Why has nutrition become a health issue?
A large number of mental & physical health complaints as well as some causes of mortality have been found to have a strong nutritional association. These complaints are virtually non-existent in cultures adhering to wholefood, traditional diets. The Western diet suffers from:
- Processing of foods: which removes fibre, vitamins and minerals that are essential for health.
- The addition of preservatives, flavour enhancers, colourings, many of which have detrimental effects on health.
- Soil depletion of essential minerals, due to intensive farming – minerals are essential for many bodily processes.
- Use of agrochemicals on plant crops can result in lower levels of certain nutrients and the ingestion of toxic chemicals in foods. This is why we highly recommend using organically grown fruits and vegetables and organically reared meats.
- Modern rearing techniques of livestock have resulted in a huge increase in saturated fats, which are implicated in heart disease, obesity, & diabetes (livestock are given hormones and antibiotics that pass through the food chain and affect our health).
- Accompanying this is a relative decrease in essential fatty acids (EFAs) in our diets, so called because they must come from the diet. The body cannot synthesise them as it can with other types of fat. EFAs are vital for the production of all the cells in the body, including immune cells and hormones.
- It is not easy to get all your nutrients from a balanced diet. Surveys have shown that the majority of people are deficient in many nutrients.
- Recommended Daily Amounts (RDAs) of nutrients are set at levels to prevent diseases such as beriberi or scurvy, not to achieve optimum health (Many people do not consume even the RDA of most nutrients).
Are supplements necessary?
If you read the information above, you cannot but agree that supplementation is necessary, even for a healthy individual. At Nutritional Essence we recommend only those supplements which have a therapeutic value for our clients, come from a trusted source (a manufacturer who does not use unnecessary fillers and binders, and who use organically sourced ingredients where possible). We recommend those supplements that have, in our experience, produced good results with our clients. We strongly oppose the self-diagnosis and supplement prescription, especially where there exists a health condition.
Is there any truth behind the saying “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”
If you have Rosacea, Apples may or may not be a trigger food for you! If they are, and you continue to eat them, they are certainly not going to keep you from seeking a health professional’s advice!
If you can easily tolerate apples they are a very healthy food. This is why: apples have a ‘cooling’ nature which helps to reduce conditions of excess heat, such as Rosacea. In the digestive system they provide both malic and tartaric acids which inhibit the growth of disease-causing bacteria; they moisten the intestines assisting in the prevention of constipation. Apples provide a special kind of fibre called pectin that can bind with excess cholesterol and toxic metals such as lead and mercury. Apples and their juice are cleansing for the liver and gall bladder, and can actually soften gall stones enabling them to be excreted (this requires a specific procedure that should be carried out under the supervision of a Healthcare Professional). People who eat apples regularly can help prevent the formation of gall stones. Therefore an apple a day may very well keep the doctor away!