A balanced nutritionally dense diet provides the correct nutritional support to help the body to repair itself and function properly. Fundamentally we should find the correct balance of minerals and vitamins through our diet.  As we go through life our nutritional needs change and there are a number of extrinsic factors that affect our ability to consume enough of the vitamins and minerals we may be deficient in

Here are some of the factors that are important:

-      What sort of foods we are eating

-      Quality of the food we are eating

-      The health of our digestive tract

The foods we eat:

The minerals and vitamins we need come from the proteins, vegetables, fats and carbohydrates we eat. However because of current food selections many people are

missing out on some essential nutrients.

Vitamin B12 is a nutrient that helps keep the body's nerve and blood cells healthy and helps make DNA. If you consume a low protein diet or eat no animal products you will almost certainly have to supplement with B12, which we can only consume in our diet from animal products. There are 4 different kinds of B12 circulating in our bodies 2 active forms and 2 inactive. I generally find that people are better off to supplement with the active forms methylcobalamin and adenosylcobalamin.

Those who don’t eat vegetables, particularly the leaf green type are often deficient in many minerals. So if you have children who just wont eat vegetables it would seem to me to be sensible to give them a high quality multi vitamin.

The quality of foods we are eating

With the changes to intensive farming, soil depletion is a real problem and is affecting the nutrient values in the foods we eat. In the following study statistical lowering of certain nutrients in 43 vegetables in America between 1950 and 1999, show declines in Calcium, Iron, Potassium, Riboflavin, Ascorbic acid (Vit C) and Proteins (Davis et al, 2004). The study is highlighting that vegetables are now less nutrient dense than they once were. Making it necessary to eat more vegetables or supplementing along side eating vegetables to make sure that we have the nutrients we need.

Certainly in my clinical experience I come across many people who are lacking calcium and magnesium in their diet. In that case the supplement I recommend is one made from seaweed, which is very close to a food source of calcium. I find that this is much more easily absorbed than the common supplement of calcium carbonate (chalk).

The health of our gut

Many people are suffering with digestive complaints which affect digestion. This is often referred to as IBS (Irritable Bowel syndrome) and symptoms include, bloating, diarrhea or constipation or both, pain and reduced energy levels. If your gut is compromised in this way it is safe to say that it will not be absorbing nutrients as well as it could be. In the case of diarrhea food is just moving too fast through the gut for the correct nutrients to be absorbed. If you are suffering with recurrent symptoms listed above you really need to seek help from a professional to manage this problem.

Supplementation of digestive enzymes, probiotics, and fiber supplements can be helpful in this situation but trying to deal with these problems is usually much more complicated and professional help is advisable.

Finally I would just like to say something about the quality and sort of supplements we take. I am a big fan of food state supplements that is those that are made from the foods that we naturally get them from.  I use a company called Cytoplan who are leaders in food state supplements and have very high quality products available though their website www.cytoplan.co.uk.