Are supplements really necessary? - By Kim Otteby

The health industry is an exceptionally fast growing market as more and more people are becoming interested in alternative therapies. Increasingly we hear about it when we turn on our TVs, pick up a newspaper or open a magazine. And it’s no longer just limited to women - I was blown away at the shear volume of supplement related adds when I recently picked up a copy of “Men’s Health”.

With so much information coming from almost every direction about what you should and should not do with regards to your health, what supplements are good for this, that and the other, it can become pretty confusing to say the least!

Many people ask me whether they really need supplements in the first place, especially if they are eating a “balanced” diet. The answer really depends on what you want. Yes, eating well and exercising will take you a long way towards being free of disease and illness, but if you want to achieve “superhealth” with high energy, emotional balance, sharp mind and tuned up immune system; you’ll need to take supplements. Firstly, because of certain farming methods and the fact that our soils have become depleted, the foods that we eat these days are simply not as nutritious as they used to be. In addition, we are now faced with a world which is highly polluted, increasing the stress and pressure on our bodies and our nutritional requirements.

But how do you then determine what supplements you need? If you are in good health with no major problems, then I always recommend starting with a multivitamin-mineral supplement. This will ensure a broad spectrum of vitamins and minerals that will secure any short fall. Using multies are also a good idea when we consider the fact that most vitamins and minerals work best in combination with each other, i.e the sum of the parts is greater than the individual parts.

Not all supplements are equal though. As with most things, you pay for quality. So don’t go rushing off buying the cheapest multi you can find at your local chemist. The cheapest supplements are cheap for a reason, they use cheaper forms of nutrients or indeed lower amounts that wont have much of an impact on your health. Another big difference between supplements that you need to be aware of is whether they are synthetic or natural. Synthetic vitamins have been made in a lab and although they have the same chemical composition, energetically they are very different. A great example is natural Vitamin E, where the natural version has been shown in clinical studies to be much more potent than the synthetic version.

Also consider whether the vitamins and minerals are in a “food state”. This simply means that they are in a form that is as close as possible to that found in nature. Consider the fact that we have evolved over millions of years to use nutrients available to us through food. When nutrients are presented to our body in this “food matrix”, our body knows exactly what to do, and can absorb & assimilate the nutrients with ease.  There are now companies that sell food state and natural vitamins and minerals, although these may be difficult to get a hold of in Zambia. Another option is of course to supplement with superfoods such as moringa, wheat grass, barley grass, spirulina and chlorella. These are all completely natural nutritional powerhouses that not only have a wide range of vitamins and minerals but also potent phytonutrients, antioxidants and enzymes!

Remember though that if you are suffering from any illness, or are under a lot of stress, your nutritional requirements will increase and there may then be need to supplement more specifically. Wishing you all good health!