| Supplementation - Do We Really Need It? |
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| Antoinette Barnardo | |||
| Tuesday, 09 May 2006 | |||
 For the last few weeks we've concentrated on how to attain a healthy life by what we consume daily. This week, I'd like to focus on supplementation which for most part gets very controversial reviews in the market place. Every time I pick up a paper or magazine I read or hear about some new revolutionary supplement which is going to change my life and guarantee longevity forever more. Wouldn't that be nice? Every week I'm faced with the proverbial 'why would we take supplementation when we eat healthily and get all the vitamins we need from our food?' 'Is that the absolute truth?' is usually my standard response, which is met with rather blank stares or a doubtful countenance. So, let's take a look at the lives we lead today and why I believe it's vital for our wellbeing to take supplementation daily. In the dark ages, man foraged for food. He was active because he had to walk, run and stalk across mountains to hunt for his food. He crossed many rivers and fought many dangers to take that food back to his family. He drank from those clean rivers, ate from nature and breathed fresh, clean air. Women gathered, raised families, guarded their territory and chatted a great deal to keep the danger from the door until the men returned to protect and feed them. Later on we saw grand scale farming emerge and you can argue that the farmers of yesteryear were strong, capable and healthy people and again I will remind you that the biggest breakfast consisting of eggs, bacon and hot fresh farm bread laden with butter was burnt off within the first two hours of hard farm labour. Furthermore, only organic produce which was grown on the farm was consumed as was the case with hormone free dairy and meat produce. Children played outside, never knew the evils of a sedentary life in front of a television playing Lara Croft and their friends were at least a few kilometers away on an adjacent farm which took a while to reach on a bicycle. Today, most of us are seated behind computers in corporate or small office environments or buildings which aren't ergonomically sound whilst making our dough through using our talents and brain capacity. We breathe in the stale air from the centrally located air conditioner or heating system and we thrive on grabbing fast food and scoffing it down with our ear glued to the phone whilst we hit the send button on our email before we miss the person on the other end. We drive 5km to our nearest mall and we shop at large retail chain stores that transport and store our food in cold storage resulting in destroying their vitamins and anti-oxidants. Where did this all begin? With urbanization to big cities we are forced to flock to major towns which are crowded because we are all trying to make it in the big ponds. We begin our youths in schools which don't advocate good diets (unintentionally) or active life styles necessarily and so we grow up to be a somewhat sedentary nation for whom the average weekend consists of watching the national sport on television with an ice cold beer in hand or strolling through a shopping mall or chatting around the braai to end off what we term a 'busy' or rather exhausting active weekend! Ironic that cardiac disease, stroke and obesity is getting so much airtime worldwide today? So let's get serious about supplementation. We know we don't have access to all the fresh healthy alternatives so what can we do to attain the best lifestyle available to us right now? I could preach to you about the things you already know such as avoiding fast foods at all costs, eating mostly fresh, raw or steamed foods, ditching a sandwich for a salad, shopping for organic produce preferably from a fresh natural source which is within a 5km radius from where you live, drinking enough water, avoiding stimulants and getting enough exercise and rest but as I said, you already know all of this. So, before you rush off to your nearest health store stocking up on a myriad of vitamins and supplementation, why not start with the bare basics? I always recommend the BIG FIVE to begin a good supplementation program with. So, considering taking the following:
Until then, happy and healthy living and supplementing.
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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.
