Hurdity - I do totally agree that we should attend to our diet and try as best we can to get all nutrients through food. I'm afraid we will have to agree to disagree about supplements. When I looked more closely at what I eat, whilst I'm doing fine for some nutrients I was clearly lacking in certain areas. I am vegetarian and don't eat oily fish, so that is one problem. I also get terrible wind and often diarrhoea if I eat too much green stuff like broccoli and I can't eat any of the onion family (gives awful heartburn). I think if one can grow most of your own vegetables that is great - I'm afraid I don't have much luck with this (though I have repeatedly tried, the wildlife seems to get most of it so it is doing the wildlife some good
) I only do well with potatoes, soft fruits and apples. Shop bought fruit and veg are often depleted of nutrients, although I believe frozen vegetables are better for retaining their goodness so I do use these quite a bit!!
The scientific evidence regarding Vitamin D is very strongly in favour of supplementation simply because the weather and lifestyle here in the UK and the whole of northern europe is not conducive to us being able to get enough sunshine. When I was a teenager I barely saw the light of day - rising to go to ballet college at 6am and getting home after 7pm having been indoors all day doing classes - I'm afraid many children get little or no sunlight and there is an alarming increase in rickets in the UK. We are also all told to keep out of the sun due to the risk of skin cancer so we are getting very mixed messages overall - so just like HRT the benefits of sunshine does also have risks!!!!
Recently there was feature on TV about farmed salmon - salmon being one of the most popular ways of getting Omega 3 and Vit d - farmed salmon is showing a greatly reduced amount of these key nutrients now, so with modern food production we can't rely on food alone to get what we need.
I have often sited my good friend who has been diagnosed with advanced stage osteoporosis in her mid 50s. She ate an incredibly good diet including lots of oily fish, salads, veg etc. She also kept slim and very active but had a sensitive skin so had to keep out of the sun - she also believed she should avoid dairy as the fat would be bad for her!!!. This is a classic example of how easily we can believe our diet is OK. Again, we are all told to avoid fat because of cholesterol build up, so how many people are developing osteoporosis because they avoid dairy or other calcium rich foods. It's a minefield out there with all the mixed messages.
I am merely a realist - we may think we get all we need from our diet but the reality is that we often don't and possibly as we age we simply need a little more help along the way in terms of supplements - just don't go bonkers and take too much of anything - ‘supplements' are just that, supplements.
I work hard to eat a ‘balanced' diet but I take both Krill Oil for my Omega 3 and the Osteocare supplement that has calcium, magnesium, zinc and vitamin D every day - and a couple of times a week I'm taking an iron supplement, just in case. DG x
