Think, Eat, Be Healthy

Spend Your Money On Real Food, Not Vitamins

Buy a beet instead of vitamin pills. We know whole foods keep up healthy and food is cheaper than pills.

Buy a beet instead of vitamin pills. We know whole foods keep us healthy and food is cheaper than pills.

Every Body Is Different

We all know that we are unique. No one else thinks like us, looks like us or has the same fingerprints as us. All of us also have unique metabolisms with calorie and nutrient requirements all our own. So why do so many of us think standard vitamin pills and other supplements will keep us healthy? Especially with all of the research showing the ineffectiveness of supplements?

Our Bodies Adapt To What We Eat

If we exercise and challenge our muscles regularly, they get larger and stronger. If we walk, run, swim or bike farther and harder, our endurance and cardiovascular health increases. When we exercise and walk less, our strength and endurance decrease.

Our bodies react the same way to the food we eat and the supplements we take. When we eat less vitamin A, our cells increase the number of vitamin A receptors to take maximum advantage of what is available and get the required amount for health. When we eat more vitamin A or take a supplement, our cells decrease the number of vitamin A receptors so as to get the same required amount for health. The body must act this way in order to maintain a steady state.

The Steady State Of Health

Think about what is necessary for a healthy body. Our internal temperature must be maintained within a very narrow range whether the air is 110 degrees or -30 degrees. Our blood sugar levels must be maintained within a very narrow range to avoid severe illness and death. The levels of thousands(maybe tens of thousands) of vitamins, minerals and other compounds must be maintained within very narrow limits to maintain cell health and proper functioning.

If the air temperature 110 degrees, our body makes many adjustments(sweating, panting, moving more slowly, etc…) to ensure that our internal temperature remains steady. If we eat a pound of sugar when we are hungry, our body quickly produces the necessary amount of insulin to remove that sugar from our bloodstream and keep the level of circulating sugar in our system steady. In the same way, if we take a pill containing five times as much vitamin A as we usually eat in three days, our body will adjust to ensure that only the amount of vitamin A required for healthy functioning makes its way into the cells. All of the excess vitamin A will be flushed from the system.

Why Food Beats Supplements

Our bodies evolved to eat whole foods. All of our various systems are designed to get all of the nutrients they need from a whole food diet. Until just over one hundred years ago there were no such things as dietary supplements because we did not even know that vitamins existed. Our understanding of health and nutrition is still very limited and crude because it is simply too complex for us to understand.

We know that whole foods keep us healthy. We know that a steady diet of highly refined foods and supplements does not keep us healthy. Study after study has shown that eating foods containing vitamin x maintain health and that taking vitamin x supplements do not maintain health. We need to get over the idea that pills can keep us healthy.

Conclusion

Eat a healthy whole food diet with plenty of variety and don’t worry about how much of each vitamin and mineral you are getting. Your body takes care of these things automatically and without thought or conscious effort. Vitamin and mineral supplements just end up getting sweated out of our pores or flushed down the toilet. And they cost a lot more that whole foods. And they are a lot less filling and have no fiber. The body knows best and the body wants real food, not supplements.

Eat a whole food diet with plenty of variety for maximum health.

Eat a whole food diet with plenty of variety for maximum health.