The Three Nutrients You Need
In a “McWorld” dominated by pink slime and the supersized meal, it should come as no surprise that America is in desperate need of assistance with its health. As more food is processed the average American citizen is deprived of more nutrients important in his everyday life.
In spite of this, it is possible to obtain almost all of these vital nutrients from your diet if you are careful to avoid processed foods. But there are three major ones that are often deficient in even the best natural, whole foods diet. Neglect these and “eating right” may still bring aging, illness, fatigue, and even cancer!
Vitamin D
It may come as a surprise that the first is vitamin D. You may be thinking, “Don’t we drink that every morning in milk?” While vitamin D is added to milk, it would take anywhere from 10 to 100 glasses of milk to get the daily amount needed by the body. Vitamin D is technically not a vitamin because your body produces it, but ultraviolet light from the sun is required to convert cholesterol from your sweat into the vitamin. In a modern society of indoor lighting, clothing, and sunscreen it is difficult to get the amount of sunshine needed to prevent osteoporosis, immune dysfunction, influenza, and cancer.
While Vitamin D has all these effects, the most obvious of which is the ability to absorb calcium from your food so that it can be put into your bones. When we don’t absorb enough, the body takes the calcium from the bones, causing osteoporosis. A severe form of osteoporosis is called “rickets” which is a weak skeletal system. The cause was first discovered at the turn of the 20th century, when the advent of the industrial revolution meant that people were spending more time indoors. Cod liver oil was found to cure and prevent rickets, and its most prominent ingredient was what we know today as vitamin D. For many years mothers lined their children up for their daily dose of cod liver oil — YUCK!
I have never seen a full-blown case of rickets, but I have seen a lot of osteoporosis, a milder form. One man was a beach volleyball player who had very low vitamin D levels. He couldn’t believe it because he didn’t wear a shirt outdoors all day, and didn’t even use sunscreen! When we go out in the sun and sweat, we produce lots of vitamin D (around 25,000 IU in ten minutes). However, we often shower it off before the body has enough time to absorb it. This is why I recommend a supplement for everyone. I prefer a weekly dose of 50,000 IU per week, or, if you prefer, between 2,000 and 10,000 per day usually gets people in the normal range.
Iodine
The second lacking nutrient is iodine. It’s nothing new that we’re deficient in iodine as a nation; studies from over 100 years ago showed that goiter, an enlargement of the thyroid gland, developed due to iodine deficiencies. The lowest iodine levels were found in the Midwest, dubbed “The Goiter Belt.”
Because iodine deficiency was so common, a small amount of potassium iodide began to be added to salt to supply the nutrient. This made a huge difference until people were told not to eat salt, thus causing goiter levels to increase again. Today, iodine deficiencies are widespread. A study among high school girls in the Great Lakes region found that approximately 50% had thyroid abnormalities. This is a larger problem in girls because iodine is also essential for the proper utilization of estrogen, and low iodine levels can cause cysts in the breasts that can lead to breast cancer. Men with low iodine levels have been known to have an increased likelihood of prostate cancer. Worldwide, one in six people have a disease caused by iodine deficiency.
Significant iodine sources can be found in nori, sushi, seaweed, and kelp. Those who aren’t able to fit these sources into their diets should take supplemental tablets. It’s easy to find the 12.5mg capsules at a vitamin store. Taken once per week, this could easily supply your iodine needs.
Selenium
The third major nutrient is selenium, which is an essential micronutrient in animals. A cancer study in Arizona compared a group of people taking selenium every day to a group taking a placebo. The selenium group had a 50% decrease in cancers, including liver, pancreas, breast, and prostate, as well as a 70% decline in lung cancer, the number-one cause of cancer death in the United States. This held true even if the people smoked!
Plants don’t need selenium; if it isn’t in the soil, they won’t contain it. Since the soils where most of our food is grown doesn’t contain selenium, most Americans don’t get enough. The only significant source in the United States is Brazil nuts, which come from an area that has selenium in the soil. It would take about 1-2 nuts per day for the average person to get enough selenium.
Selenium is essential to the production of glutathione, a powerful antioxidant in the liver, lungs, and brain. Many with toxic liver diseases, asthma, and even Parkinson’s disease can benefit greatly by taking selenium with NAC (N-Acetyl Cysteine), an amino acid, to allow more glutathione to be produced. A good dose is 200 mcg for three months, after which it should be taken once per week.
It can be dangerous to be deficient in these nutrients. Their absence leads to infections, osteoporosis, thyroid disease, Parkinson’s disease and cancer. Because they aren’t found in our normal diets, it is important to be sure you are getting enough of them, either by seeking out foods that contain them, or by supplementation.
Dr. Scott Saunders is the Health and Nutrition Advisor of Barton Publishing, a company that promotes natural health through teaching people how to cure themselves using alternative home remedies instead of expensive and harmful prescription drugs. Saunders is the director of The Integrative Medicine Center of Santa Barbara, which balances conventional medicine with alternative healing modalities to achieve optimal wellness.