Is Nutritional Supplementation Necessary For Healing And Health?Yes! A well controlled study performed at the Shriners Burn Trauma Center at the University of Cincinnati Medical School demonstrated conclusively, that burn trauma victims (children experiencing severe burns over 60% of their bodies) fared far better when given extra nutritional supplementation over and above the normal "well balanced diet" generally prescribed by practitioners.(2)100% of those children receiving the extra supplementation lived, whereas tragically, 44% died of those children who were given the regular, traditional, medically and so called nutritionally balanced diet alone. The scientists stated that, "to our knowledge, this is the first controlled study to demonstrate what has been suspected and accepted for some time, that nutritional intervention improves survival... It may well be that fortification of the diet with still greater quantities of protein or with selected amino acids may further improve these variables." (3)

If A Medically Controlled Diet Is Insufficient, What About The Average American Diet? It's worse! Authorities now agree that the average American diet no longer provides the needed nutrition for a foundation of good health.(17) Half of all foods eaten in America are overly processed convenience foods known to have little if any nutrient value.(15,16) Forty percent of middle class American children are severely malnourished, and adults fare far worse, upwards to 90%.(17) Both children and adults choose to eat for taste, cost and convenience. Coffee, white bread and sugar are the most popular, most consumed foods; adults consume mostly white bread and crackers.(3,4)

Aren't We Assured Of Getting Our Nutritional Needs Met By Getting All The RDI's? No, not at all! And even if you think you're getting all your Recommended Daily Intake (RDI's), the RDI's are really only "guesstimates of unknown reliability" as admitted by one Harvard Professor who sits on the esteemed blue-ribbon panel of RDI scientists who originally established and defined for us the whole concept of RDI's.(10) Moreover, the RDI board readily admits its values are not meant to create "optimal health," in that the RDI's are only the suggested "minimum " or "adequate" daily requirements, or that which provides for "normal" health in most people, not the "optimum."(13,14)

So, What Is "Normal" or "Adequate" Anyway? Most people get confused as to what "normal" or "adequate" really is, thinking that it means the "best" or "optimal." But when used scientifically, "normal" or "adequate" generally defines only that which is statistically "average," "common," or what most people experience (as in RDI's above). Unfortunately, this leads to a lot of possible misinterpretations. For instance, researchers from the Journal of the American Medical Association point out that the generally accepted "normal" or "average" serum cholesterol level in an older adult male is not healthy at all, rather it is indicative of a high risk for coronary heart disease.(13) The fact that this cholesterol level is "normal" only suggests that this is "what most males experience," obviously not the "best" or "preferred" levels for optimal health! Similarly, "normal" or "adequate " with regards to nutrition does not suggest that such will cause the "best" or "optimal" health that people can, could or should experience.(17)

Is "Optimal" Supplementation Measurably Better Than "Normal" or "Adequate" Nutrition? Yes it is! For some time, scientists have known that most life on this planet can survive with less than optimal levels of nutritional intake; it's a blessing inherent in our genes to be able to survive in times of hardship. But authorities also point out that when an effort is made to optimize nutrient intake, to provide more than that which is just adequate, something wonderful happens: life is significantly better, healthier and longer, and with less disease and dysfunction.

It's not surprising that a well controlled study in Louisiana(17) demonstrated that when a sample of pregnant women ate "normally", they produced "normal" infants who grew into "normal" children who tested out to be "normal." What was surprising is that when the diet of these same (21) women was supplemented with nutrient-rich items, and they in turn became pregnant again, nursed their infants, and continued to give their infants that same supplementation program throughout early childhood, dramatic results occurred! These younger children were significantly superior to their older brothers and sisters (who hadn't benefited from additional nutritional supplementation) in every physical, emotional and intellectual test used to measure their developmental differences.(17) The conclusion: Above-Normal nutrition produces Above-Normal children.

But Doesn't Eating The "Right Foods" Ensure Optimal Nutrition? Not anymore! Even though the ultimate guide to good eating has generally meant following the nutritional recipe of the "four food groups," published studies have shown that consuming a diet from the "four food groups" alone does not ensure adequate intake of all essential nutrients.(8) The answer to good health does not lie simply in eating the "right " foods. And, even if we were capable of supplying only nutrient-rich foods to our body, there's still a great deal that can go wrong in trying to extract and absorb these nutrients and still no guarantee that all would be assimilated.(17,24)

But Isn't The Digestive System Infallible? No! Until recently, most thought that the process of digestion was foolproof and automatic, requiring the input of a balanced diet alone to ensure good health.(1:vol 1) But although digestion is "the" chemical and physical process that the body uses to extract 50 or so critical nutrients we need for life, while disassembling food into smaller more usable forms of building materials to repair itself, it's not altogether "Fail-Safe."(1:vol 1-3,12) There's no guarantee that all potentially available nutrition will be assimilated.(1:vol 1-2,12,17)

More and more doctors are coming to realize that the digestive system is not the infallible "cast iron" mechanism we first thought it was.(1) Despite a so called "balanced diet," much of the food ingested is not broken down far enough in digestion to release the essential nutrients it contains.(17,24) So, even if people try to eat right, and maintain a balanced diet, if we're unable to get at the nutrients locked up within these foods, they'll do us little if any good. The Bottom Line: We are not benefiting from the foods that we are eating when most of the nutrients are never fully extracted from the foods that we ingest!(1:vol1-3,12,17,24)

So, Why Does The Digestive System Break Down? Each part of the Digestive System must be in prime working order, or the whole system suffers.(1,12,24) The integrity of the Digestive System itself relies on there being a constant sufficient store of appropriate stomach acid levels, a host of protein digesting amino-enzymes, carbohydrate digesting amino-enzymes, fat digesting amino-enzymes, as well as amino-vitamin, amino-chelated minerals, free form amino acids, neurochemicals and neuro-transport mechanisms to break down foods sufficiently enough to then transport and carry them throughout the body to where they're needed.(1,12,24) These chemical mechanisms are used up quickly and continually need refurbishing, relying upon newly digested foods to provide these materials.(12,19,20) Without them, further digestion becomes impaired and a number of malabsorption syndromes ensue. In other words, the digestive "pump" continually needs to restock its "primer water" or the pump becomes increasingly inefficient until it finally stops working altogether. And the problem is only compounded further when the diet is nutrient poor to begin with.

What Are The Consequences Of A Faulty Digestive System? The inability of our dietary intake to be broken down into its constituent nutrients, and then get to where it's needed within the body, is a major problem often overlooked in health care. In fact, failure to extract the nutrients we need during digestion constitutes a serious form of malnutrition now running epidemic in our society. Make no mistake about it - the inability to extract and assimilate nutrients from provided foods (malabsorption) constitutes a form of malnourishment just as compromising and debilitating as an improper diet, or slow starvation itself.(19,20) All have a slow insidious effect, greatly lessening the power of natural resistance from disease, enfeebling the body and making it a prime target for illness and early death.(16,17) Moreover, malnourishment appears to be the leading factor, if not the major cause of most diseases and illnesses known to man.(6,7,15,16) As one example among many, in 1992 Dr. Bernadine Healy, the past (1988-1992) Director of the U.S. National Institute of Health, claimed that the American diet may directly contribute to as much as 35% of all cancer deaths and that two-thirds of ALL DEATHS can be attributed to life-style choices, including what we eat!(20) Authorities now believe that malnutrition is the insidious precursor of most modern day illness and dysfunction including birth defects, coronary heart disease, allergies, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, osteoporosis, diverticulitis, kidney stones, gallstones, both mental and neurological disorders as well as other ailments and immune dysfunction.(6,7,11,16,17,18,19,21) In fact, reputable studies have recently demonstrated that there are no disease conditions today for which current medical treatment has a better chance of success than the best technical medical care of 1951.(10,17)