Hello Everyone,
I wanted to update you on my
wonderful journey into further research and learning from the Institute For Integrative Nutrition, The World’s Largest Nutrition School, certifying
Health Coaches around the world. Why is
this important? Because I want you to
know how important your health is to me.
I am committed to furthering my education and certifications in order to
bring to you what you need to succeed in obtaining a healthy, vibrant
life. I am studying over 100 diets, theories
and medical studies that we can use together to do what is best for you and
your body.
There is one thing that class after class, certification after
certification so far has remained consistent. Vitamin and mineral
supplementation is recommended for everyone. I will elaborate more as we go along.
"Insufficient
vitamin intake is apparently a cause of chronic diseases... Most people do not
consume an optimal amount of all vitamins by diet alone. Pending strong
evidence of effectiveness from randomized trials, it appears prudent for all
adults to take vitamin supplements."
-
American Medical Association
Where do vitamins/minerals come
from?
Have you ever wondered just exactly
where do vitamins/minerals come from? Well here is a general synopsis:
Vitamins are natural substances found in living things such as
plants and are not produced in the body. Therefore they must be obtained
from the foods we eat or through supplements.
Minerals are also found in plants which they get from the soil and
the soil gets them from the water, etc. For vitamins to be able to do
their job in our body they need certain minerals. So, we must obtain our
minerals from our foods we eat or through supplements.
Antioxidants are an important enzyme or other organic substance that the
body uses to protect the body’s cells from damage caused by the effects of Free
Radicals which in turn causes oxidative stress to the body’s cells. Free
Radicals are produced in the body daily and can be increased due to stress,
smoking, sunlight, exercise etc. and are the leading cause of sickness and
degenerative disease as well as premature aging. More on this topic
later.
How we get the vitamins, minerals
and antioxidants into our bodies seems quite simple, we just eat. They
come from our plants, fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, fish, meat, spices, sun
etc... However, anyone eating the average American diet doesn't get the
vitamins and minerals necessary for our bodies to work at their optimal levels
leaving us with vitamin and mineral deficiencies that are the leading cause of
over 70 degenerative diseases.
We can do something about this
however by simply taking supplements that have been taken from plants, fruits,
vegetables, and then put together in the rite formula with the rite combination
of minerals allowing them to be used and absorbed by the body therefore eliminating
vitamin deficiencies. Thereby preventing and/or even eliminating or
reversing degenerative diseases.
Nutritional supplementation is the
basis of preventative medicine. This is
where you start. You must feed your
cells what they need to work at optimal levels.
Next, step is your diet. More on
that later, so be sure to subscribe to my blog Get Set to Reset Your Life.
So
why don't we all take supplements and what supplements would I take anyway?
Because there are effective,
ineffective and hazardous supplements out there. Just like the food we
eat we must take the time to research and learn about what we are eating and
supplementing with.
“Education is the most powerful weapon, which
you can use to change the world.”
-
Nelson Mandela
Don’t be discouraged, there are
great products on the market made by trust worthy companies that truly care about
your health and the products they manufacture.
Products that are created based on scientific studies and that truly
feed your body the vitamins and minerals it needs.
That is just one of the primary
reasons people don't supplement. The
other is the consumer is uninformed and misdirected by misleading marketing and
advertising or they believe the cheapest vitamin and mineral supplements out
there are just as effective as the more expensive ones and when they don’t work
they quit. I am sure you have heard the old saying, "You get what
you pay for" and this rings true for quality supplements you can trust
that are safe and effective as well.
What I have found to be the biggest
reason for not supplementing is the old "I can't afford it." I
can understand this to a point but what I can't understand is that with a small
amount of re-directional spending, i.e. avoiding the Latte or McDonalds for
lunch and buying all the junk food that is in people's cabinets you could
afford your supplements twice over. The
truth is you choose not to afford your supplements therefore you are
choosing degenerative diseases instead. Remember, the cost of a heart
stint is well over $200,000 while the cost of diabetes amputation will also run
in the tens of thousands. Or, perhaps the monthly $400 or more for
prescription medication is a better choice. I don't think so. Not
only do we need re-directional spending what’s
needed is re-direction thinking. The old "it will never happen
to me" just doesn’t apply. It's time to think how to truly
implement preventative measures from degenerative disease and proper vitamin
and mineral supplementation is the first step. More on choosing the rite
nutritional supplements later.
So,
why should I care about getting the rite vitamins and minerals and what do they
do for my body anyway and where do they go in my body?
To tell you the truth I didn't want
to know this either but if you don't educate yourself on these things it's
simply too easy to rely on marketing and scrupulous companies telling you what
you need. With that said you need to know that after taking your vitamins and minerals or anything else for that matter, they go to
your stomach and then will travel to your intestines where they will go through
the bodies complex process of distributing them to the parts of the body that
need them the most. Our bodies are truly super computers. The body knows where it needs to use the
vitamins and minerals as well as what and how much it needs.
We have to look at vitamins and
nutrients, not as independent vitamins and minerals but as a co-operative
network working together. If you are missing one nutrient it will throw
off the entire network of nutrients in your body.
"A
deficiency of a vitamin or mineral will cause a body part to malfunction and eventually
break down - and, like dominos, other body parts will follow."
James
F Balch, MD
Prescription
for Nutritional Healing
Everything we do uses vitamins and
minerals that the cell's in our body need 24/7, 365 days a year. Just
thinking uses vitamins and minerals as well as exercise, stress and even eating
and breathing.
The use of certain diuretics
(substances that increase the discharge of urine) such as drugs, alcohol,
coffee, tea and sodas, to name a few, washes the vitamins and minerals rite out
of the body creating deficiencies, which can create major health problems.
Certain medication actually inhibits
the absorption of certain vitamins and minerals or accelerates the loss of
them. Tobacco and alcohol are two substances that can have these same
effects. Certain medications even block
the body’s ability to produce key enzymes such as coenzyme Q10.
Highly processed foods have added
chemicals that the body simply can’t use or absorb and are toxic to the body
causing the body to work harder to get rid of them or causing malabsorption resulting
in the need for higher amounts of vitamins and minerals.
Household cleaning materials have
very toxic chemicals that are absorbed through the skin, eyes and breathed in
when in use. These chemicals can have
adverse effects on the body causing increased inflammation, cell oxidation and
malabsorption.
"Insufficient
vitamin intake is apparently a cause of chronic diseases... Most people do not
consume an optimal amount of all vitamins by diet alone. Pending strong
evidence of effectiveness from randomized trials, it appears prudent for all
adults to take vitamin supplements."
-
American Medical Association
Vitamin
and mineral supplementation is necessary for the following reasons:
- Crop nutrient losses - Our soils have been depleted from decades of agriculture overworking and depleting the soil of minerals.
- Poor digestion - Over eating or eating to quickly can cause stress to your digestion system. Indigestion hampers the body’s ability to absorb vitamins and minerals.
- Over-cooking - Destroys food nutrients
- Microwave Cooking - Microwave cooking has been show in studies to alter the nutritional structure of food.
- Food Storage - Freezing and lengthy storage deplete the nutritional value of most foods.
- Food Selection - A small pallet of food groups or too limited range of foods eaten will result in nutrient deficiencies.
- Food omission - Sometimes due to food allergies or crash dieting where complete food groups are eliminated or poorly administered vegetarian diets will inadvertently omit very important sources of nutrients.
- Environmental factors - The increased use of herbicides and pesticides used on crops, is toxic and has created plants or crops with lowered nutritional value.
- Antibiotics - Antibiotics inhibit the absorption of essential nutrients and can greatly reduce the amount of good bacteria in the GI tract which is essential for healthy digestion and sound immune function.
- Poor lifestyle habits - Alcohol consumption, smoking of tobacco and caffeine can also inhibit the absorption of vitamins and minerals.
- Stress - Increases oxidative stress, be it emotional or physical stress and increases the bodies requirements of vitamins and minerals.
- Out of balance - Having out of balance levels of each vitamin and mineral has an adverse effect on the others, so keeping them in balance is crucial because it effects the performance of the all the others. They work in a co-operative network.
- Nutrient variance - Fruits and vegetables are not all created equal. One tomato can have 10 times more nutrients than another depending on many factors such as pesticides, herbicides, soil depletion, etc.
But what happens if your body needs more vitamins and minerals than your
body has to offer?
Your body will determine which part
of the body needs it the most and if necessary will take the nutrient from the
less important part of the body and reallocate it to the more important part of
the body. This is the old "rob Peter to pay Paul"
routine. This is what you want to avoid. This is what causes deficiencies
and can begin the process of degenerative disease. Such as Osteoporosis, if your body doesn't
have enough calcium it needs it will steal it from your bones thereby thinning
of the bone tissue and loss of bone density over time. You of course do
not know this is happening until you begin to have some kind of symptoms.
You see, by the time you get most symptoms the damage has been occurring for
years. Such is the case with pre-diabetes; you are usually pre-diabetic
for up to eight years before it is usually diagnosed and detectable.
Now given all the above information,
I don't know about you but to me it is a no brainer, proper vitamin and mineral
supplementation is a must. Below is just a few of the
benefits of what Vitamins and Minerals do for you.
Build up Your Immune System
A person doesn't catch cancer or
heart disease or even diabetes. These ailments are created due to deficiencies
based on what you do or don't eat.
Increase Your Energy Level
Your level of vitamins and minerals
has a direct effect on the release of energy from digested foods. Keep your
vitamin and minerals at optimal levels and get strong, lasting energy.
Enhance Your Appearance
Every aspect of your appearance is a
direct result of proper vitamin and mineral levels. Everything from your
hair strength, thickness, color, shine and length to your finger nail strength,
length and texture as well as your skin elasticity and skin tone and
clearness. Some people look 50 years old at 30. While others look
30 at 50 years of age.
Expand Your Intelligence
Vitamins and Minerals have a direct
impact on your brain function and memory function. Both require the
proper levels of vitamins and minerals.
You
may be asking what vitamins should I take?
It's time to order your vitamins and
minerals today. The vitamins and minerals I take myself after much
research on the company and referring to the "Comparative Guide to
Nutritional Supplements" by Lyle MacWilliam, BSc, MSc, FP, which compares
over 1,500 companies in the United States and Canada and making sure the
company meets the guidelines they recommend for choosing a safe and trust
worthy company to trust my health too; is Usana Health Sciences Nutritional
Supplements.
Everyone, and I do mean everyone
should be taking at least the minimum recommended daily vitamins and
minerals, Usana's
Essentials. The perfect combination of vitamins, mega
antioxidants and chelated minerals to ensure proper absorption and balance your
body needs daily. You will also want to take BiOmega
fish oil for your Omega 3 fatty acids. The American diet is currently
highly deficient in Omega 3 fatty acids and over consuming Omega 6 fatty acids
causing and epidemic of chronic inflammation. This is also a leading cause
of heart disease and is why fish oil is recommended for prevention of heart
disease. I also highly recommend Proflavanol
C100 advanced antioxidant protection.
Again, Usana Health Sciences is
where I get my nutritional supplements from and you can order yours by clicking
the link below or contacting me at jackiegemstar@yahoo.com. I highly encourage you to visit this link and
click on all the tabs for an incredible amount of information on the products,
manufacturing and the science. I also
have available the “Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements” by Lyle
MacWilliams for your review or it can be purchased at my amazon.com if you would
like your own copy.
I truly hope this information was
helpful to you in making the decision to start your
supplementation today. Don't wait any longer, put your health first!
supplementation today. Don't wait any longer, put your health first!
Best Regards and God Bless,
Jackie
Bennett
(815) 639-9154 office
(847)
778-3730 cell
(815)
639-9159 fax
jackiegemstar@yahoo.com
Gifts For Your Health And Home
Please
note, that certain medications or health conditions may affect your
supplementation needs. If you are currently taking medications or seeing a
doctor for a specific health condition, please contact me and together we can
consult your physician, pharmacist, or health care specialist to
determine which products are most appropriate for you.
