Do you NEED to Supplement Your Diet?

I’ll admit I used to be a skeptic. I felt I could get all the nutrients I needed from a healthy balanced diet. I mean, at the end of the day, I do eat five vegetables a day, eat good quality meats, fish and poultry, get my fair amounts of healthy fats, and generally select best quality organic food, in between tubs of Ben & Jerry’s and bottles of Becks of course...

But, truth be known, food isn't what it used to be...

Scaremongering aside for a moment, a supplement is exactly that, supplementary to a healthy diet. If you treat your body like a dustbin, and consume whatever you want, it will not be worth supplementing.

However, if you make a bit of effort and endeavor to follow a balanced diet (whatever that is...) then supplementing might be for you.

Before I begin, you’re right to be skeptic. The majority of information you are fed (excuse the pun) as a health consumer is BS. Someone is clearly trying to sell you something. Similarly, the way the supplement industry has gone you are right to have your reservations. 

Firstly, the supplement industry, which is poorly regulated, has now adopted a tit-for-tat style approach to health, similar to the pharmaceutical industry, the very industry it opposes. What I mean by this is rather than look to build health from the ground up by treating causes not symptoms, it seems to have a ‘natural’ cure for everything from an itchy tongue, to thyroid imbalance and creaking joints. This is nonsense, and you’re right to have reservations.

Secondly, because the supplement industry is poorly regulated, you will find all manner of cheap and ineffective supplements available. This is a shame because you will not get any nutritional support from these and at best you will just get funny coloured pee. Think own brands, stuff available on the highstreet (Holland and Barrett) and supermarkets.

Now, does your food have more airmiles than you...

Have you ever been on holiday and eaten a tomato and thought, ‘wow, this is delicious?’ The same can be said for fresh fish, beef from a farm, raw milk from a cow, strawberries from a pick your own farm... There might just be something in that.

With over 90 million people living in one small island the challenge to feed everyone is difficult. 

I’m not talking about manufactured processed food. That’s easy to create. And is a subject for different debate. We know that’s bad for us, right? I’m talking about fresh food, the type a discerning health consumer will buy. I’m talking fresh fish, apples, spinach, sirloin steak, free range chicken... I’m talking REAL food. The food a conscientious health consumer will buy.

It’s one hell of a statement - food isn’t what it used to be - and whilst I’m realistic enough to understand living in the home counties you want the convenience to be close enough to London to have all the perks of big city living, you also want a bit of open space too, but you have to acknowledge this comes at a cost.

Evidence clearly states the food you buy, yes - fresh food, can be lacking in vital nutrients. The process of storing, processing and preserving food effects its nutritional value. 

Couple this with modern farming techniques to grow food faster, larger and in nutritionally depleted soil and you’ve got quite a conundrum.

What appears to be a whole unprocessed nutrient-dense food is not...

Think about it... Fresh fish from New Zealand? I’ve got off of a flight from that part of the world and I wasn’t fresh. Fruit that’s picked before it’s ripe. Grass fed cattle vs. Grain fed. Even fresh food has some shortfalls. 

------> More about food quality HERE

Even if you had gone to the time and effort to source locally grown organic foods I think due to the demands on your lifestyle you’d still be at a deficit.

Do you think 100 years ago they’d be up at 12 at night on their MacBook Air searching Google trying to find a weekend break online to Marrakech? Do you think the alarm would go at 6am in the morning followed closely by two large cups of super strong coffee whilst you stress and strain about the day ahead? Do you think they’d eat breakfast in the car on the way to work whilst trying to put their make up on and call their friend on their mobile phone because there is just not enough hours in the day? 

Our lifestyles have changed too.

I’m not demonizing either. To be honest at this stage in my life I’d rather have access to whatever food I want whenever I want. I’d also rather be able to get on my iPad late at night, log on to Fakebook and check out what mundane things my friends are doing on the other side of the world...

BUT what I am saying is whilst I encourage you to lead a healthy lifestyle it is unrealistic to think you can get all the nutrients you can from food. 

Taking the right supplements can help meet daily requirements (your body needs certain nutrients to function, right?), compensate for shortfalls, maximise your rate of progress on a diet and exercise plan and generally help you become more awesome.

However, like I said at the start not all supplements are created equal. Generally speaking, and in true cynical style, you get what you pay for. Cheap supplements use cheap ingredients which are harder for the body to absorb and less potent. By sticking to good reputable brands you can avoid wasting your money. This is important for both health supplements and sports supplements.

To give you an idea of what I’d recommend check this out.

I can offer you this advice with some integrity because, despite my advocacy of supplementing, I’m not getting any commission from supplements. So if you’ve dialled in your diet and exercise plan perhaps at the very least take a good quality multivitamin and mineral and good quality fish oil.