For thousands of years cultures have been aware there is somehow a link between what we eat and our health. The so called healers in China saw the foods of a certain type were able to help invigorate the energy of the body. The ancient Indians and the Greeks, Egyptians and Romans saw some healing properties in certain foods.
It was Hippocrates the Father of Medicine who wrote “Let medicine be your food, and your food your medicine.”
It was about a century ago that scientists discovered the vital food substance we know now as vitamins and minerals that were able to control diseases and help us maintain good health. For example, a calcium deficiency could bring about osteoporosis. They also observed that a lack of iron could cause anemia. They noticed a low folic acid intake could cause birth defects.
They have discovered that some plants contain disease fighting nutrients they called phytochemicals. It is these phytochemicals that add the color and flavor as well as aroma to the plant.
These phytochemicals in their native state can act as barriers to bacteria and virus. They are quite helpful. For example, in the human body the phytochemicals can guard against diseases of certain types. They can help the body get rid of hazardous substances including carcinogens. They can also help protect the DNA in cells from damage. For a woman they can balance hormone levels. They also can function as antioxidants in neutralizing harmful free radicals. Free radicals are unstable oxygen molecules that destroy or injury cells leading to degenerative diseases.
Therefore there is the question can food which contains these phytochemicals be enough? Do we really need vitamins? And when I speak of vitamins I am talking about those round pills or liquids which are basically chemical substances.
We can get our calcium thorough broccoli and dairy products. And we can eat salmon and tofu and sardines to get our calcium. Do we really need the tablet?
The needed folate we can get when we eat our asparagus and avocados. A good serving of beets and broccoli will help. When we have that citrus fruit we are getting folate.
Iron comes from eating that apricot. A fatty fish on the plate along with figs will do quite nicely. Poultry with peas is also nice.
All we need is a way to get these 10 vitamins and minerals in us.
We need:
1. Calcium
2. Folate
3. Iron
4. magnesium
5. selenium
6. vitamin B6
7. vitamin B12
8. Vitamin C
9. Vitamin E
10. Zinc
Our vitamins come in two type and they are water soluble and fat soluble.
There is presently a discussion over genetically altered foods. They are foods altered in order to make the food have increase resistance to spoilage or to improve the nutritional content. The debate is over whether they can harm or help our health in the long-term.
This is not the same as organic foods which are processed without then use of chemicals as pesticides, herbicides, growth hormones or antibiotics. Organic foods can be bought at a farmers market usually or a specialty store.
Getting back to the question posed by our title, do we need vitamins? It depends. It would be nice to say we can get all our nutrient vitamins through what we eat. But we can’t. the ground we grow food in has been depleted of needed nutrients to be used by the plants and vegetables and fruits we eat. We have over used the land and not replenished the needed nutrients back into the soil. So we have inferior produce. The animals that eat the lands’ produce get inferior nutrients which when we eat meat gets passed on to us.
My answer is, yes, we need those vitamins. A good multivitamin a day helps us keep our body in good shape. We don’t want nor should we carelessly acquire illness.
