We have all heard about eating healthy, five plus a day, and supplements.  But really what merit does any of this have?  Can we really eat healthy?  Are five servings of fruit and veggies enough?  Are supplements actually worth taking?

If you have ever wondered about these things, you have come to the right place.  I have had all of the above questions and decided to do some research to find out.  Remembering that everyone has an opinion and not everyone’s opinions are going to be on the same side of the fence.  Taking this into account I went searching more for the facts rather than someone’s opinion that it “doesn’t make any difference”. 

Ok so let’s start with the “eating healthy”.  This is a relatively easy one to tackle as very few of us grow our own fruit and vegetables and eat them right after picking.  This then makes it easy to say that none of the "fresh" food we eat, is really fresh at all, as it was most likely picked somewhere between 2 days, to who knows how long ago.  Most vegetables are picked close to being ripe but things like bananas and avocados can be stored for ages and are then gas ripened.  Being as more nutrients are in the fruit or vegetable as they ripen, we should all be able to agree that unless we have our own veggies and fruit in the back yard we are lacking.

This leads us right onto “five plus a day”.  As far as I can tell it started with “5 A Day” being proposed back in 1991 by the National Cancer Institute in America.  This wasn’t really put into a program until 1998 and is now used all around the world.  Some countries are now saying “5 Plus A Day” (this includes New Zealand).  I couldn’t find the science behind the “5 A Day” campaigns but I can understand the theory.  Unfortunately it really doesn’t help anything when, A: it’s being ignored by so many, and B: our fruit and veggies are lacking so much nutrients.

Because of the above I have started looking into supplements.  This subject can get very complex and political.  I’m a firm believer of the natural.  This is how we would normally have gotten our nutrients thousands of years ago and so to me I can’t understand making synthetic nutrients as supplements.  If I am to take a supplement, I don’t want to be taking a foreign substance that my body is going to have to do some sort of work to use.  Phytonutrients (Phyto meaning Plant) are natural and are the nutrients you get from eating fruit and veggies.  So you want good phytonutrients in your supplements.  For me to test these supplements I did a simple urine test after taking synthetic and natural.  The test is very easy and inexpensive.  Does your urine seem to glow when taking your supplements?  If so, then your body is not using all the nutrients and it’s most likely to be synthetic.   I know this is not exactly scientific but it will show that you are dumping excess vitamins and minerals.  Secondly after taking good supplements for a month or more you should notice some difference in your body.  It will most likely seem to be very little but if you’re like me, a friend asked me one morning why I was so much more energetic than normal.  GOOD NUTRITION.

The thing to remember with the changes to your system is that your cells, that were not created with full nutrition, will be lacking and you will have to be patient as your new nourished cells take their place.