Your body’s health is not just based on calories and the numbers of carbs you eat, but the nutrients you actually absorb. This is easily missed in many programs that just focus on your weight.

It’s a common thought that if you eat well then you don’t need to take a supplement. Of course the first question would be, “Are you really eating that well?”

A supplement is exactly that, it’s meant to supplement good nutrition. However did you know that you would need to eat five oranges today to get the same amount of Vitamin A as your grandparents would have gotten from one?

What we know today is that it’s very unlikely and perhaps impossible to really get all of the micronutrients you need from diet.  And this is likely the case even if you’re eating all your fruits and vegetables.

Modern, commercial food production has promoted the push for fast pace agricultural practices.  This  includes the use of chemicals, genetically modified foods (GMOs), and other processes done for ease, profit, and expediency.  Yes, we have larger yields of foods but at what cost?  All these practices are ultimately stripping the soil of nutrients with remarkable health implications, both physical and mental. (1)

A landmark study on the topic by Donald Davis and his team of researchers from the University of Texas (UT) at Austin’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry was published in December 2004 in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. They studied U.S. Department of Agriculture nutritional data from both 1950 and 1999 for 43 different vegetables and fruits, finding “reliable declines” in the amount of protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin (vitamin B2) and vitamin C over the past half-century.

Another analysis from the Kushi Institute, looked at nutrient data from 1975 to 1997. They found that average calcium levels in 12 fresh vegetables dropped 27 percent; iron levels 37 percent; vitamin A levels 21 percent, and vitamin C levels 30 percent.