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If you guessed
a vitamin & mineral complex, you’re absolutely correct.
A firm foundation for good health depends on vitamins and minerals,
which we can get from our diet or from dietary supplements. Here
are two main reasons why we should seriously consider the second
resource.
Food is missing many vital nutrients. Food
is different today than it was 100 or even 50 years ago. For one
thing, the soil on which much of our food is grown is critically
depleted of minerals. Also consider that the feed given to livestock
raised on factory farms is a far cry from the nutrient-rich grass
and grains they dined on in years gone by. Fruits, vegetables, and
legumes are assaulted with chemical pesticides and herbicides, and
this raw food is further stripped of its nutrient content by high
heat and other production methods used during the manufacturing process.
It seems that for all the nutrients removed during processing, an
equal amount of harmful substances like hydrogenated fats and unbelievable
amounts of sodium are added. And honestly, the majority of us seem
to like it that way. Which brings us to our next point.
“Junk” food is tasty. It’s
what many of Americans choose at the grocery store and when dining
out. We begged restaurants to wake up to the health crisis and include
salads and low cholesterol/low carbohydrate food choices on menus.
So they did. Yet the industry says nobody’s eating them. According
to a recent NBC Nightly News report (August 18, 2005), Americans
dining out are apparently bored with eating what’s good for
them, skipping what’s on the healthy menu for burgers and fries. “Taste
trumps health every time,” and “Veggies are vanishing
and burgers are back,” were just two of the comments in the
report that show our sentiment towards healthy food. Now the food
industry is in a quandary what to do with their menus, while the
sales of high-fat foods are way up.
Essentially, it’s an open and shut case. Everyone agrees that
we need a vitamin & mineral complex to provide the nutrients
that are missing from our diet. In fact, the Journal of The American
Medical Association (JAMA), the medical community's most prestigious
research journal, announced that all adults should take vitamin supplements
to help promote good health. (June 19, 2002) The impact of that statement
is HUGE because it comes from a group that traditionally stays clear
of recommending dietary supplements and admittedly knows very little
about them.
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