb more if you take two doses spaced 12 hours apart. • Vitamin E: 100 to 400 international units once a day. • Calcium: 500 to 1,000 milligrams once a day. |
Article Source: MotherNature.com
