My thoughts on Health and Wellness in todays world

I would like to clear the air on the subject of Health and Wellness from my view point. Of course this is what I know from experience as a sports person and triathlete for 25 years and what I have discovered through my own investigations. I welcome your comments.

You see in my understanding taking supplements seems to be put into two categories;

1. People who are serious athletes and need to take a protein or a special supplement to recover & perform better
2. People who are dieting or have a health deficiency.

Now my argument or point is this, most people take a multi-vitamin and tell me that this is enough. I say it is not enough. Now most peoples answer to me is,Yes Coach its not me, but I eat healthy as well, and I get my daily recommended levels in. 

Well heres the point, the point of supplementation is to help your body have sufficient nutrients to deal with the stresses (funny how today it is stresses and not just stress) of life and function correctly. Stresses come in the form of work, drink and exercise, if you are not doing this then you will develop a disease or illness related to the deficiency of that vitamin or mineral. so for example 100 years ago sailors suffered from Scurvy from a lack of Vitamin C in their diet. So therefore today we have a recommended daily allowance of Vitamin C, which purpose is to guide you to not develop scurvy.

So if the RDA for Vitamin C, is to prevent you getting scurvy and is based on a person living a pretty normal life and is not suffering from stresses and exercise, then wouldnt you think you need to up your intake?

There are two ways to improve your uptake of Vitmains and Minerals

1. Eat better 
2. Increase your supplementation

So lets look at these 2 quickly:

1. Eat Better

• 20 years ago our foods contained 5 times more nutrients than they do today, so if you are telling me you eat your 3 - 5 servings of fruit and veg a day, then I am telling you you are not getting enough.
• And lets be honest, who here really eats 3- 5 servings of fruit and veg with our lifestyles. Yes very very few
• So the alternatives are
• Increase the amount of fruit and veg you eat ( Yeah right!) or 
• Go to point number 2

2. Increase your supplementation

Increasing your supplementation is a much better option in todays climate. Life runs at quite a pace, so it is easier to take a supplement than to now eat 7 - 10 serving of fruit and veg a day. This now comes the second debate. What supplement to take?

I am a 100% all for organic supplementation for two reasons. 

1. Synthetic supplementation is 16 times less effective than organic. So would you like to eat a plastic apple or a real apple?
2. The quality of the supplement is also very important and shows in the amount of waste that comes out of your body. You can see this by when you drink Vitamin C, if you take an organic Vitamin C you see less waste. I mean wouldnt you want to get more bang for your buck. Yes organic supplements seem more expensive compared to the cheap rubbish you can get on the market, but ask yourself how much goes straight through your body without getting absorbed or used.

In my next article I will go into more detail regarding this topic, so send me your questions and I will make sure they are addressed.

Have a great day

coachBEZ