A Balanced Diet isn’t Enough

Food balance is a challenging trick in today’s culture of extremes.   Paleo fanatics limiting their fruits, grains, and vegetables confront one challenge of potential nutrient deficiencies while those who take a vegetarian approach, face opposing, different concerns.

For example, a largely vegetarian diet can lead to deficiencies in Vitamin B12 and iron.  If the person has any of the common factors that lead to absorption or insufficient B12 or iron levels on top of their approach to diet, the lack of these two nutrients could create serious health problems.

On the other hand, for the Paleo enthusiast on a diet that consists of a whole lot of meat, they might miss out on other essential nutrients that come from fruits, grains, and vegetables such as vitamins A and C.
Achieving the perfect balance through diet alone is nearly impossible, and some nutrients are simply hard to come by. Vitamin D3, for instance, is important for the health of virtually every life sustaining organ and system, but only exists in small amounts in fatty, naturally raised animal products and some fish.

Many people wonder, “Why supplement?”  Even certain experts say you can get the nutrients you need from a balanced diet.  The challenges to that, however, are many.  For one, a balanced diet is rare and as we have shared, certain nutrients may be very difficult to find.  Additionally, modern food manufacturing practices provide foods for us that are deficient in many key nutrients like Zinc and Magnesium as examples. Other factors that lead to insufficient vitamin and mineral levels come from highly stressful lifestyles.  It is not difficult to get depleted to a level that we could never truly get back from diet alone.  When putting a nutrition plan together, do not forget the very necessary starting point is to take a well-rounded multi-vitamin supplement.