This question seems to tickle us many times in many discussions. And I feel most of my generation is convinced to rely on one good quality multi-vit. Lets see both sides of the coin and decide logically.
Some common reasons in support of taking a regular multivitamin I heard time and again are:
- Standard American Diet (SAD) is sad diet. The common grains, legumes people consume are not easily digestible. They are accompanied by anti-nutrients which may be damaging to the GI tract . The common diary (milk, eggs, cheese etc) is equally hard to digest. The dangers of hormone and antibiotic treatments of diary animals can directly impair consumer’s health
- Organic foods are not affordable. Non-organic foods are chemically treated with pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers which all impair absorption and affect the nutrient content of the produce. Food eaten is not absorbed well and at the same time causes damage to our internal system.
- Trace nutrients are missing in most of the foods due to poor soil quality resulting from poor agricultural practices. This brings in deficiencies in to the system.
- Packaging and Transportation of food produce does not guarantee the nutrient content
- GMO foods are look alike foods. Some of these are not only nutrient poor but also are different in the way they are processed internally.
- Filtered water does not carry any nutrients but may be a safer way to drink because of all the toxins water carry in the present world
Keeping all the above problems in view, the food and drug industry has taken in to its hands to handle our nutrition needs. There are vitamins, minerals, enzymes, hormones and many more that sit on the aisles of grocery with wide range of options like plant based, non-GMO, organic, environmental friendly.
Now lets look at the other side of the coin.
First lets understand what metabolism means:
Metabolism of one’s body includes conversion of food in to energy and to basic building blocks for proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, carbohydrates for proper cellular processes and elimination of wastes formed during the conversion. A metabolic pathway is a linked series of chemical reactions. These reactions are catalyzed (increase the rate of reaction) by enzymes. The biproducts and end product of a particular reaction is called metabolite and the end product of a reaction can become substrate or initial product for the next step of chemical process till the basic building block is reached or it is converted into energy based on the need.
When we eat food these complex metabolic pathways are exercised. Many times a network of metabolic pathways are exercised. The products of each step may be used immediately or stored based on the cellular needs. Most of the common multivitamins consists of biproducts and end products of these chemical processes. When the body comprehends, it already has some of these essential end products and bi-products, it stops to exercise that particular pathway. So we no longer exercise a number of pathways and will miss out on some of the biproducts which are not included in the multiVit. The effect of missing out on these will only show up slowly by which time, our body may not be able to exercise a particular pathway effectively. So we become dependent on the multiVitamin and we need to add all the biproducts of that particular pathway to the multivitamin. The same theory works for fortified products. Multivitamins and fortified foods have come as solution to malnutrition but will not solve our problem in long term and we will start to depend on more fortified solutions.
There is another aspect to this debate which has disturbed me in some way. The word ‘Comprehension’ means able to understand a particular aspect and be able to utilize in harmony with everything else that is happening. Just as we comprehend situations, our body and mind also comprehend the nutrients and hence the terms like protein comprehension, carb comprehension, calcium comprehension etc. So our body has to be able to understand these ingredients from our food and be able to metabolize them to use for life processes. But as we stop to exercise some of the metabolic pathways this comprehension is lost. For Example, Currently a vast majority of us cannot comprehend variety of plant proteins. Plant proteins are accompanied with anti-nutrients from plant’s defense. Many of us, don’t have effective systems which can handle these anti-nutrients, comprehend the proteins, synthesize all the essential and non-essential amino-acids from them. In the past, many generations were able to comprehend this successfully. Animal proteins from egg or meats are whole in amino-acids. Our body need not work hard to metabolize the protein in to amino-acids to the most part, as the animal’s body would have done it already. As we become incapacitated of comprehending nutrients from natural foods, we become increasingly dependent on fortified products, animal products, food and drug industry rather than depending on foods available in nature. We have discussed in the Mind-Body-Gut post how a predominantly animal based diet is connected to depression, variety of neurological diseases like MS, Alzheimer’s etc.
Along with losing the comprehension of nutrients, for every critical pathway we don’t exercise we may also lose an emotion as our mind and body are not independent. Emotions are not just limited to being sad or happy or pleasant, they are arranged with many vertices to give us our intuition. So the more number of naturally occurring nutrients we are unable to comprehend, that many vertices of our emotions or intuition is lost. We may not perceive what we have lost in our day to day life because the symptoms of body are always masked by the alternatives we get from industry. But the incomprehension bothering the mind will not be fixed.
The question is, if we have been cluttered with multivitamins, fortified foods, animal foods for a while, is it easy to go back and regain the comprehension or unclutter ourselves. It is possible but it needs help from an expert, it is time consuming. It is not straight forward to shift gears from animal based diet to plant based and expect to feel better. The transition should be gradual and has to be orchestrated and the healing will happen slowly. It also depends on how cluttered we are. I have been fortunate to get help in this aspect and uncluttering is not an easy process. It needs dedication and observation of our own body. But as we unclutter we start to reap the real benefits. I will share some best practices in the future posts.
All the parents who have not started their kids on multivitamins or fortified products should work to provide the next generation with full comprehension. Due importance has to be given for the child’s diet, quality of ingredients, process in which they are cooked.
Somethings, we can start are,
- Avoid plastics everywhere possible. We need to be mindful, plastics are everywhere even in our clothing. Go for natural fibers. Nature around us does not comprehend plastics. It does not know how to break it in to anything useful, neither our bodies can comprehend micro and nano-plastics which enter us.
- Promote products from sustainable agricultural practices. Soil fertility is a key for rich life. Our bodies cannot comprehend pesticides. So going Organic (completely) is a best contribution you will do for future generation.
- Be wary of using fortified products. Spend time to plan food choices for the week to have a balanced diet till you gain expertise in the planning. This may seem hard or odd in the beginning. But will become a practice
- Make cooking a family thing.