Introduction

I never cease to be amazed at how often people’s well beings improve dramatically by simply cleaning up their diets a little — cutting down on their sugar, caffeine, and alcohol intake; substituting whole grains for white flour; and adding simple yet powerful nutritional support to their daily regimens. On the other hand, I believe that things that make you feel good (within 3 hours after eating them) are good for you.

Because there is so much confusion about the role of nutrition and the need for supplementing, the scientific study references for what I discuss here can be found in my book From Fatigued to Fantastic!

Let’s start with the following easy discussions:

Do Supplements Just Make Expensive Urine?

I often hear people express skepticism about the importance of nutritional supplements. A typical comment that I hear is "five hundred years ago, there were no vitamin tablets, and people seemed to do just fine." Well, 500 years ago, we did not get over a third of our calories from sugar and white flour — which are full of calories but have most of the vitamins removed. One study that was reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that fewer than 5% of the study participants consumed the recommended daily amounts (RDAs) of all their needed vitamins and minerals. What is frightening is that this study was conducted in Beltsville, Maryland, on U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) research center employees.

Despite this, some cynics still like to say that vitamins go out in your urine, so all you’re doing by taking vitamin supplements is making expensive urine. Using this line of reasoning, these cynics can stop drinking water (it just goes out in their urine!). That way, they’ll soon stop annoying people who are in the process of getting themselves well!

Why is the American Diet Nutritionally Deficient?

Sugar and White Flour

• The average American’s diet includes over 140 pounds of added sugar per year — 18% of the average American’s caloric intake. Since a healthy diet without added sugar may have only a 5-15% margin of safety for supplying optimum amounts of vitamins and minerals, the added sugar alone makes the average American diet a disaster. Sugar also suppresses the immune system and stimulates yeast overgrowth in the intestines.
• Another dietary disaster is white flour and rice, which supplies about another 18% of our calories.

As you can see, from just the use of white flour and added sugar, Americans often reduce their vitamin and mineral intake by around 35%. Add to this the nutrients that are lost in the canning of vegetables, which can cause vitamin losses of up to 80%, and in the processing of other foods. As Dr. SB Eaton noted in his study in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, “physicians and nutritionists are increasingly convinced that the dietary habits adopted by Western society over the past one hundred years make an important etiologic (causative) contribution to coronary heart diseases (angina), hypertension, diabetes, and some types of cancer. This is the same conclusion that was reached by the authors of Western Diseases: Their Emergence and Prevention.

Caffeine and Alcohol

I am constantly astonished at the number of people who complain about being tired who drink more than 3 cups of coffee or other caffeine-containing drinks a day. Caffeine is a loan shark for energy and also worsens the symptoms of low blood sugar. Many people with fatigue fall into the trap of drinking ever increasing amounts of coffee or "energy drinks" (should be called energy thieves) to boost their energy so that they can function. Black and green teas, in leaf and teabag forms, are high in antioxidants, however, and are much more healthful than coffee. It is OK to drink 1-2 cups of brewed tea a day (but not the sugar loaded ones sold in bottles) to get your "caffeine-kick."

Limit alcohol to one to three drinks a day.

Which Vitamins and Minerals are Important?

Patients often ask me "what vitamins or minerals do I need?" The answer is that all of them are critical. In addition, higher levels than normal are often needed to compensate for poor absorption of nutrients (such as occurs when one takes antacids — we make stomach acid for a reason) or for the increased stresses of modern life. In addition, the RDA’s (government "Recommended Dietary Allowances," or what I call "Ridiculous Dietary Allowances") are set based on what is needed to prevent symptoms of deficiency (such as scurvy) and not on what is optimal. Personally, I prefer optimal.

Numerous studies have shown that adequate amounts of many vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and nutritional cofactors are critical. For example, zinc, vitamin A, beta-carotene, vitamin B6, vitamin C, vitamin E, and iron have been found to be very important in keeping your body’s defenses strong, so you won’t catch infections (or get cancer) as often.

Each nutrient is critical to health, and it is helpful to understand the roles that they play. Within the Nutrition section of this application, I will give you a "nutrition primer" which will review the key nutrients you should be getting from the diet and their optimal amounts. Don’t panic! I will also show you how to get all of these easily without being part of the "Handful Club" (where you take handfuls of supplements all day)! As you read this, realize that except for iron (which is toxic if you are not deficient), calcium (which blocks thyroid absorption and which most people do not need—contrary to sales hype) and fish oil (oil and water don’t mix) all of the key nutrients which you should get from your diet (in optimal levels) and much more can be obtained in 1 drink and 1 capsule daily. This has been done to keep it easy and inexpensive for you. In addition, for credibility’s sake, I have my policy of not taking money from any supplement or pharmaceutical companies and 100% of the royalties from my products (including this application) go to charity.

More Information Online

Nutritional primer

We have a 20,000 word primer on nutrition at our website that provides more detail with study references on each nutrient. Click here to see it.