Cellular Nutrition
Imagine this. Every second of every minute in each
day you are replacing the cells throughout your body. Your body is
composed of 100,000 billion cells. For every cell there is a time to
die. Cells make up tissues. Groups of specialized cells make up
organs and muscles.
Dr. Stew Bittman also claims that "The human body
is unfathomably intelligent. It builds itself from 1 cell into 100
trillion cells in 9 months. It rebuilds 98% of itself in 3 months!
That's right- 98% of the atoms that comprise your body right now
will not be in your body 3 - 6 months from now. They will have been
replaced by atoms that you accumulate from your environment, mostly
in the form of food."
The New York Times published an article titled
"Your body is younger than you think", stating that Dr. Frisen,
a stem cell biologist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm "has
also discovered a fact that explains why people behave their birth
age, not the physical age of their cells: a few of the body's cell
types endure from birth to death without renewal, and this special
minority includes some or all of the cells of the cerebral cortex."
Some cells are replaced very rapidly, in a matter of days. Others
are replaced over a year. But it takes seven years for the cells in
your skeletal structure (bones) to be dissolved and replaced.
According to Lon Brouse, "When cells are replaced, the daughter cells are
made up of the nutrients in the blood. The atoms of these
nutrients may have come from digested food that has been in your
body less than 24 hours, or from other tissues in your body that are
being recycled. The iron in your hemoglobin, for example, is
captured by your liver after the red blood cells break from being
folded inside the very small capillaries in the spleen." (1)
So your body uses the nutrients that you feed it
to build new cells. It goes without saying if you are consuming
optimum levels of all the nutrients you need, your body can build
healthy cells. But the converse is also true. If you are eating junk
you are going to have cells based on junk. Sick cells lead to sick
bodies.
Dr. Ray Stand described it this way, "Cellular nutrition is providing
the body with all the antioxidants along with the supporting B
vitamins and antioxidant minerals at optimal levels. This is
"preventive medicine" at its best because we can literally attack
the disease process at its core by preventing
oxidative stress from occurring." (2)
"You may be wondering if we can
control oxidative stress by simply improving our diet and eating
more fruits and vegetables. This is definitely a good start. By
simply eating 7 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables each day you
can decrease the risk of heart attack, stroke, Alzheimer’s dementia,
and cancer, two to three fold. We certainly want to supplement a
good diet—not a bad diet. However, even if you eat a great diet you
can barely obtain the RDA level of all essential nutrients. Medical
studies have shown that less than 1% of the American population
accomplishes this on a consistent basis."(2)
The RDA (Recommended Daily Amount)
of the vital nutrients we need is not the optimum amount. It is the
minimum amount. If you get less than these levels, you can expect to
get sick. These are not the optimum levels your body needs.
How optimum levels are determined
depends on who is doing the determining. The FDA continues to
promote the RDA levels supported by drug companies. And the FDA
reminds people that there are maximum levels of these nutrients,
take over this amount and it can be dangerous. Even though there is
some truth to the concept of not getting too much of certain
vitamins, people are not dying from getting too many vitamins. Yet
prescription drugs kill thousands of people each year. Studies do
show that getting optimum levels of vitamins and minerals can help
your body avoid degenerative diseases. If you do not get a degenerative disease you don't need to purchase a drug to treat the
symptoms.
I personally rely on the
recommendations of USANA Health Sciences of Utah. Founder Dr. Myron
Wentz and USANA's own scientists in conjunction with the Linus
Pauling Institute have established recommended levels. Many medical
professionals such as Dr. Ray Strand, Ladd McNamara MD among others
endorse and consult with USANA.
Dr. Wentz refers to cellular
nutrition as "invisible miracles." He states that if you feed your
cell properly. Remove any negative impacts and protect your cells.
You will have healthy cells and a healthy body beginning at the
cellular level.
So what are these levels? USANA
offers a basic multi-vitamin called Essentials. These daily vitamins
contain the optimum levels. But I take the Health Pak 100 which
includes the Essentials plus calcium and additional anti-oxidants.
These are bases on the optimum recommendations.
Do you need to add a supplement to
achieve optimum levels of nutrients? Even if you assume the factory
fruits and vegetables you buy in the grocery store contain nutrients
today, you can not eat enough of them to get optimum levels.
Footnotes:
(1)
Lon Brouse, Faculty, Chemistry, Mesa State College,
Colorado
(2) Dr. Ray Strand - www. Bionutrition.org - Cellular Nutrition
(3) USDA National Food Consumption Survey, Gutherie & Crocetti,
1982.
(4) Dr. Christine Wood, study from the journal Pediatrics
surveying 3,307 children
(5) W Shuphan, Nutritional value of crops as influenced by organic
and inorganic fertilizer treatments, qualitas
plantraum; Plant foods for Human Nutrition, 23 (4), 330-358, 1973.
(6) BL Smith, Organic foods vs. supermarket foods: element levels,
Journal of Applied Nutrition, 45, 35-39, 1993.
(7)
The Good News About Vitamins - OrganicFoodee.com