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Suasoria · Chanel

RE: vitamin question

BellinaJessica · Kenneth Cole

Suasoria wrote:

I agree with you both, oddly enough. Individual needs vary greatly. Calcium is a good example. The RDA for calcium is based on a typical diet that includes an abundance of protein, because too much protein inhibits your ability to absorb calcium. Someone who does not overdose on protein will need much less calcium. Yet the "standard" for calcium is excessive because it assumes someone is eating many times the amount of protein that is actually required.

The point about local, organic, and unprocessed foods is valid, though, since this would be the best way to get required nutrients through food. A lot of people in this country are technically undernourished based on inadequate amounts of nutrients (like trace minerals) in a conventional high-fat, low-fiber, highly refined diet.

Personally I doubt my ability to eat enough of the right foods in any given day in enough quantities to get everything I need from food. (And I eat a plant-based diet that's about 75% organic). I also take various supplements based on my own lifestyle needs. E.g. if I've had a lot of alcohol, like over the holidays, I take something to support liver function. I take massive doses of niacin and folic acid if I have a skin rash. Etc.)

Obviously taking a pill does not supply fiber, calories, hydration, or other bodily goodness that we get through a whole foods approach to nutrition. I don't think anyone would claim it does.

Agreed! Also I would recommend a nutritionist, not a medical doctor, to tell you where you are deficient. Medical doctors, for the most part, deal and rely on medicine. Where as a nutritionist deals in nutrition and usually natural means of handling the body.

Elle · Hermes

BellinaJessica wrote:

Agreed! Also I would recommend a nutritionist, not a medical doctor, to tell you where you are deficient. Medical doctors, for the most part, deal and rely on medicine. Where as a nutritionist deals in nutrition and usually natural means of handling the body.

I would go to a medical doctor for the blood tests required and for a 1st interpretation of what's high/low, and then I'd ask for a copy of the results. If anything needed to be dealt with in any sort of complicated way, then I'd head to the nutritionist, test results in hand.

Trusting a nutritionist to interpret your test results and ask the right questions about why some things might be what they are is like trusting your dental assistant to decide if you need a root canal or a nurse to perform your surgery. Many of them are quite good at what they do, and interpreting lab results/screening out potential problems is not what they do.