The Modern Need for Multivitamins

Why it is wise to take a daily vitamin and mineral supplement

Do I really need to take a multivitamin if I eat a healthy, well-balanced diet? Which begs the questions, what exactly constitutes a “healthy” diet in this day and age and how do you know you are following one? Besides, if we are all really honest, who of us really eats a truly healthy and well-balanced diet every day…

The truth of the Standard American Diet (abbreviated “SAD”) is somewhat, well, sad. In an age of convenience foods and “supersize me”, many of us are facing significant nutritional gaps in our diets. And even for those of us who are striving to eat a rich cornucopia of whole foods, we may be falling short on what our body really needs to counteract the stressful demands of modern life.

Our bodies are amazing

Every moment of every day, the cells in our bodies are creating energy, building tissues, communicating with other cells, digesting food, pumping blood, generating movement, transporting nutrients and oxygen, synthesizing hormones and neurotransmitters, eliminating toxins and waste material, and protecting and defending our cells from unfriendly bacteria, viruses and mutant cells. However, while all of this is miraculous, none of it happens by magic.

To accomplish all these vital, life-sustaining tasks, the cells in our bodies require a complex variety of nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, coenzymes and enzymes. Without adequate amounts of these fundamental nutrients, it is impossible for our cells to carry out the thousands of biochemical and metabolic processes responsible for maintaining optimal health. Nutrients are the catalysts for every life-supporting process in the body.

Back in the day, humans could obtain essential nutrients from their diets fairly easily. For numerous reasons, though, this is no longer the case. Dietary and lifestyle choices are partly to blame. Over the last 100 years, our lifestyles have become increasingly sedentary. As a result, our caloric requirements have decreased, and we require less food to maintain a healthy body weight. Thus, our consumption of nutrient-rich foods has declined accordingly. Moreover, the densest foods nutritionally are fruits, greens and other vegetables, sea vegetables, herbs and algae—fare that very few modern people consume generously every day. Instead we are filling our daily metabolic needs with empty calories found in soda pops, packaged and processed foods, refined white flour pastas, breads, cookies, and the like.

Declining nutritional value of our everyday diets

The problem of inadequate consumption of nutrient-rich foods is compounded by conventional farming practices, which deplete nutrients and enzymes in the soil, making it difficult for fruits and vegetables to absorb sufficient amounts of these vital factors. These fruits and vegetables begin to lose nutrient value the moment they are harvested. To top it off, during the approximately three weeks it takes for a fruit or vegetable to reach the plate of the consumer around half of its nutritional value will disappear! We then add insult to injury by processing and preparing foods in ways that strip or diminish their remaining nutrient value.

Increased stress burden=Increased nutrient requirements

While the nutrient density of our food has diminished, our need for the cofactors found in food has increased. Our lives are filled with unprecedented levels of physical, psychological and environmental stress, to which our bodies must adapt. This puts an even greater strain on our systems at a time when our nutrient intake is declining. Think for a moment about the presence of chemicals in our modern life. In the not-too-distant past, the average person was exposed to 50 toxic chemicals a day, at the most. Today, that number is closer to 5,000. This adds an enormous burden to the body, as these chemicals damage cells and must be removed from the body or neutralized quickly.

When we consider the variety of ways in which our diets and lifestyles no longer resemble those of every generation that has come before us, we can easily understand the extreme importance of supplementing with an organic whole food vitamin, mineral and herbal formula such as Organic Vita•Min•Herb®. When your body is fully nourished at the cellular level, you naturally experience authentic energy and renewed vitality as your body regenerates itself, creating glowing, radiant health and well-being.