At the end of World War II, chemical companies began selling nitrate/phosphate/potassium (NPK) fertilizers that made traditional farming methods unprofitable. By the 1960s, it was recorded that 97% of US farms had become totally dependent on NPK fertilizers to grow cash crops. Plants need the components of an NPK fertilizer to grow; however, humans need much more than nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium to grow.
Due to the fact that NPK fertilizers replace only Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium, other soil nutrients (such as Selenium, Magnesium, Boron, Chromium) necessary for balanced nutrition will be deficient and plants grown in such soil will lack them. . If these nutrients are not present in the soil, we cannot get them by eating crops that grow in those soils. Even if we eat a lot of fruits, these fruits are also deficient in these nutrients.
This nutrient deficiency in crops is exacerbated by the preservation methods that are used to conserve crops. The RDA Handbook reviewed a large selection of studies showing that foods lose most of their meager nutritional content on the way to your table. Recently, and with much resistance, the very conservative medical community recognized that nutritional supplements are essential to maintain good health for a long time. Similarly, it was not until 1992 that the Journal of the American Medical Association recommended vitamin supplementation in an effort to prevent cardiovascular disease. Most nutritionists who are aware of current research now recommend that daily multivitamin/mineral supplementation is essential for proper nutrition.
On April 8, 1998, the Recommended Dietary Allowance Committee publicly recommended that most Americans take multivitamin/mineral supplements.
Having understood that, we now turn to the discussion of some important concepts in nutrient supplementation. Synergy is an essential concept in nutrition. Vitamins and minerals don’t work alone; they have to work interdependently to be effective and efficient. Regularly, media reports will appear implying that we should all start eating large amounts of the wonderful vitamin X because it prevents Wala Wala. Single nutrient supplementation is an extremely naive approach to a healthy diet. Take, for example, calcium supplements used to prevent osteoporosis. If you take too much calcium for months, you may see a small increase in bone density. However, due to excessive calcium intake, you will also see increased soft tissue calcification as well as calcium plaque in the arteries and a significant increase in urinary calcium.
All the nutrients involved in a specific process must be present in varying amounts that balance each other. Bone formation requires calcium, vitamin D, copper, fluoride, zinc, manganese, and silicon. Any deficiency in the listed nutrients will result in a loss of bone mass. Balanced nutrition is the only effective way to ensure that critical nutrient combinations are produced; this is exactly why a high quality multivitamin/mineral supplement is essential.
Bioavailability refers to the measure of how much of a particular substance can be used by your body. Not all types of vitamins and minerals are created equal, and some are more easily absorbed than others. A good number of the daily dose vitamin supplements that can be bought in pharmacies contain cheap ingredients that are minimally bioavailable. However, these drugs are legal because, by law, the pills only have to be chemically true to what is on the label; many legal forms that pass liquid chromatography are rarely bioavailable.
Manufacturers know that consumers opt for the Supplement with the most ingredients and they hope you don’t. For example, you will get more magnesium from 100mg of magnesium aspartate than you will from 400mg of cheap magnesium oxide. In case you didn’t know, most ingredients that are highly bioavailable take up more physical space in a supplement. Therefore, supplements that have high-quality ingredients will come in the form of relatively larger pills because they contain the correct amount of nutrients, as opposed to supplements that contain low-quality ingredients and come in the form of small-sized pills. A pea-sized centrum does not have the capacity to contain highly bioavailable nutrients.