Vitamins are organic substances that are necessary for
normal health and growth in both animals and humans. If
a vitamin is absent from the diet, or we don’t properly
absorb it, a specific deficiency disease may develop.
Even worse, our entire body may start a decline that,
over a period of years, may develop into a very serious
disease such as, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, etc.
That there is a relationship between what we eat and
specific disease was first noted by the Englishman William
Fletcher in 1905 while researching the causes of the
disease beriberi. He observed that the disease was
prevented by eating unpolished rather than polished rice.
He concluded that the husk of rice must have special
nutrients, which we know today as vitamins.
Even before this discovery, fruits and vegetables were
known to prevent and cure many diseases. Even though
what we now know as “vitamins” were unknown, many
of their benefits were well recognized.
Even today English sailors are known as “Limeys”
because, when limes were added to their diets, they no
longer suffered from scurvy.
While vitamins prevent and cure some specific diseases,
they also are necessary for virtually every function within
our bodies.
Because of heavy advertising, we associate Vitamin C
with preventing/fighting colds. In truth, Vitamin C does
not prevent or fight a cold. It bolsters and strengthens
our immune system which attacks the cold germs.
Vitamin C performs many other important functions within
the body. A major function is synthesis of hydroxyproline,
an important component of collagen and, thereby, all
connective tissues.
Vitamin C is essential for growth of cartilage, bone and
teeth, and for wound healing. It contributes to the
structure of bones, muscles, and blood vessels.
Vitamin C helps support the immune system, aids amino
acid metabolism and iron absorption.
Another vitamin – B6 – does not have a reputation as
grand as Vitamin C yet it is as essential to good health.
Vitamin B6 cannot claim dramatic and immediate “cures”
for diseases like scurvy, beriberi, or colds like other
vitamins, but it is known as the master vitamin in
processing amino acids.
It is estimated that 50% of Americans are deficient in
Vitamin B6.
The same is true for virtually every vitamin. Without a
proper supply of vitamins, the body develops disease.
Some diseases, such as beriberi and scurvy, show up
quickly and dramatically.
Other diseases, such as heart disease and cancer, take
years to develop. They go undetected for many years
until it may be too late.
Because the body is a “closed system”, vitamins, like
every other nutrient, must come from the food we
consume. The principal sources of vitamins are the fruits
and vegetables we consume.
In 1936 the US Government released a report that clearly
and emphatically stated that the soils used to grow our
food products are so depleted of minerals that: “We
know that vitamins are complex chemical substances
which are indispensable to nutrition, and that each of
them is of importance for normal function of some special
structure in the body. Disorder and disease result from
any vitamin deficiency. It is not commonly realized,
however, that vitamins control the body’s appropriation
of minerals, and in the absence of minerals they have no
function to perform. Lacking vitamins, the system can
make some use of minerals, but lacking minerals, vitamins
are useless.”
Things have not improved in 70 years. In fact, they have
gotten much worse.
An entire industry has come into existence because of
this fact. Vitamins are consumed by 43% of Americans,
yet we continue to suffer and die from preventable
diseases that were unknown 50 years ago.
Research scientists have long recommended that
nutritional supplements are absolutely essential to our
health and wellbeing. This is especially true when we
consider our long term health.
And now the American Medical Association, in a significant
break from its earlier position that vitamins only produce
colored urine, agrees that every American needs to take
nutritional supplements.
Not only are vitamins missing from the fruits and
vegetables we consume, but antioxidants, minerals,
enzymes, amino acids, essential fatty acids, and fiber are
also missing.
Nutritional supplements that provide only one, or a
limited number of components, can provide a false feeling
of wellbeing.
It is unrealistic to believe that the food we eat is lacking
only one element needed by our body.
When the body lacks one component it probably lacks
many, even most, simply because the source of the
components is deficient. Adding only one component to
the diet not only ignores the fact that the basic diet is
deficient but gives a false sense of security that we are
correcting a health problem.
