Thursday 30 June 2011

Who needs them? I need them!

NITC was in a packing frenzy this evening in an effort not to leave my packing up to the very last minute before I go away (my usual style)! Yes that's right I'm off en vacances ... but fear not you'll be left once again in the very capable hands of Ms Haribo, who seems ever closer to leaving her super geek research job and joining the circus having recently taken up circus silks! It's anyone's guess what she'll be blogging on ... but it will certainly be interesting.

Back to my packing ... amongst all the usual paraphernalia I always pack my trusty supplements to keep me in tip top health whilst I'm on holiday - the usual multivitamin, vitamin C and essential fats to compensate for unhealthy holiday eating, plus a raft of enzymes to help me digest my way through food my digestive system doesn't usually enjoy, namely bread and cheese!

Whilst it's ideal to try and get as many of your nutrients from your diet, I firmly believe that supplements are key in getting to and maintaining good health and they have certainly helped me immensely. So I was fairly horrified to read in Patrick Holford's blog that the NHS has issued a leaflet called ‘supplements – who needs them?’ claiming that most supplements are unnecessary, have no effect and could infact be dangerous.

Nonsense, in my opinion, but also sadly a sign that our health care is moving away from embracing complimentary therapies rather than towards integrating them. It is so important that people make the connection between nutrition and health, rather than thinking that what they eat is unrelated to their health problems and that conventional medicine is a cure-all safety net. Prevention is always better than cure ... and taking supplements always better than letting yourself get to the point where you need to take drugs.

If you've got two minutes read Patrick's interesting take on this, including summaries of the research supportive of supplements:
http://www.patrickholford.com/index.php/blog/blogarticle/955

I'll be back on the 11th, have a great week.

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