| Give Us This Day Our Daily Value! |
|
|
| Antoinette Barnardo | |||
| Tuesday, 06 June 2006 | |||
 Now that we have identified our BIG FIVE of necessary supplements to keep us healthy and operating at optimum levels, I'd like to take some time this week to look at the RDA (recommended daily/dietary allowance) or otherwise known as minimum quantities we need in order to ward off the dreaded bacteria, viruses or fungi waiting to invade our bodies. Let me give you a rough estimate or example hereof. An average adult man should consume about 2500 calories a day in order to function properly. His daily value for vitamin C is approximately 60mg (mostly government recommendations). If that man eats an orange, he gets approximately 69.7mg of vitamin C which is 116% of his daily value which would be true if his lifestyle was a perfect one, but we can't stop here & this is where we are so easily misled regarding the quantities we need to consume and thus derive value from. Unfortunately South Africa in particular has no legislation which controls nutrition values on labels (food and supplements) and hence that we often run into entities which manage to fool us in believing that we are firstly getting a good quality product and secondly that we are getting enough of that nutrient according to our daily averages. Governments make the terrible mistake of using guidelines for the average person to provide adequate intakes for large groups of people such as prisoners, children and armed forces. Here is where it gets tricky. 116% of our daily value (in that of an orange) may be sufficient if you were living on the outskirts of an isolated farm, hunting for your food, breathing clean air, drinking pure water whilst never being subjected to any chemicals or pollution. However, let's just say that you are a smoker and you drink just a few glasses of alcohol a week as part of your social routine, you eat from your local fast food joint twice a week and spend your weekends lazing on your couch 'hunting' for the next television station. This means that your vitamin levels, uptake and absorption have been severely hampered! Whilst the daily value for vitamin c is roughly 60mg, there are enough studies to provide evidence that if you aren't fighting an infection you should be consuming 2000 to 3000 mg of vitamin c daily and as soon as you experience flu-like symptoms or fighting an infection of any kind, you can safely bump this up to 12000mg (!) a day. You may experience symptoms of a runny stomach but that's easy to rectify once you know what's causing it. Dr Linus Pauling took 12000mg of vitamin c a day because he knew and experienced the benefits of vitamin c in the combat of flu, viruses, cancer and even in HIV infections today. Vitamin c goes a long way in keeping immune systems strong and fighting free radicals in the environment and I don't know of one person that has ever overdosed on it. So what choices can you make? Most people assume that if they eat badly, they can rectify matters by swallowing a handful of pills. Wrong! You have to eat well and then supplement further to get what you lack. Your best source of nutrients is ALWAYS food. The body knows how to break down, digest and absorb food - it's been doing that forever. Remember that relying on a supplement is only as good as the most current study so my advice is to begin with your diet. Just as vitamins and mineral supplements are not a substitute for a healthy diet, so they cannot make up for unhealthy lifestyle habits. Besides, I know you don't have any trouble popping an antacid or headache pill to get your calcium so why not eat a tomato or broccoli or spinach for your nutrients? Why don't you choose to eat fruit, grains, pulses, nuts, protein, fat and carbohydrates daily to get the necessary fuel your body needs to function properly and optimally daily? You will soon experience the benefits if you do and you will find it very difficult to revert back to your old ways. I believe it's about making conscious choices, rather than unconscious or reactive behaviour which controls you. In order to consume vitamins A to Zinc daily, you need to be in control of and aware of what you consume. If you choose an unconscious approach, you will soon find yourself craving a particular food and standing at the counter of a fast food outlet to satisfy that craving. The body is a very intuitive clever computer which registers what you put in to it and it will give you signals of what it needs by means of a craving. Then it's up to you to make a good and healthy decision to satisfy that craving with good food. Let's assume for a moment that you are craving something salty. Instead of making an unconscious choice of eating a packet of crisps or hot chips to satisfy that craving, why not eat something naturally salty such as rye toast with sardines or marmite and a side salad? The derived benefit is that you don't end up having digestive problems or feeling lethargic later in the day or having just consumed too much fat which will only result in an expanding waistline. Now it's up to you to choose a healthy lifestyle supported by a good supplementation (see my recommendations in the previous article) programme to get and make the most from your quality of life. Remember to consult with a health professional if you aren't sure which route is best to take.
Disclaimer: Harmonious Living is written for and read by a community of individuals with strong and independent opinions. While the publishers of Harmonious Living are dedicated to providing a forum in which views can be openly expressed, those views do not necessarily reflect those of the publishers.
| |||
| Related Articles | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
|||
This is the powerful story of the author's struggle with Multiple Sclerosis and how a healer's unusual prescription of mindful altruism - to 'give away 29 gifts in 29 days' - ignited her energy, her happiness, and invited more abundance into her life.
