What’s missing from the foods we eat?
Learn how choose the right supplement to replace what’s missing.

The human body is an incredible living machine that is capable of repairing damaged parts without going to a service shop. Our bodies are a self contained cellular living unit that has the ability to create its own fuel for energy and power itself. The ability to do all this and how well we’re able to maintain health is dependent on how well we feed it and what kind of raw materials we give it to function properly. If we are missing certain elements in our foods, i.e. specific nutrients that are essential to the life process, the human body cannot do what it is supposed to do on any level. How do we want our body’s to function? If we’re not getting the right nutrients in our body, it can’t keep is healthy and functioning at an optimal level!

The AMA (American Medical Association) is now recommending that every adult, man and woman now supplement.  What does this tell us? That our diets are now deficient! Because of modern farming practices, green harvesting of foods, preservatives and, pesticides our foods are lacking the nutrition that was in them just 20 to 50 years ago. How can we supplement to make up for the deficiencies in our food today?  

The wide variety of supplements that are for sale is mind boggling. It can be confusing and often times extremely overwhelming, unless you’re a scientist with a PhD, to be able to discern what’s good and what is not. Many different factors can make it tough to know what supplements to choose.

So what supplements should someone choose if they want to achieve a better state of health? What if you want to reach an optimal state of health? The answer to those two questions is elementary. A person should supplement the missing nutrients that are needed for the body to provide proper maintenance and repair. These would be the ones that are missing from our modern day diet.

What is missing from our modern day diet? First are vitamins and minerals. Why are vitamins and minerals so important to proper nutrition? Vitamins break down certain foods into basic nutrient content to be used for forming cells in the body. In order for tissue to form, minerals play a key role in their structural make-up.

Secondly are glyconutrients. What is a glyconutrient and where is it found? Glyconutrients are numerous dietary sugars (glyco is the Greek word for sweet) that are vital for obtaining the highest level of health. They are not like table sugar that you would use to sweeten cereal or ice tea. They are used by the body in many different ways other than just the production of energy for the body. One of the key roles glyconutritionals play in the body is the ability for allowing every cell in the body to communicate. What is cellular communication? Well, when cells pass each other in the body, i.e. like a cancer cell and an immune system cell, how does the immune system cell know if the cancer cell is friend or foe? How does it know if it stays or if it goes? Should it send a message to the body for the cell to be cleansed or repaired, destroyed or left alone? The way it knows it’s a cancer cell and that it needs to be destroyed is by communicating with it. The way this communication happens is by providing the body with these incredible glyconutrients!

The third classification missing in today’s diet are antioxidants. Antioxidants are provided by plant chemicals called phytonutrients (Phyto is the Greek word for plant). These nutrients were very abundant in our ancestors’ diet. Our ancestors typically ate foods such as fruits and vegetables at the peak of their ripeness. Not only did this provide the best taste from the fruit of the plant, but it is when the fruit contains the most phytonutrients that are there to protect the seed of the plant so it can propagate and produce lots of seedling plants. Antioxidants not only protect the seeds of plants but when consumed by humans can prevent oxidative stress in the body. What is oxidative stress? Oxidative stress is caused from the toxins in our air, food, and water supply. It is what causes the body to age prematurely. Have you ever seen a rusted out car driving down the road or broken down in someone’s driveway. The rust is caused from oxidative stress. Oxidative stress can effect and even break down our tissues, cells and our DNA! Many people are not eating enough antioxidant rich foods, and many more that do are cooking these important phytochemicals out of them. Green harvesting also plays a huge role in the amount of antioxidants we get in our diet. Have you bought green bananas from the grocery store? Many of our foods rich in phytonutrients and antioxidants are treated the same as those green bananas. If these foods were picked at the peak of ripeness when they contained these critical phytochemicals they would be rotten by the time they got to the grocery store. No one would want to buy them. It is an economic issue, but how huge of a role does that play in your health and your body’s ability to reverse oxidative stress?  

The last (certainly not the least) missing nutrient classification is Phytohormones. People usually think of hormones are for reproductive purposes. This just isn’t the case and here’s why. Just as our cells need glyconutrients in order to communicate with each other, hormones allow organs and their systems to communicate. As an example we’ll use the hormone adrenaline, which is produced by… you guessed it, the adrenal gland. If you see a mountain lion or a bear in the woods this is what tells your heart to pump much faster, your lungs to process more oxygen, and the muscles in your legs to run faster than they normally would. This is just one example of how important hormones are to the body. The body utilizes hormones for many different functions. The human body is able to produce these hormones if given the building blocks to do so. These body produced hormones are much different than synthetic hormones, which studies show can cause a myriad of health challenges such as cancer and heart disease. So how can you provide your body with the building blocks to produce natural human produced hormones that you so desperately need? Through getting Phytohormones, which are also known as plant hormones. Studies show that people living in cultures that consume foods containing more phytohormones are healthier.

People that came before us ate foods that were much higher in nutrient content. They consumed foods abundant in vitamins, minerals, glyconutrients, antioxidants, and phytohormones. How can we get the same nutrient dense substances in our diet as our ancestors? Well one option is going back to be being hunter-gathers like are ancestors. Or we can supplement these through the highest quality food nutrients that are on the market today and be assured of having the best chance at replacing what’s missing from our food!

For more information about these four classifications of nutrients and the importance and relevance they have to your wellness plan go to glycoscience.org