“The evidence for supplementing with any vitamin … is just not there.”1 — Dr. Benjamin Caballero, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
“Based on existing evidence, we see little justification for the general and widespread use of dietary supplements.”2 — Jaakko Mursu, Ph.D. and colleagues on the Iowa Women’s Health Study
“The concept of multivitamins was sold to Americans by an eager nutraceutical industry to generate profits. There was never any scientific data supporting their usage.”3 — Steven Nissen, chairman of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic
With all the evidence we have that none of us are getting enough of the right nutrients, this persists.
It’s part of the issue I deal with every day in trying to help people who come to my Wellness Center. They’re on medications, they don’t understand why they’re taking the drugs, and their doctor has told them no matter what’s wrong it can’t possibly be nutrition. Sometimes the doctor takes their supplements and throws them in the garbage.
But the truth is that even young people … who have a higher metabolism and can eat more food that the average 50 or 70-year-old … with all the extra food they can eat, only 1% of them are getting the nutrients they need.4
I found that little tidbit as I was doing some research to keep up with what the American Heart Association (AHA) thinks is “heart – healthy” for kids.
The AHA published a paper in their journal Circulation. According to their research, less than 1% of kids get enough nutrients.5
Now, I don’t agree with what the AHA thinks is “heart-healthy.” They advise a low-fat diet high in grains, and eating very little animal protein. But over 99% of kids aren’t even getting enough of THAT. For adults, this is an even tougher nut to crack.
And that study is just another piece of evidence that we’ve gotten ever farther from our natural way of eating. It’s more proof that you have very likely been on an unnatural diet since the day you were born – without realizing it.
I am defining the word “diet” as “the food naturally consumed by an individual or a population.”
The food you’ve been consuming isn’t natural. It bears little resemblance to the native diet our ancestors enjoyed for hundreds of thousands of years. Deviating from your natural eating pattern is “dieting.”
Eating processed foods that are high in starch and sugar and low in healthy fats is dieting because it’s the opposite of thousands of years of human eating.
To overcome this unnatural diet, and put yourself back on track for optimal nutrition and health, here are my two simple recommendations:
1) Eat real, clean protein at every meal – Protein provides the building blocks for your muscles. Foods that are high in protein are the most delicious, too. Meat and eggs are your best sources. If possible, eat grass-fed beef. The flavor is great, and it’s far better for you because it has the right kinds of fats.
Eggs are the perfect food. I eat them every day. They are the “gold standard” by which we rate all other protein. This means that all of the amino acids are there in the ratios you need in one place. For best results, eat eggs that come from free-range chickens.
2) Cross starchy foods and carbohydrates off your shopping list – Dietary fat doesn’t make you fat. Foods with excess carbohydrates make you fat. They spike your blood sugar, and blood sugar that your body can’t or won’t process gets stored as fat.
The idea I teach my patients at the Wellness Center is to eat foods that don’t spike your blood sugar. Also, you want to let your blood sugar come back down after eating so that your insulin doesn’t stay elevated for too long.
This means eating foods with a low Glycemic Load (GL). The GL is simply a number you get when you multiply a food’s Glycemic Index (GI) rating by the total amount of carbohydrate in each serving you eat.
That makes it much more practical for your everyday life because the GL tells you how fattening a food is. It’s a fresh way to look at everyday foods. Some GL ratings may surprise you – especially if you’ve been eating cereal and potatoes.
I consider foods with a Glycemic Load under 10 as good choices. They are a green light. Foods that fall between 10 and 20 on the GL scale are more like a yellow light: not bad, but proceed with caution.
Foods above 20 are a red light. They will not only make you gain weight but keep you from dropping weight. Eat those foods sparingly and try to eat protein instead. Protein has a GL of zero.
3) Take a quality multi-nutrient – I say this because there are a lot of bad multivitamins out there. The most popular one in the world – I won’t mention the name – is the worst one I’ve ever found. It’s pure junk. It’s just chemicals and minimal doses.
Some even have token amounts of herbs in them. But you wouldn’t want to put herbs in a multivitamin anyway. Herbs alter physiology and that’s not the point of a good multi-nutrient.
Also, unless you have iron deficiency, choose a multivitamin without iron. You probably don’t need the additional iron. Extra iron can interfere with the absorption of other minerals, give you constipation, and leave a foul taste in your mouth.
1. Caballero B. “Should healthy people take a multivitamin?’ Clev Clin J Med. 2010;77(10):656-7.
2. Mursu J, Robien K, Harnack L, Park K, Jacobs D, “Dietary Supplements and Mortality Rate in Older Women.” Arch Intern Med. 2011;171(18):1625-1633.
3. Klein E, et. al. “Vitamin E and the risk of prostate cancer: the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT).” JAMA. 2011;306(14):1549-56.
4. Shay C, et. al. “Status of Cardiovascular Health in US Adolescents: Prevalence Estimates From the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) 2005–2010.” Circulation. 2013; 127: 1369-1376
5. Shay C, et. al. “Status of Cardiovascular Health in US Adolescents: Prevalence Estimates From the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) 2005–2010.” Circulation. 2013; 127: 1369-1376