Ramai yang
tertanya-tanya, "Adakah saya memerlukan suplemen?" Nak tahu kenapa kita
mungkin memerlukan suplemen? Kenapa suplemen ada peranan penting buat
kita masa kini? Jom baca.. artikel daripada The Star, ruangan Kesihatan
(Health) yang ditulis oleh Datuk Dr Nor Ashikin.
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Sunday September 16, 2012
Do I need supplements?
WOMEN'S WORLD
By DR NOR ASHIKIN MOKHTAR
Dietary supplements may not be for everyone, but they could have a role to play in your life.
THE title of this article poses one of the most frequently-asked questions by people today.
As we become more concerned about our nutritional well-being, we are
understandably worried about whether we are getting proper nourishment
from the food that we eat.
Not only do our busy and stressful lifestyles prevent us from eating
well, but even the food in our markets and supermarket shelves may no
longer be the healthiest sources of nutrients.
Due to these reasons, it is no wonder that I hear the question “Do I
need supplements?” so often. Dietary supplements may not be for
everyone, but they could have a role to play in your life, depending on
the quality of food that you eat every day.
Here are a few reasons that supplements may be necessary for you.
Quality of soil and crops
The
idea of dietary supplements is to make up for nutrient deficiencies in
our diet – often deficiencies of micronutrients, like vitamins and
minerals, instead of macronutrients, which are quite abundant in our
food.
The idea of dietary supplements is to make up for nutrient deficiencies
in our diet – often deficiencies of micronutrients, like vitamins and
minerals, instead of macronutrients, which are quite abundant in our
food.
Vitamins and minerals cannot be made in our body, therefore we have to obtain them from the food that we eat.
Plant foods, such as vegetables, fruits, legumes and grains, are one of
the main sources of minerals, as plants absorb minerals from the soil
that they are grown in.
But did you know that even if you eat plenty of plant foods, you may not be getting as much minerals as you think you should?
This is because our soil is becoming increasingly depleted of minerals,
due to the land being used repeatedly for agriculture. When plants are
grown over and over again in the same soil, the mineral content of the
soil decreases over time – much like a well that becomes empty after
you keep drinking the water from it.
As a result, most agricultural soils today are low in zinc, manganese,
chromium, molybdenum, calcium and magnesium. Research shows that this
can lead to up to a 75% decrease in the trace minerals in plant foods.
To make matters worse, the intensive form of farming taking place today
has further reduced the level of nutrients in crops. High yield crops
contain less nutrients because the crops are competing for nutrients
from a finite amount of soil.
For instance, wheat farmers today plant 10 times the amount of wheat on
the same land, compared to the amount grown 100 years ago. As a result,
today’s wheat consists of only 6% protein, half of the 12-14% level
from a century ago.
Making polished rice causes 75% of zinc and chromium to be lost.
You can counteract this problem by eating organic fruits and vegetables
as much as possible. Organic farmers practise “crop rotation” to reduce
the likelihood of soil depletion, although this does not completely
prevent soil depletion.
Modern fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides
Before modern fertilisers came into the picture, farmers would use
manure to encourage crops to grow better. Unfortunately, this is no
longer the case as manure has been replaced by superphosphate
fertilisers, which contain mainly nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus.
Modern fertilisers are used for the purpose of stimulating crops to
grow, but as they do not contain trace minerals that are vital for
health, they do not serve to enrich the crops.
The use of pesticides and herbicides further deteriorates the soil
content, as they kill the microorganisms living in the soil that make
minerals and other nutrients available to plants.
As we ingest traces of these pesticides when we eat plant foods, our
bodies need more nutrients to remove these toxins. This places a heavy
toll on the body, which is already deprived of micronutrients.
Food transportation and processing
When was the last time you ate fresh produce, harvested just hours or
days before it reached your dining table? Chances are, it was so long
ago that you don’t remember anymore.
As much of our produce today is imported, the food often takes days or
weeks from the time it is harvested until it reaches our supermarkets
or markets.
Many vitamins are unstable and are easily destroyed when exposed to
environmental factors like heat and light. Therefore, by the time the
food is handled, packaged, transported by airplane, train or truck and
unpacked on our shelves, it has lost a lot of its nutritional value.
Similarly, food processing causes a lot of nutrients to be lost, particularly minerals.
We consume a lot of refined, processed, canned and frozen food today
for convenience and economic reasons, but they are far less nutritious
than fresh and natural food.
The process of refining wheat to make white flour removes 80% of
magnesium, 70-80% of zinc, 87% of chromium, 88% of manganese and 50% of
cobalt.
Making polished rice causes 75% of zinc and chromium to be lost, while
making white sugar from sugar cane causes 99% of magnesium and 93% of
chromium to be lost.
The use of food additives, such as artificial flavours, colours,
conditioners, stabilisers and preservatives, can also deplete the body
of nutrients.
Unhealthy lifestyle
One of the biggest reasons that many of us do not meet our daily
nutrient requirements – in the right proportion – is that we lead very
unhealthy lifestyles.
We often skip meals and then binge on one heavy meal to make up for it,
or make poor food choices that do not provide the variety of nutrients
we need.
Wheat
farmers today plant 10 times the amount of wheat on the same land,
compared to the amount grown 100 years ago. As a result, today’s wheat
consists of only 6% protein, half of the 12-14% level from a century
ago.
If you get through the day on coffee, soft drinks, instant noodles,
doughnuts and chocolates, you are certainly deprived of a lot of
important nutrients.
High stress levels will also deplete nutrients, including calcium,
magnesium and zinc. Stress also overstimulates the sympathetic nervous
system, which causes poor digestion and weak absorption of nutrients.
Finally, as we age, it is inevitable that our bodies will produce fewer
enzymes that are needed to properly digest the food that we eat. That
is why older people tend to be vulnerable to nutrient deficiencies.
Supplementing a healthy diet
“Supplements” came by their name because they were meant to complement
or enhance the daily diet, not replace it. Fundamentally, you still
need to eat a healthy, balanced diet consisting of a variety of foods.
However, supplements will come in useful if the fruits, vegetables and
plant foods that you eat are of poor quality (due to depleted soil, as
explained above) and cannot provide an optimum amount of nutrients.
You may also need supplements if you are going through a particularly
stressful period and your body needs a helping hand to meet its
nutrient requirements and balance the hormone levels.
If you are pregnant, lactating, elderly, vegetarian or have a chronic
illness, you are likely to have special nutritional needs which may not
be met by your diet alone.
However, you cannot rely on supplements forever. They are useful to
help you get through a tough period and bring your body back to
balance, but you have to be able to maintain good nutritional health
through natural means.
Get advice from a dietitian or pharmacist before purchasing dietary
supplements, so that you do not overdose on nutrients or consume poor
quality – or even toxic – products.
Once you know what it feels like to get all the nutrients you need, you
will start to pay more attention to your diet and lifestyles.
■
Datuk Dr Nor Ashikin Mokhtar is a consultant obstetrician & gynaecologist (FRCOG, UK). For further information, visitwww.primanora.com.
The information provided is for educational and communication purposes
only and it should not be construed as personal medical advice.
Information published in this article is not intended to replace,
supplant or augment a consultation with a health professional regarding
the reader’s own medical care. The Star does not give any warranty on
accuracy, completeness, functionality, usefulness or other assurances
as to the content appearing in this column. The Star disclaims all
responsibility for any losses, damage to property or personal injury
suffered directly or indirectly from reliance on such information.
