Supplements

When we begin to look at modern diet and way that we eat, immediately we can begin to see problems that arise. The first problem being the way that we farm foods and transport them. Have you ever noticed that organic, naturally grown fruit and vegetables have more flavour than your everyday stuff from the supermarket? The reason is most produce in modern farms is force grown throughout the entire year. We use greenhouses and poly tunnels to grown things out of season, chemical fertilisers to add artificial nutrition to the soil and then transport food all around the world, meaning the time it takes to get food from the farm to your table is so long a lot of the nutrition has gone. The second problem is the use of harmful pesticides and herbicides, sprayed over the crops at multiple points to try to kill anything that would reduce the output of the farm. We have even gone to the extent of genetically modifying crops to stop them being killed by the chemicals we spray on them, however when it comes to using them in our food, they usually haven’t been washed well enough to remove all the chemicals, and even worse, often the produce has absorbed a lot of the chemicals, meaning you cant just wash it off and it ends up effecting you. The ideal case is to try to eat local organic fruit and vegetables from a local farm, and often farms are setting up their own deliveries to do just that, rather than going via the supermarkets. The one we use is Riverford, here’s the website – https://www.riverford.co.uk.

The next problem is our diet often isn’t as varied as it once was. How many times do you go for dinner with friends or family and you hear them saying “oh I don’t like fish”, or “I don’t like red meat” etc. So our solution is to reinforce our every day diet with a few essential supplements that will help keep your body as healthy as possible! These are the ones we recommend.

Omega 3

Most people have heard of omega 3 and know that its good for you, but hopefully reading this will give you a little bit more knowledge of what it is and what the benefits are. Omega 3 is what is known as an essential fatty acid (or EFA) and what these series of natural fats do within your body ranges from building and repairing your cells, producing hormones within your body and helping regulate our bodies levels of inflammation. Naturally they’re found in fish, particularly cold water fish, nuts, seeds and beans and these sources are generally the best way to be able to consume them. However, if you’re going to up your fish intake to get these omega 3, you need to know what you’re eating. Most fish found in supermarkets or fish mongers now is from a fish farm, and as with most of our fruit and veg, these fish are fed frequently, fattened up and then slaughtered without ever really using their muscles and building up their natural omega 3, so when you eat it, its not really going to do you any good. Even worse, the pollution around these fish farms is often very high, meaning the fish contains heavy metals that can poison your body over time. If you’re going to try to up your omega 3 naturally, go for something like wild salmon, mackerel, trout etc. You’ll find these fish taste much better too! If you’re not keen on fish, or would rather use a supplement, we recommend Nordic Oil Omega 3 capsules or Nordic Oil Omega 3 Fish Oil as their fish oil is triple filtered to remove the heavy metals and the contaminants we’ve just been talking about. If you’re after a veggie alternative, or don’t really fancy the sound of fish oil, you can pick up Udo’s Oil in most health food shops which is a flax seed alternative (and the oil avoids the gelatine in the capsules too).

Turmeric

Yes, you read that right! Turmeric! As in the stuff you put in your curries! So, turmeric has some awesome anti-inflammatory properties when you eat it, so is a great way to try to keep those aches and pains away! Granted, this stuff can take a couple of weeks to start having an effect on your system, but is definitely a great addition to your diet. As with the vast majority of things, fresh is best, and the best of the best is to produce what’s known as a ‘Golden Paste’. Its basically a combination of either fresh or powdered turmeric, water, freshly ground black pepper, coconut oil, cinnamon and ginger that forms a golden paste (I know, the name makes sense now) that you can either eat from a spoon, add to drinks or use in cooking. Check out this link to find the recipe – https://www.turmericforhealth.com/turmeric-recipes/how-to-make-golden-paste-from-raw-fresh-turmeric. If you’re not the cooking type, or don’t fancy a curry breakfast, we’ve got Nordic Oil Turmeric and Black Pepper Capsules that contain a ready made golden paste with the ease of a one a day capsule.

Vitamin D3

If you’re reading this from the UK, especially where we are on the North-East coast, this one is going to be pretty important for you! You’re probably sat there thinking you recognise Vitamin D, but possibly can’t place where from. Well, it’s the sunlight vitamin. Now you know why its so important to everyone in the UK, baring in mind how little sun we get! So most of our Vitamin D is naturally produced in the skin when exposed to UV light, although some is absorbed through diet, but the problem is, living in Northumberland its unlikely you’re going to want to get your kit off and stand outside for 15 minutes every day! This means we end up sluggish, lethargic, with low energy and even lower mood. Now, in my mind there are 2 options, one is very definitely better than the other. Starting with the first option, we permanently holiday all over the world, picking up lots of sunshine along the way (hey, dreams can come true!) or the second, we use diet to supplement our very definite lack of sunshine. If you’re like us and are yet to be told of your Euromillions lottery win, we recommend using Nordic Oil Vitamin D3, however most D3 supplements will be fine so long as they’re a reasonable strength (we take 4000iu per day). Be aware though, Vitamin D is one of the few vitamins you can overdose on, so stick with our recommended doses.

Probiotics

So when it comes to supplements, we always say natures way is best, but most times your body needs a good old kick start to get it moving. Probiotics are that kickstart. How many times have you not been well, had some antibiotics, and then you end up with an upset tummy that isn’t quite right for the next few weeks? Your gut is full of billions of good bacterium that help your body absorb things by helping to break them down, and when you have a bad tummy, don’t eat the right foods, don’t drink enough or have too many of the naughty things in life, you can affect the balance of these bacterium in your gut which leads to that awful bloated, upset tummy, ‘this doesn’t feel like its going to be good’ kind of feeling. If you still have some of the good bacterium there it will regrow if you start doing the right things, eventually getting back to normal. However, if the damage is too far gone and there aren’t any bacterium to repopulate, you need to reintroduce them. This leads me to the difference between a prebiotic and a probiotic, because they’re very different. A PREbiotic is in essence, the food that the good bacterium need to grow, a PRObiotic is the bacterium itself. When it comes down to brands, we use Nordic Oil’s Probiotic which contains the 11 most important cultures of bacterium in your gut, giving your body that kickstart towards that healthy life you want!

Magnesium

When we look at a lot of modern problems, ranging from high blood pressure right through to muscle spasms, we notice a significant amount of imbalanced within the body. One of those is our natural minerals. Now, if you’re anything like most people, you probably think of minerals as rocks that come out of the ground, something that is mined and made into something. Well, your body is exactly the same, except that it mines any minerals it needs from your diet and it makes them into many of the products needed to run your body, processes like controlling your blood sugars, to muscle control such as heart beats and blood pressure. As with all our other advice, natures way is always best, so try to increase your intake of leafy greens, legumes (beans to us normal people), nuts and seeds, but remember, a lot of our food is force grown now, so try to get organic veg to maximise the amount of nutrients left in the produce. If you decide you’d rather take supplements, we recommend Nordic Oil Magnesium supplements and just like the others, you can pick these up at the clinic whenever you need. Something to be careful of with magnesium though, be aware that if you suffer with any kidney disease or are on heart medication, it can sometimes interfere and cause complications, so its always best to talk to a GP, Pharmacist or Aaron if you’re concerned about anything.