Are supplements important and necessary?

Yes, but we believe that diet is KING, while food based supplementation is QUEEN! As many studies have shown, the nutritional content in our food system has dropped dramatically over the last 100 years. Add in hectic lifestyles, daily stress, social eating habits, strenuous athletic activities, alcohol intake and the picture becomes even bleaker. While diet will always form the critical foundation for optimal health and wellness, wisely selected supplementation guided by a trained health professional is the ideal.

Remember that supplements are unregulated and thoughtful consideration is needed to ensure their healthfulness, safety, and even legality (especially for athletes subjected to drug testing). That is just one of the reasons why we use and recommend food based supplements.

The second and more important reason is that food based supplements work best because the body can assimilate nutrients from nature’s premium foods the best! Have you ever heard the story about the broken watch? Someone gives you a working watch and then they break it into tiny pieces, then reassemble the watch and return it to you. Will it still work? The pieces are all there, but does it function as a whole unit still and do you still want it? This is very similar to how isolated nutrients work—those commonly found in synthetic over the counter or even professional grade vitamin and mineral supplements.

Please also consider the source of the isolated nutrients in these types of products. For example, many B vitamins are derived from coal tar! The supplements that we recommend are derived from concentrated whole foods and sometimes herbs as these bioavailable and bioactive supplements nutrients work synergistically and gently in the body for optimal health—just as nature intended.

At SportFuel, we have designed a package of foundational supplements that we believe will round out a strong, real food based diet. These include:

• Fermented Cod Liver Oil – a great source of food-based vitamins A, D and K
• Whole Food Based Multivitamin – a broad-based source of whole food nutrients
• Digestive Enzyme support – gentle digestive support from plant based enzymes
• Powdered Green Drink – an essential source of minerals for those not getting 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables. Powdered greens can be very energizing and alkalizing!

Beyond general recommendations, our customized nutritional testing package provides a map of each person’s individual needs to guide appropriate diet and supplementation.

To real food and food based supplements!

Julie H. Burns, MS, RD, CCN is founder of SportFuel and Eat Like the Pros®, both located in the Chicago suburbs. SportFuel is an integrative nutrition consulting firm, while Eat Like the Pros is an organic meal delivery service. Julie’s past and current clients include the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team, Chicago White Sox baseball team, Chicago Bears football team, Chicago Bulls basketball team, Northwestern University’s varsity teams, Next Level Performance and individual pro and elite athletes.

For everyone who wants to keep avoiding aspartame in our foods (AND drugs AND vaccines AND over the counter medications), aspartame has a new name of AminoSweet. Since aspartame has gotten such a bad name (as it should), Ajinomoto, its key manufacturer in Japan, has renamed this toxic chemical sweetener. Such trickery! Remember to keep double-checking your labels on everything you consume. Of course, most real foods you consume won’t have labels, right? Also, if you are interested in reading more on the topic, try the thrilling Excitotoxins by Russel Blaylock.

Julie H. Burns, MS, RD, CCN is founder of SportFuel and Eat Like the Pros®, both located in the Chicago suburbs. SportFuel is an integrative nutrition consulting firm, while Eat Like the Pros is an organic meal delivery service. Julie’s past and current clients include the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team, Chicago White Sox baseball team, Chicago Bears football team, Chicago Bulls basketball team, Northwestern University’s varsity teams, Next Level Performance and individual pro and elite athletes.