You are what you eat. Every cell in your body is made from what you eat and drink. Most of our health problems are the result of eating and drinking the wrong things. We are creating new cells that are defective because they were not built with the proper construction materials. Even if you constructed each new cell properly, you may not be supplying them with what they need to operate properly. This second of two Nutrition Pathway chapters will help you choose a better diet. The key to good health is to eat a diet of primarily fresh, organically produced plant foods such as vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes, sprouts, and a few whole grains, excluding wheat.
Federal guidelines recommend nine servings of fruits and vegetables per day, yet only 10 percent of us do that. While no consensus exists on the perfect human diet, consider gorillas, who are close relatives with DNA similar to ours; they consume almost 100 percent of their calories from raw plants. Most of us consume less than 10 percent from raw plants, and many consume less than 5 percent.
The key to health is to make sure your cells are getting everything they need to be properly constructed and to do their jobs. Cells have a grocery list of essential nutrients that you must supply regularly. To keep yourself in good repair and biologically young, you have to deliver those groceries. Every day, you create hundreds of billions of new cells, and constructing them properly requires a bewildering array of complex chemicals. The construction materials to make these cells must come from your diet, but modern diets based on mineral depleted soils and filled with processed foods fail to supply these needs. The result is our epidemic of chronic disease and accelerated aging. By contrast, raw plant foods can supply a balance of proteins, carbohydrates, and oils, as well as the vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, and fiber that we need. Eating unprocessed foods is essential. Fresh vegetables along with fruits, nuts, seeds, sprouts, and legumes must be the foundation of your diet.
Our genes are still those of our hunter-gatherer ancestors and require the same nutrition as they did back then. We are not getting that nutrition, and the result is our catastrophic epidemic of chronic disease and disability. Researchers estimate that the food our ancestors ate gave them about four times more nutrients than the food we eat today, and for certain nutrients that number is twenty or even fifty times higher. Yet because of the many changes in our environment and lifestyle, our need for nutrients is higher than ever—our intake of nutrients is down while our need is up. Most people are unaware of the unprecedented burden that our exposure to environmental toxins is placing on our bodies, dramatically increasing our need for nutrients. Meanwhile, most people choose foods for taste and convenience not nutrition. The concept of choosing foods for nutrition and health benefits is certainly not the norm in our society. Modern diets are overloaded with biologically inappropriate sugar, grains, dairy, salt, processed foods, GMO foods, and toxic food additives.
Hundreds of studies show that eating more fresh fruits and vegetables reduces the risk of all types of disease. For example, simply eating a diet of predominantly fruits and vegetables can cut your cancer risk by up to 75 percent. Fresh fruits and vegetables contain large amounts of phytochemicals, which are nature’s way of protecting plants against disease and environmental stress. Phytochemicals give fruits and vegetables their brilliant colors, and they are primarily responsible for the disease-prevention capabilities of these healthy foods. By choosing a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, you can provide your body with thousands of different phytochemicals that slow the aging process and offer enormous protection against all disease.
Eating more fruits and vegetables even decreases your appetite for processed foods. The best vegetables to keep the body biologically young and healthy are the cruciferous vegetables: cabbage, broccoli, kale, Brussels sprouts, turnips, cauliflower, radishes, bok choy, and watercress. Other good vegetables include carrots, onions, beets, and spinach. Good fruits include avocados, cherries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, pineapples, watermelon, kiwis, mangos, plums, and honeydew melons. Fruits are healthy, but consume them in moderation because of their high sugar content. Fruit juices should be avoided completely. The sugar is too bioavailable, rapidly increasing blood sugar and insulin. Orange juice with your breakfast is a bad choice!
The nutrients in vegetables can be made even more bioavailable by juicing or blenderizing. Using a juicer or powerful blender to mechanically break the tough cell walls of the plant releases more nutrition. In fact, you can get three times more nutrition from the same food than if you chewed it. Chewing makes only a fraction of the nutrition available. Making matters worse, most people don’t chew well. A combination of juicing and blenderizing is best. Juicing is less filling because it removes the fiber, which allows you to consume more vegetables and get more nutrients. Blenderizing retains the fiber, and most of us don’t get enough fiber. Many suitable juicers and blenders are on the market. Experiment with a variety of vegetables, and drink a glass of vegetable juice every day.
In addition to lots of fresh, raw vegetables, nongluten grains such as buckwheat, millet, brown rice, quinoa, and amaranth are okay in moderation, but grains are not a natural dietary choice for humans. Legumes and lentils are good sources of plant protein. Occasional small portions of high-quality animal protein, including organic eggs, can be added. Sprouts are an excellent food choice. However, store-bought sprouts are too often contaminated with bacteria and mold. Growing your own sprouts is best and simple to do. Sprouting is a fast, inexpensive way to produce high-quality food in your own kitchen.
Most of us are still eating the diet we grew up with, but if you want to be healthy, this behavior has to change. The best description for the Standard American Diet is “bizarre.” No one in history has ever consumed such a diet. According to Department of Agriculture statistics, over the last century, average consumption of fresh apples declined by more than three-fourths, fresh cabbage by more than two-thirds, and fresh fruit by more than one-third. Historically unprecedented, the diet we are eating is incapable of supporting healthy life. Yet we feed this diet to our children! That’s why, after accidents, cancer is now the leading cause of death for children, and diabetes, asthma, allergies, and cognitive/behavioral problems are epidemic.
Food Preparation
Ideally, at least 80 percent of your diet should be consumed raw. Cooking destroys nutrients and creates toxins. Eating the right foods is critical, but how you prepare those foods is also critical. Cooking food is a major change we have made in our diets, and it is an obstacle to meeting our bodies’ nutritional needs. Cooking reduces the availability of many nutrients and phytochemicals. Cooking carrots, for example, can destroy 75 percent of vitamin C, 70 percent of B1, 50 percent of B2, and 60 percent of vitamin B3. Produce such as apples, beets, cabbage, and cauliflower lose most of their anticancer activity when they are cooked. The higher the heat and the longer the cooking time, the more nutrients are lost. If necessary, the best way to cook vegetables—for example, broccoli or spinach—is to lightly steam or quickly stir-fry them. Cooking food is a poor choice, yet we have elevated this mistake to an art form.
How you cook makes a difference. People in our society unfortunately love to eat fried and roasted foods. We love to caramelize (brown) our foods. We do this despite the research indicating that eating proteins, fats, and carbohydrates that have been cooked at high temperatures causes colon cancer. Cooking food at high temperatures, such as in grilling, frying, and barbecuing, destroys nutrients. High heat causes chemical reactions that make proteins less digestible, which results in more undigested proteins entering the colon. There, they are metabolized into a variety of toxic, cancer-causing waste products. This process helps to explain the association between colon cancer and diets rich in fried and roasted meats.
Cooking at high temperatures not only destroys nutrients, it also poisons the food by producing a variety of powerful toxins. The high heat of grilling causes reactions with the proteins in red meat, poultry, and fish, producing carcinogens such as heterocyclic amines, benzopyrenes, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Meat that has been blackened is the worst of all. Never eat blackened meat or any blackened food. Even well-done meat is highly contaminated with carcinogens. Any time you cook meat at high temperatures, whether by barbecuing, frying, or broiling, carcinogens are created. When you cook meat, it is best to slow cook it at a low temperature, such as in a Crock-Pot. Especially avoid melted cheese, such as in pizza or a cheeseburger, as heated milk casein has been shown to be the most carcinogenic protein of all. Avoid all kinds of caramelized sugar, toasted bread, and roasted nuts. The bottom line: All proteins cooked at high temperatures have been proven to cause cancer in laboratory animals, and numerous studies have shown that people who eat meat cooked at higher temperatures have more cancer. Eating raw food is best.
Microwave ovens are found in almost every kitchen, yet microwaving food is very dangerous. It produces unique toxins and carcinogens that poison the body. In addition to creating toxins, microwaving causes massive destruction of nutrients. When cooked in a microwave, broccoli loses 97 percent of its antioxidants—only 11 percent is lost when steamed. Steaming is the least damaging way to cook.
Food Combining
What kind of foods you eat at the same meal is also important, particularly for older people or people already suffering from some chronic health problem. Many steps are involved in releasing the nutrients from the food you eat and then transporting these nutrients to the cells that need them. Proper digestion requires that a progressive series of processes go well in order to turn your food into vital nourishment. Otherwise, even the healthiest food can become toxic waste.
How you eat makes a difference. If you eat too fast or under stress, or if you eat the wrong combination of foods at a meal, the food may not be properly digested. If the food isn’t properly digested, you can’t get the full nutritional value. Further, undigested food promotes the creation of dangerous toxins that poison the body. The resulting deficiency and toxicity contribute to aging and disease.
Digestion begins in the mouth. Each stage in the process of digestion, from mouth to stomach to intestines, requires a specialized set of enzymes. Start the digestive process by chewing your food thoroughly, providing ample time to mix the enzymes with the food. Your pH is also important to this process. If your saliva pH is too acidic, these enzymes can become disabled.
Different food categories require different combinations of digestive juices for proper digestion. Proper food combining means eating those foods together that require the same chemical environment for their digestion. Proteins need a very acidic environment. Starchy foods, such as grains in any form (bread, pasta, rice, etc.) and potatoes, are digested in a more alkaline environment. If you eat both a starch and a protein at the same time, expect problems. Also, starches require less time in the stomach before moving on to the intestinal tract, where much of their digestion occurs. When starches enter the stomach along with proteins, which require a longer time there, they get held up. The starch begins to ferment, creating toxins and causing gas, bloating, abdominal discomfort, acid indigestion, poor nutrient absorption, and many other problems. Since most people in our society eat proteins and starches together (the meat-and-potatoes diet), indigestion and acid reflux have become normal. Americans spend more than $2 billion a year on antacids!
Fruits generally contain all of the enzymes necessary for their digestion, so they can and should pass through the system in much less time than either starch or protein. Some fruits, such as melons, are only in the stomach for fifteen to twenty minutes. Others are there slightly longer, but none as long as starch, let alone protein. When you eat a big meal and then have fruit for dessert, your stomach is already full and mixing in enzymes as it churns the meal. Along comes fruit, which is designed to pass right through, but now it cannot. It is stuck behind the meal. When fruit is forced to remain in the stomach with a starch, the mixture ferments and creates toxins that spread throughout the body. If the fruit remains in the stomach with a protein meal, digestion is again impaired, and the protein putrefies, similarly resulting in powerful toxins being released into your body.
Our digestive systems were not designed to eat what has become the “normal” diet of protein and starch meals. You can still enjoy these foods, but learning a new way to eat them will maximize the benefit you receive from them. If you eat three meals a day, have one fruit meal, one starch meal, and one protein meal (not necessarily animal protein). By digesting properly, you won’t feel sleepy after meals because digesting the food will not take all the energy from your body. You’ll feel energized because your body is not struggling with an impossible task and is able to actually use the nutrients, which your body has broken down and can now absorb. In addition, you will not be poisoned by fermentation by-products.
The common eating habits of our culture constantly create bad combinations for digestion. Most popular foods today are based upon poor food combinations—spaghetti and meatballs, chicken stir-fry over rice, pizza, hamburgers and French fries, any sandwich that contains meat, tacos, and even trail mixes that combine protein nuts, starchy grains, and dried fruit. You can make better choices by following these four guidelines:
• Eat starches with vegetables, but not with protein or fruit. Starches include grains, pasta, or bread, and starchy vegetables such as potatoes, sweet potato, corn, legumes, and beans.
• Eat protein with nonstarchy vegetables, and not with starches. Proteins include nuts, seeds, eggs, meat, or fish.
• Eat fruit alone. Sweet fruits should ideally be eaten after acid fruits, and acid fruits, such as citrus fruits, apples, mango, all berries, cherries, pears, apricots, and peaches may be eaten with raw nuts.
• Melons should be eaten alone.
Why Fiber Is Important
Fiber is the indigestible portion of plant foods that nevertheless plays a vital role in human digestion. Soluble fiber produces food for the cells lining the gut and supports friendly bacteria in the colon. Insoluble fiber aids in elimination, shortening the time it takes for the undigested food particles and toxins to pass through the intestinal tract. Fiber helps to normalize the body’s insulin levels. In addition, fresh foods that are high in fiber are also high in nutrition, including the carotenes, flavonoids, and antioxidants that are known to help prevent and reverse disease. Good fiber sources include kidney beans, garbanzo beans, navy beans, whole grains, legumes, and raw vegetables. Although fiber is very important, it is lacking in our diets. Many nutritional experts recommend 35 to 45 grams (g) of fiber per day. The average American gets about 15 g.
The Choice Is Simple
Human nutrition is extremely complex, but the choice that we need to make is simple. Either we continue to think of foods as entertainment and eat foods that make us sick, or we think of food as building materials for our cells and eat foods that make us healthy. Cells are chemical factories. More than 100,000 chemical reactions take place in each cell every second, producing thousands and thousands of chemicals that you need to stay alive and function. The raw materials for these chemical reactions come from the food you eat.
A chronic shortage of even one essential nutrient affects the entire system and causes disease. You need to be mindful of everything you put in your mouth. Every mouthful should supply the most nutrition for the least number of calories, and we have to train ourselves to think about food this way. To get the nutrition you need, you have to eat real food with the highest nutrient density. Real food is what nature provides—naturally ripened, freshly harvested, unprocessed, and loaded with nutrition. Unfortunately, real food is now in short supply—some people eat almost no real food at all. What they eat may be called “food” and may look like food, but it is not fit to eat and it is making them sick. Modern processed foods are deficient in nutrients and high in toxins. They cause disease. Even most of the so-called fresh foods are weeks to months old by the time you get them and have lost most of their nutritional value. For these reasons, the Standard American Diet does not support healthy life.
As much as possible, follow these rules:
• Eat a diet of primarily fresh plant foods.
• Avoid processed foods.
• Eat 80 percent of your diet raw.
• Eat primarily organic foods.
• Juice or blenderize fresh vegetables every day.
• Be wary of restaurant foods, unless organic and raw.
• Avoid processed, supermarket fats and oils.
• Get on a high-quality supplement program.
• Consume a balance of healthy omega-6 and omega-3 oils.
• Include high-quality flaxseed, coconut, and olive oils in your diet.
• Avoid sugar and wheat, and minimize grains.
• Avoid dairy products.
• Limit alcohol and coffee.
• Avoid foods high in mold, such as peanuts, corn, and dried fruits.
• Avoid barbecued and microwaved foods.
• Minimize animal protein, and it must be organic and not grain fed.
Supplements
Supplements have become a necessity. According to the National Academy of Sciences, even if you eat a good diet, it is no longer possible to get all the nutrition you need for good health. While human genes have survived almost unchanged since prehistoric times, the prehistoric diet has not. Our soils are depleted of nutrients. The original varieties of many fruits and vegetables have become extinct. Our farmed animals are just as sick and nutrient deficient as the rest of the food chain. The reality is this: The food we eat today is far less nutritious than the food we were eating just fifty years ago. Unless you live in extraordinary circumstances, you simply cannot get all the nutrition you need from food alone—even if you eat a good diet with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. You have to compensate for these deficiencies by supplementing.
You Can No Longer Get All the Nutrition You Need from Food Alone
A key aspect of healthy eating is choosing foods that have not been adulterated. Eating foods that are as close as possible to their natural state is the only way to get the maximum amount of the nutrients that are found in fresh, raw foods. However, today’s food supply is enormously compromised. The combination of modern chemical farming, harvesting before ripening, processing, pasteurizing, irradiating, storing, and shipping has reduced the nutritional quality of our food to the point where it can no longer support healthy life. To begin, farming with artificial fertilizers does not replace minerals in the soil. Pesticides and herbicides destroy beneficial bacteria and earthworms that transform inorganic minerals in the soil into organically available minerals that plants can take up into their roots. Monoculture farming—planting the same crops year after year, without resting the field or rotating the crops—further depletes the soil. Our soils are now stripped of essential minerals, and almost all of us are mineral deficient.
Another reason modern produce is nutrient poor is the practice of harvesting crops before they are ripe. This helps get the food to you before it rots but reduces its nutritional content by up to 80 percent because much of the nutrition develops in the last day or two of ripening. Then there is the problem of distribution. Food is best harvested when ripe and consumed shortly thereafter. With each passing hour after harvest, nutrition is lost. Significantly the average age of produce in the supermarket is two weeks, and some items are more than a year old. “Fresh” apples average about ten months old and are often more than a year old. They may still look like apples, but they have little nutritional value. Studies on “fresh” oranges have found that many contain no vitamin C whatsoever. These so-called fresh oranges are harvested green, stored in warehouses, artificially colored, and sold as fresh.
Food is hardy, but nutrients are not. Nutrients are easily lost or destroyed. For example, spinach loses 60 percent of its folic acid in three days. Vegetables such as asparagus, broccoli, and green beans lose 50 percent of their vitamin C before they reach the produce section. Cooking these vegetables results in even more losses, including another 25 percent of the vitamin C, 70 percent of vitamin B1, and 50 percent of B2.
The nutritional content of every vegetable grown in the United States has undergone huge declines. A 2001 study in the Nutrition Practitioner looked at mineral levels in food over a fifty-year period. The study found that to get the same amount of calcium you received from one carrot half a century ago, you now have to eat two carrots. It takes four carrots to get the same magnesium, and up to twenty carrots to get the same amount of zinc. In 1940, one cup of spinach supplied 80 mg of iron. Today it would take sixty-seven cups to get the same amount. Iron deficiency increases the stickiness of blood platelets, causing strokes in children and adults. No one is eating all these extra vegetables! This is why most adult women don’t get even the RDA for calcium, magnesium, zinc, the B vitamins, and vitamin E. Half of all Americans over age sixty are deficient in vitamins A, C, and E.
Severe deficiencies of vitamins and minerals are uncommon in developed nations, but modest deficiencies are the norm. Perhaps a modest deficiency doesn’t sound so bad, but remember that to do its job of repairing your cells and keeping you biologically young and healthy, the body must have everything it needs. A chronic shortage of even one essential nutrient throws the entire body out of balance. Consider when a tiny gear is missing from an expensive watch. No matter how expensive the watch, it will not keep good time. A 2011 study published in the FASEB Journal found that even moderate deficiencies of selenium and vitamin K impair normal cell functions that over time cause so-called age-related diseases. Once you get sick, your doctor will blame your age, but really your diet is at fault.
Unfortunately, you can no longer get sufficient amounts of certain vitamins and minerals from your diet. Although whole food should still be your main source of nutrition, supplementation is required to make sure your cells are getting everything they need. Vitamin and mineral supplements are essential and remarkably safe. But I’ll be the first to admit that it is difficult to find brands that do what they are supposed to do and deliver high-quality, bioavailable nutrients. Nevertheless, it is possible to make them, and that is why I designed my own high-quality Beyond Health brand supplements. While the need for specific nutrients varies greatly according to a person’s condition and unique biochemistry, I cover in this chapter a few of the most common deficiencies and supplements.
Let’s have a look at what some nutritional supplements can do for you.
Multivitamins Make for Younger Cells
Taking a multivitamin is a good way to ensure that your body is getting a steady supply of essential nutrients. A 2009 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition compared the biological age (telomere length) of the cells of people who took multivitamins and those who did not. Those taking a multivitamin every day were biologically younger and aging slower.
CoQ10
CoQ10 is a critical cofactor in mitochondrial energy production. A coenzyme Q10 deficiency can lead to sluggish thinking and memory decline. People with high levels of CoQ10 have been proven in studies to have better motor abilities, higher mental acuity, and increased energy production. It also reduces the symptoms and progression of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Supplementation is important because our ability to produce CoQ10 declines as we age.
Zinc
Are you one of the 70 percent of Americans who, according to the USDA, aren’t getting the Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) of zinc? Or could you be getting the RDI, but still not enough for optimal health? Zinc is a key element in regulating cellular aging, but if you’re not getting enough, accelerated aging is only one of a host of problems you’re likely to face. Apart from its well-known role in immunity, zinc is required for the activity of more than 300 different enzymes and is involved in most major metabolic pathways. Here are just some of the reasons you may want to make sure you’re getting enough zinc from food and supplements:
• Zinc supports immunity and is crucial for thymus gland and T-cell function. Taking zinc within twenty-four hours of getting a cold can shorten the length of time you’ll have the cold and reduce the severity of symptoms.
• Older people with normal levels of zinc are half as likely to get pneumonia as those who are deficient. As we age, we need more zinc to maintain immunity, but our ability to absorb it decreases. As a result, zinc levels are often low among the elderly.
• Zinc protects against cancer. A 2011 study in Cancer Biology and Therapy found zinc to suppress pancreatic cancer tumors. Other studies have found that zinc slows the development of prostate cancer.
• Zinc helps to prevent osteoporosis. It is necessary for normal bone synthesis, and studies show that older people with osteoporosis test low on zinc.
• Zinc is essential for healthy skin. It is used in treating acne, eczema, and other skin diseases.
• Zinc supports eye health. It is the most abundant mineral in the eyes. Studies show that zinc protects against macular degeneration and resulting vision loss.
• Zinc supports fertility. Men and women both need adequate zinc levels for reproduction, and zinc is often used to treat infertility.
• Zinc supports the senses. Two symptoms of zinc deficiency are diminished taste acuity and diminished sense of smell.
• Zinc is highest in the protein-rich foods, particularly shellfish (especially oysters), but also in meat, poultry, and liver. Additional good sources of zinc are pumpkin and sunflower seeds, pecans, oats, and eggs. To maintain top immunity, supplementing with 30 mg of zinc per day is recommended.
Magnesium: One of the Hardest-Working Minerals in the Body
About 70 percent of Americans do not consume the recommended daily intake of magnesium, and more than 80 percent of our elderly do not. Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in the body, and it is involved in more than 300 types of biochemical reactions in the body. It helps maintain normal muscle and nerve function, keeps heart rhythm steady, supports a healthy immune system, and keeps bones strong. Magnesium also helps to regulate blood sugar levels, promote normal blood pressure, and support energy production and protein synthesis. Any shortage of magnesium will result in multiple dysfunctions.
Magnesium deficiency is associated with most diseases attributed to old age, including arthritis, Alzheimer’s, cancer, diabetes, stroke, heart disease, hypertension, osteoporosis, insomnia, and thyroid disorders. Telomerase is an enzyme that repairs telomeres, but telomerase synthesis is dependent on the amount of magnesium available. Thus, a shortage of magnesium results in telomere shortening and aging.
Magnesium is absolutely essential to oxygen respiration. It is involved in every single step in the production of energy in normal cells, yet most of us are deficient in this mineral. Magnesium deficiency causes cells to switch energy production to fermentation, which produces much less energy, more acid, and many dangerous free radicals. Older adults are at a particular risk for magnesium deficiency. In aged individuals, magnesium absorption decreases and renal excretion of magnesium increases. Older adults are also more likely to be taking drugs that interact with magnesium. Virtually everyone should be taking a high-quality magnesium supplement.
The digestive tract does not absorb magnesium easily; only about 50 percent of magnesium in foods is absorbed. If you have digestive problems, such as a leaky gut and food allergies, you absorb even less. Even people with a healthy gut who eat a high-magnesium diet with magnesium-rich vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and seeds may not be able to rely upon food alone to provide sufficient magnesium because our soils are so depleted. Mercury fillings and other forms of exposure to mercury prevent the body from absorbing and using magnesium. Fluoride also binds with magnesium and prevents absorption.
Drinking caffeine, carbonated soft drinks, and alcohol wastes magnesium. Eating a lot of dairy products and other foods high in calcium can also affect magnesium levels. So does eating sugar. A number of drugs interfere with magnesium absorption and utilization, including the birth control pill, antibiotics, antihistamines, and aspirin. Finally yet importantly, stress uses a lot of magnesium. If you are under stress, you need more magnesium.
Selenium
We obtain antioxidants from food and supplements, but the body also makes powerful antioxidants. By far, the most important of these is glutathione. Glutathione cannot be made without the enzyme glutathione peroxidase, which in turn cannot be made without selenium. When selenium is in short supply, the lack of this critical enzyme results in cancer, heart disease, arthritis, aging, and loss of immunity and brain functioning.
Selenium helps protect the brain from aging. Our environment has a lot of mercury in it, and a toxic form of mercury—methylmercury—accumulates in the brain and damages the nervous system. Selenium helps to neutralize methylmercury. Selenium blood levels drop with age; supplementation is usually needed.
B Vitamins Increase Energy
The benefits of B vitamins are truly amazing. B vitamins work together as a team and are essential to a multitude of functions in the body, including energy production. You need to get the whole team. Yet B vitamin deficiencies are among the most common deficiencies, and an estimated 40 percent of the U.S. population is B12 deficient. One problem is that only the highest-quality supplements contain the most biologically active forms of B vitamins, such as the pyridoxal 5-phosphate form of vitamin B6. As you age, the need for B vitamins increases. Muscles start to deteriorate after age thirty, but a combination of regular exercise and B vitamins can actually reverse this process. Vitamin B6 is important for healthy brain function and mental clarity. Vitamin B3 is critical for maintaining the body’s energy levels. Vitamin B12 slows down telomere degradation. A B12 deficiency can cause symptoms of aging, including cognitive problems and poor memory, muscle weakness, fatigue, shakiness, unsteady gait, low blood pressure, mood disorders, and depression. Unfortunately, most B12 supplements are in the form of cyanocobalamin, a cheap and biologically inappropriate form of B12.
Vitamin C: The King of Vitamins
Vitamin C is one of the most powerful vitamins you can take. Most people don’t get enough of this youth-enhancing, antiaging vitamin, which stabilizes blood pressure, boosts the immune system, fights colds and flu, and is an outstanding cancer fighter. It is a powerful antioxidant that neutralizes free radicals produced in the body. Vitamin C retards telomere shortening, slowing the aging process. It is also necessary for synthesizing collagen, the most important protein for maintaining elasticity and strength of the skin, arteries, and other body tissues. Vitamin C is your best defense against aging and wrinkles. Most adults should supplement with 6,000 mg per day in divided doses, and more if suffering from a chronic disease.
Vitamin D: Both a Hormone and a Nutrient
Vitamin D affects so many body functions, getting adequate amounts is critical. Yet between 40 to 75 percent of the teen and adult population is deficient, more in the winter and less in the summer. Vitamin D is essential to calcium metabolism, supports bone health, helps to control blood sugar, supports immunity, and protects against cancer. Vitamin D significantly increases the production of telomerase, the enzyme that repairs telomeres, which helps keep your telomeres long, slows aging, and keeps you biologically young.
Vitamin D plays an important role in muscle function, and low levels reduce muscle strength and physical performance. According to data from the National Institute on Aging, older adults who have trouble walking several blocks or climbing a flight of stairs may be deficient in vitamin D. Low vitamin D levels have also been linked to diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and lung disease—conditions that frequently cause decline in physical function.
It’s difficult to get enough vitamin D through diet alone. The best source is exposure to sunlight, and if you do not spend enough time outdoors, you need to supplement. Many researchers recommend 5,000 to 10,000 IU per day. Measuring vitamin D is easy with a blood test, and you should keep your vitamin D level at the upper end of the normal range—above 50 ng/ml (nanograms per milliliter).
Vitamin E: A Powerful Antioxidant
About 30 percent of the U.S. population is vitamin E deficient. Vitamin E protects against oxidative damage to tissues. A powerful antioxidant, vitamin E helps prevent cellular aging by neutralizing free radicals that can lead to genetic mutations and tissue damage. Vitamin E retards telomere shortening, slowing the aging process, and supports immunity. Supplement with 400 to 800 IU per day.
Acetyl L-Carnitine and Lipoic Acid
Damage to mitochondria (the energy-producing powerhouses of the cell) is a major contributor to aging and associated degenerative diseases. Lipoic acid is a powerful antioxidant compound that protects the mitochondria from damage and supports energy production while offering protection from age-related memory decline and strokes. Acetyl L-carnitine supports energy production by transporting fatty acid fuel into the mitochondria and supporting normal oxygen respiration in the cell. In higher doses, these two supplements work together synergistically and appear to reverse much of the decay process due to aging and to improve brain and other functions by rejuvenating the mitochondria.
Curcumin
Curcumin is a component of the spice turmeric. It works well for many inflammation-driven conditions, and it reduces edema. It lowers cholesterol and triglyceride levels, helps to prevent heart disease by inhibiting inflammation and oxidative damage, and prevents blood clots by inhibiting platelet aggregation. Curcumin can stop the buildup of the destructive beta-amyloid protein in the brain. Alzheimer’s rates in India are among the lowest in the world, and research shows that curcumin is responsible.
Supplementation Is Essential
Until we start eating for nutrition and taking high-quality supplements, our epidemic of premature aging and chronic disease will continue. If you have a diagnosable disease, you are certainly suffering from multiple nutritional deficiencies. To overcome these deficiencies, changing your diet and taking high-quality supplements is essential.
Nobel Prize–winner Dr. Linus Pauling once said, “You can trace every sickness, every disease, and every ailment to a mineral deficiency.” Yet the mineral content of our farm soils has decreased dramatically, especially over the last fifty years. Combine that with the mineral losses from food processing, and the result is that almost every American is mineral-deficient. No wonder more than three out of four Americans have a diagnosable chronic disease. You may have no symptoms, but if you consume foods that have little nutritional value or are toxic, you are almost certainly in the early stages of disease. The only way to end our chronic disease epidemic is to eat fresh, whole foods and supplement with high-quality supplements.
Health is a choice. The challenge is to choose it. Remember: Nothing tastes as good as good health feels.
Getting Back to Basics
To keep yourself at the highest level of health, you must consume a diet that Mother Nature intended you to eat. The consumption of processed foods must be kept to a minimum. As a simple guideline, be suspicious of any food product with an ingredients label. Thousands of studies show that eating a raw plant-based diet is dramatically protective against all diseases. Such a diet includes fresh vegetables and fruits, nuts, seeds, and sprouted foods. Foods such as beans, lentils, vegetables, apples, avocados, raw spinach, steamed broccoli, and whole grains contain soluble fiber that provides many health benefits. Cooking more than a small percentage of your food increases the risk of disease because cooking makes food less nutritious and deprives your cells of what they need to operate normally and keep you healthy.
