When Food Alone Can't Fix Nutrient Deficiencies
Dealing with a no-pill preference makes things challenging.
A handful of clients I’ve worked with have told me from the get-go, “I don’t want to take pills”.
Here are a few objections I’ve heard from clients who have stated a no-pill preference:
“I want to take a natural approach.”
“I already take so many (medication) pills.”
“I can’t afford vitamins.”
“I can’t swallow pills.”
While it would be nice if someone with a health problem or limitation could fulfill all their nutritional requirements with food alone, we need to be realistic.
Consider:
What do you do with a stubborn teen with iron-deficiency anemia who won’t eat anything but peanut butter, toast, milk, french fries and orange juice?
What do you do with an elderly woman with osteoporosis who is adamant about continuing a vegan diet?
What do you do with a man who had (irreversible) gastric bypass surgery whose lab results now indicate deficiencies in several vitamins and minerals?
In each of these cases, there was no way that food alone could fix these clients’ deficiencies. I’m not saying that every client needs to supplement to see progress with their health, but from experience I will say that the clients who do get faster, better results when they do.
Yet I’ve sometimes had the feeling that clients expect me to find a way to help them resolve these nutritional shortfalls through diet alone. Now imagine how challenging this can be when the same individuals tell me they don’t enjoy food preparation, or that they’re picky eaters.
Nutritionists are not magicians. There is no course in nutrition school on the surefire ways to get someone who despises a healthy food item to eat it. We can suggest ways to disguise it, like slathering it with ketchup or hot sauce (a technique goes against my principles). For this reason, the client who “has no time” or interest in food preparation may find they must make time for ill health that results from eating anonymous, processed food.
I teach that pills are simply convenient tiny delivery vehicles of essential nutrients. They offer a way to provide nutrients in consistent dosages in effort to meet one’s daily micronutrient requirements than food. I’m not suggesting that we should just take all essential nutrients in pill form and save our digestive systems the hard work of extracting the nutrients in eggs, beans, broccoli and whatever. Food is still the most effective way to meet our daily caloric (energy) requirements, and a more pleasurable one, at that.
But when it comes to vitamins and minerals, probiotics and even omega-3 oils, supplementing offers the potential to restore shortfalls faster and more conveniently than eating daily slabs of beef liver and salmon or a bucket of broccoli can.
I have also learned to counter a client’s objection with an important question, asked with a smile: “Well, how soon would you like to feel better?” Because it can be a long road when we just use food - especially when it’s a picky eater, or someone with limited digestive capacity.
So, what did I do with the teen with anemia who won’t eat anything but peanut butter, milk, toast, french fries and orange juice? I supplemented iron - - away from milk.
What did I do with the woman with osteoporosis who was adamant about continuing a vegan diet? I supplemented calcium (plus vitamin D3 and vitamin K2).
And what did I do with the man who had gastric bypass surgery whose lab results indicated deficiencies in several vitamins and minerals? I supplemented with a high-quality multi-vitamin and mineral product.
What if the client can’t swallow pills? A surprising number of adults deal with this. Fortunately, there are chewable, liquid and powder forms of most nutritional supplements available. When necessary, these can be used to correct deficiencies nicely, provided they are of high quality. But I’ll leave that for a future topic.