Nutrition

(please click the headings below for more details)

What is Nutrition?
"The doctor of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition." - Thomas Edison 

Nutrition is based on almost entirely scientific studies and research. 
Vitamins, minerals, amino acids and other nutrients; most people use or have used them.  What are they?

Vitamins: These micronutrients are not a source of energy to the body but are necessary for its normal growth, maintenance and repair. Your body has no way to create vitamins (with the exception of Vitamin D), so they must come via food or supplementation.  The human body is known to need at least 13 different vitamins:

Minerals: Like vitamins, minerals are also vital for the growth, maintenance and repair of the body. These inorganic substances come from soil and water, are taken up by plants and animals and then consumed by us. They are also micronutrients, but greater amounts of minerals are needed in comparison to vitamins. They also act as coenzymes to accomplish the body's many biochemical processes.

Amino acids: There are 22 known amino acids. Eight are ‘essential’ (that is, they cannot be manufactured by the body) while the other 14 are non-essential (our bodies can make them, providing we are receiving proper nutrition).
Amino acids play a central role, both as building blocks of proteins and as intermediates in metabolism. Besides building cells and repairing tissue, they form antibodies to combat invading bacteria & viruses; they are part of the enzyme & hormonal system; they build nucleoproteins (RNA & DNA); carry oxygen throughout the body and participate in muscle activity.

So, if these nutrients come from food, why do we need supplements?
This would be the ideal situation; i.e. to get all of our nutritional requirements from what we eat.  However, the basic problem is that most people are not regularly eating a diet to supply all of their nutritional needs.  By the time the outcomes of poor dietary choices have become manifest (malfunctioning and diseased states) and established as a chronic problem, it is more difficult to overcome without a ‘kick start’ of supplementation.
Your Mobile Naturopath will tell you how to take personal responsibility for your health.

Does natural medicine work?  Do vitamins and mineral supplements work?  
Yes, it is quite perplexing; there are people out there who still reject the therapeutic value of nutritional supplementation.  As mentioned above, Nutrition is based on almost entirely scientific studies and research.