[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]We all know the theory: a healthy, balanced diet provides all the nutrients the human body needs. But, even with the best will in the world, eating a healthy diet on a daily basis is a lot easier to say than it is to do.

There was a time when a varied diet, one with sufficient quantities of fibre, fruit and veg, would have been enough to pack the nutritional punch we needed. Now though? Not so much.

What’s changed then?

Accepting that there was once a time when a diverse diet would be stuffed full of health-giving nutrients then we have to examine the factors that contribute to our food chain being less of a nutritional cornucopia than once it was.

1. Mineral depletion of the foods we buy in our supermarkets
Since the day we humans discovered agriculture we have – by that very thing – been slowly depleting the minerals in our soil.

Modern over-farming, monocultures and over-zealous application of pesticides have worsened the situation.

When the 20th century drew to a close our fruit and vegetables contained something in the region of 20 percent fewer minerals than they did in the 1930s.

The minerals and vitamins in our fruit and veg are further depleted by:

• Long post-harvest intervals
• Food storage systems
• Food processing techniques

A long-term study financed by the Medical Research Council compared and contrasted the mineral content of 27 varieties of vegetables, 17 varieties of fruit, 10 cuts of meat and some cheese and milk products. The results of this study demonstrated a significant loss of trace elements and minerals in these foods over the duration of the study.

There’s evidence to suggest too that our nutritional needs may be greater than they used to be because we’re now bombarded with environmental toxins that simply didn’t exist in days of yore. Such things as air and water pollutants, solvents, cleaning products, moulds and plastics are increasing our body’s need for nutrition to combat their ill effects.

2. Our meat is less nutritionally – well meaty
Why?

Studies have shown that the increased usage of high-concentrate feeds instead of pasture feeding has had a negative effect on the nutritional value of cattle meat. Hence your rib-eye steak is not so beefy as it was.

As a result, the meat from non-grass bred cattle is lower in:

• B-vitamins, antioxidant vitamins A & E, vitamin K
• Calcium and magnesium
• Omega-3 content – and reduced omega-3 levels contribute to a raised omega-6/omega-3 ratio
• Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA)

3. Depletion of Omega-3 in farmed fish
There’s something fishy in the fish farms and it’s the plant-based feeds they use.

The amount of omega-3 fatty acids in farmed salmon has reduced by HALF in the last 10 years. In 2006 the average omega-3 content in farmed salmon was 2.74g per 100g of fish. This dropped to 1.36g per 100g in 2015.

This article reports that the nutritional value of the final product (farmed salmon) is compromised requiring portion sizes to be double what they were in 2006 to yield the same nutritional value.

4. The northern light doesn’t shine so bright
If you’re living in the northern hemisphere the odds of getting the vitamin D you need from sunshine alone are not stacked in your favour.

Back in September 2016 we published a blog post informing that there’d been something of a sea-change in UK government advice on the required amount of sun exposure and vitamin D supplementation. The bottom line being a recommendation that almost all groups take vitamin D supplementation during the winter season.

Further to that the 28th October 2016 saw another development. The EFSA changed the DRV (dietary reference value) for vitamin D to 15mcg/600iu all year long for everyone except infants.

Yet compared to recommendations from the Vitamin D council this dose appears to be far from optimal.

Given that dietary sources of vitamin D are as inadequate as our sunshine supply in the northern hemisphere, supplementation would appear to be the only option.

All of which rather gives the lie to less than favourable suggestions recently seen in the media about the value of taking vitamins and other supplements. Suggestions have been made that many supplements are nothing more than an expensive additive to your urine.

This article from the Alliance of Natural Health refutes that claim and gives detailed comparisons of actual and optimal intakes – and the gap is quite shocking.

As the article points out ‘A lot of people simply don’t have the time, money or inclination to eat an optimal ‘healthy’ diet, day in and day out.’ Furthermore, it goes on to say, that ‘only a third of the population are achieving the five-a-day fruit and vegetable target.’

To conclude

It seems clear then. Given the changes in our environment, our lifestyles and the nutritional values of the food on our plates documented here, the value of supplementation to support your good health is not so easily dismissed as reports from some quarters would have us believe.[/vc_column_text]

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