“Supplement wisely” is the third blog of a series of 10 on holistic tips on creating a healthier skin by Jennifer Kotowicz.
We give people diet/lifestyles/symptom observation tracking sheets at our clinic (come and get one – no charge), alternatively, you can contact us at www.acupunctureturningpoint.ca/contact.html and we’ll email you one so you can print it and put it up on your fridge to fill in once per day reflectively. It will help you monitor and better understand how your diet and lifestyle and other choices affect your health, your skin, your moods, etc. Once you see patterns that make your health better or worse, we encourage you to experiment wisely and safely.
Blog 3 or 10. Supplement Wisely. The Dieticians of Canada (www.dietitians.ca) say vitamin/mineral supplements are not a replacement for a healthy eating plan based on Canada’s Food Guide. Their website is a good source of looking a food sources of nutrients, recommended daily allowances, and maximum limits recommended for supplementation. One needs to understand this guide has been designed around research that focuses on the statistical avoidance of nutritional deficiencies, as opposed to optimal performance for each person. And obviously, people are not statistics, and some may have digestion/absorption issues and others – maybe many of us – if we are in energy balance in our desk jobs, simply don’t eat enough food to represent the intake of micronutrients from whole food sources that our 30,000 year old selves evolved from as hunter-gatherers.
Do your research, seek professional advice if you are uncertain to help you make decisions. Antioxidants are the craze in nutrition… green tea and dark chocolate (in moderation) and red wine (in moderation) are my favourites (not necessarily in that order)! Seriously though, although we can get most of the antioxidants we need from a sensible diet of fruits and vegetables, many people choose to supplement. Antioxidant supplementation may include vitamins such as C and E, or Coenzyme Q, zinc and selenium (cofactors of our own antioxidant enzyme systems). There is huge evidence that we – the northern, inside-dwelling species – are hard pressed to get adequate vitamin D for our health and immunity, and should be supplementing to at least 1000 IU per day. See the vitamin D society of Canada for more information (http://www.vitamindsociety.org/). And then there are the purified omega 3/6 polyunsaturated fatty acid supplements if you don’t like the smell of sardines or fish oil.
The next blog is on exercise….
