A Case for Supplementation
It is no secret that as our food system continues to evolve and develop, the nutritional quality is slowly diminishing. Many factors contribute to nutritionally dense food, location, time between harvest and consumption, environmental chemicals, soil composition, and ruminant animal and crop rotation (aka regenerative farming) to name a few. As our food industry grows our food is becoming less like food.
As a result, what we're left with is caloric intake on the macro scale (carbohydrate, fat, and protein), rather than the combination of macro and micronutrients.
One of the primary purposes of caloric intake is energy consumption, absorption, delivery, and expression. Our bodies need more than just the macronutrients, we need the micronutrient composition to sustain energy through the day, fuel workouts and athletic performance, boost cognitive performance, and get restful sleep. But, we are beginning to see what happens when our fuel isn't composed of micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), and one might argue is contributing to our fuel becoming less like food.
With modern farming, our agricultural produce is slowly siphoning off precious nutrients our bodies need to fortify our immune system, support microbiome and healthy energy production, and much more. The introduction of modern farming practices and environmental pesticides are dramatically impacting our meat and produce nutrient density. The estimation is that the produce has lost 25-50% of its original nutrient quality due to modern agricultural practices (Bhardwaj, 2024).
In 2013, the New York Times stated that genetic manipulation like what is found in America is, “breeding the nutrition out of our food.”
Additionally, unless your whole foods, fruits, vegetables, and meat, are purchased from a local farmer, it has likely traveled over 1,500 miles before it reaches your local grocery store (Hill,2020). As your food travels, the more time it's spent away from the source, the more micro-nutrient quality it loses. So, when you purchase a bunch of spinach from the grocer, with hopes of vitamin C, iron, magnesium, calcium, vitamin A, you're likely getting 0-5% of the micronutrients your body needs.
It shouldn't be any wonder then in our busy 21st-century environment why we have difficulty sleeping, sustaining energy throughout the day, demonstrating low nutrient quality in our labs, and much more. We're putting more demands on our bodies with less successful keys to sustain the demand.
Someone once told me that supplementation was "expensive pee", essentially not so subtly hinting that supplements are a waste.
I would now argue that it's more of a waste to feel run down, not sleep through the night, and be deficient in any micro-nutrient your body uses to fuel, detoxify, and strengthen your system. In the 21st century, it is more expensive to run yourself ragged and has way more long-term detrimental impacts on your health.
We can all agree our agricultural practices need to shift and change on a large scale. In the meantime, what can you do to support your body's optimal energy and nutrient consumption? Buy as close to the source as possible when it comes to fruits and vegetable. We have amazing local farms in Alaska working hard to develop nutrient-dense food for your consumption. Harvest wild game and produce. We have the good fortune in Alaska to subsist off of some of the most nutrient-dense meat; salmon, moose, caribou, and bison. Salmon is dense with vitamin D, a micronutrient ALL Alaskans need. Our wild Alaskan blueberries, raspberries, and salmonberries are full of antioxidants that support your immune system. The best way to preserve your subsisted micronutrients is to freeze them.
We are for you deriving as much of your nutrients from food sources, but we're also realists and know what we are absorbing is not supporting our body's full potential, and we need supplementation. And I may go so far to argue that almost every person in the 21st century needs some form of supplementation, due to the very fact that our food is no longer as rich in nutrients.
Not all supplements are created equal, so we'll have more information in the future of what to look for in oral supplementation. Your body absorbs 20-30% of what you eat/take orally. By far the best delivery for supplementation is via intravenous infusion. You receive 100% of the micronutrients immediately, and hydration support, which almost everyone on the planet benefits from. Second to IV is intramuscular (IM) injection. Your body will absorb 60-70% of the nutrients over 5 days through injection.
As you begin to supplement your specific nutrient needs you'll begin to experience more energy, shortened sickness/or less contraction of illness, deeper sleep/rest, better athletic performance and muscle recovery, less injury, sharper cognition/focus, and more. We love seeing you key in on your body's specific needs and feeling your best!
Hill, Holly (2020). Food Miles: Background and Marketing, National Center for Appropriate Technology through the ATTRA Sustainable Agriculture
Bhardwaj, Raju., Parashar., Aaabhaa, Parewa., Hanuman., Vyas, Latika. (2024), An Alarming Decline in Nutritional Quality Foods, The Biggest Challenge for Future Generations' Health
Cazzola, Roberta. Porta, Matteo Della., Manoni, Michele., Lotti, Stefano., Pinotti, Luciano., (2020) Going to the Roots of Reduced Magnesium Dietary Intake: A Tradeoff Between Climate Changes and Sources, NIH
Tudie, Muyesaier., Ruan, Huada Daniel., Wang, Li., Lyu, Jia., Sadler, Ross., Connnell, Des., Chu, Cordia., Phunge, Dung Tri., (2021), Agriculture Development, Pesticide Application and Its Impact on the Environment, NIH
Robinson, Jo (2013) Breeding Nutrition Out of Our Food, New York Times