This is crazy.
So we are all very familiar with the
effect that nutrition has on our energy and our appearance. If you have
read The PROGRAM, you also understand how important body chemistry is
and how much of a role nutrition plays in our hormones and the various
things that control fat-burning and muscle-building.
One thing, however,
that we often overlook is the importance of the micronutrients and
other elements of nutrition. Those are things like vitamins, minerals,
and even digestive enzymes. It's not just protein, fat, carbs and
calories. Vitamins, minerals and the various micronutrients are
essential to good health and for the body's "machinery" to function
properly. Sometimes even I forget how important this is and also, how
easy it is to have deficiencies with even the healthiest diet. Let me
give you an unbelievable example. My daughter is six years old and is a
very picky eater. She is not much different than most kids her age,
where there are not a lot of healthy foods that she likes to eat and
even when she does eat, it's not a whole lot. I have tried to get her to
take various vitamins but it is often a struggle.
Over the past few
months my wife and I have commented on how we need to get her eating
more healthy but we have not been very successful. Recently she has been
extremely moody, had a few low-grade colds and has just generally been
rundown. She is also in the process of losing a few teeth and that is a
factor as well. One of the teeth is almost all the way out and is
literally almost dead. This tooth has been almost gray in color due to
the lack of blood and nutrients to the tooth. She has also been
complaining of growing pains at night which are aches and discomfort in the upper
thighs, commonly associated with the rapid growth of kids this age. The thought is (and I would agree with it) that it has to do with the rapidly going bones and some have suggested the minerals (or lack thereof) associated with this process.
One night it just hit me like a ton of
bricks and occurred to me that my daughter is severely deficient in
probably numerous vitamins and minerals and I was just standing by and
watching it happen!
I immediately went out and found some liquid
vitamins and minerals and powdered calcium/magnesium. I bought the
additional calcium/magnesium because the multivitamin has very low
amounts of magnesium, which is an extremely important nutrient. I'll
give you the exact brands and types at the end. What happened next was
remarkable and kind of blew my mind.
Less than 24 hours after adding
these additional nutrients, my daughter was a different person. Her
energy shot through the roof. Her mood literally changed overnight. She
was back to the perky, happy and playful child that we had always known.
She did not complain of leg aches for days. It still happens
occasionally but much less frequently. And the most remarkable thing?
Her grey tooth became white again! I know it sounds unbelievable but I
watched it happen. And it actually makes sense.
When the body, the bones
and teeth (which are essentially bones) are deprived of nutrients they
begin to not function properly and even "die". Once given the proper
nutrients, the body resumes normal functions. The moral of the story is
that nutrients, not just protein, fat, carbs and calories have a massive
impact on your health and well-being. A strong reminder on the
importance of getting a wide variety of natural foods, particularly lots
of vegetables and berries. I would also recommend everyone to take a
good quality multivitamin/multimineral and fish oil on a daily basis.
Shown below is what I used with Charlie and I have seen the power of adding this to her diet and
it is unbelievable.
PS. Calcium and Magnesium and VERY involved with the stress/anxiety system of the body and a deficiency in this area can cause considerable anxiety and a sense of being "unsettled". Adding these minerals has a huge calming effect on those suffering with anxiety. I've had it and this basically eliminated it.
(For kids, the products below are great because you can add them to juice and they will actually drink it. Good edibles are hard to come by and often the kids won't like the taste. For adults, I've found the brand New Chapter's Men's and Women's Multis to be very good.
