Daily Routine - Healthy Supplementation Fundamentals

A Common Sense Approach to Healthy Vitamin and Supplement Usage

Ideally, you wouldn't ever need to take a vitamin or a nutritional supplement. In an ideal situation, we would obtain all the necessary nutrients from a healthy, balanced diet consisting of complete, whole foods rich in nutrients.

Unfortunately, we don't live in ideal circumstances. Our diets are far from perfect. The soil has been severely degraded by decades of intensive industrial farming practices. The average American adult eats far more sugar per day than our ancestors did 100 years ago. Refined carbohydrates remain a significant component of the average American's diet.

To exacerbate this dilemma of malnourishment, we live in a toxic soup of chemicals in our food, microplastics in our bloodstreams, and more stress than ever before, which leads to nutrient depletion and inflammation.

Taking vitamins and supplements can be a powerful tool for enhancing health, improving well-being, and preventing future illnesses and diseases. Even when we are intentional about eating a healthy diet, there may be nutritional gaps, and supplements can help fill those needs.

But where to start? There are hundreds of different supplements, vitamins, and herbs, as well as numerous brands to choose from. As one mom recently told me, "I don't have the budget to buy every supplement that I want to take, so I have to focus on the couple that are the most important.

Here, we present a common-sense approach to the three most important supplements that you can take.

1. Vitamin D3

If you're only going to take one supplement, let it be Vitamin D. Vitamin D is the single most important supplement you can take for many reasons:

• 90% of American adults have below-optimal levels of Vitamin D.

• There are few dietary sources of Vitamin D.

• Vitamin D is actually a form of hormone, and nearly every cell in your body has Vitamin D receptors. Cells wouldn't have Vitamin D receptors if the function of that cell weren't affected by Vitamin D. This means that optimizing your Vitamin D level has the potential to have a body-wide benefit.

• Life on Earth is dependent on the sun. Humans evolved/were created to need sun exposure. Vitamin D is one of the reasons we need sun exposure. In the modern era, we spend too little time outside, and many people have developed a fear of the sun over the past several decades.

• Even people who are intentional about sun exposure may need a supplement because stress and inflammation can deplete the vitamin D supply that comes from sun exposure.

2. Omega 3

• Omega-3 fatty acids are essential for regulating inflammation in the body. Nearly all diseases involve out-of-control inflammation.

• Omega-3 is essential for healthy brain and nervous system tissue. Brain health is closely tied to mental health, and omega-3 fatty acids are vital to maintaining optimal brain health.

• Omega-3 is hard to get from the diet. There are excellent sources of dietary Omega-3, but if you're not eating wild-caught, Alaskan Salmon every day, you'll likely not be getting enough.

3. Magnesium

• Magnesium is an essential mineral involved in over 300 body processes.

• Magnesium is essential for muscle and body relaxation, playing a critical role in rest, sleep, and pain relief.

• Roughly 50% of people are deficient in magnesium.

• Magnesium is utilized in the metabolism of sugar. This may help us understand why magnesium deficiency is so prevalent, as most people consume excessive amounts of sugar.

These three supplements are a solid foundation for healthy supplement success. There are dozens of other vitamins, minerals, and supplements that you could take, and some may be particularly important for your unique biology.

These three, especially Vitamin D and Omega-3, are fundamental to health and difficult to get from a healthy diet. Without a foundation of these three as a daily routine/regimen, is there any point in taking anything else?