Thursday, April 05, 2007

Nature's Multi-vitamins

As a routine question, my doctor asked me at our monthly check-up yesterday if I was taking multi-vitamins. My answer was a slightly intimidated "no".

It is increasingly becoming common knowledge that if one's diet is balanced and sufficient of micronutrients, excess water soluble vitamins are passed from the body through urination. Excess non water soluble vitamins find it harder to exit which may actually cause the body more harm than good – one such example is vitamin A.

I was probably too self-conscious to go into detail with him just exactly how much thought has gone into my daily meals these days; lest he found me a little too obsessed.

At the moment, besides my daily glass of fortified orange juice (vitamin A, C, E); yoghurt with sesame and linseed (also known as flaxseed); and Vegemite (vitamin B complex) on wholewheat toasts, my meals most often consist of either spinach, acelga (Swiss chard), or fennel. Otherwise, I have a big serve of the fabled grass-fed Argentine beef for a dose of iron from an animal source; sardine or salmon for an omega-3 boost; or ricotta for extra protein and calcium.

The George Mateljan Foundation is a non-profit organization free of commercial influence, which provides a website named World's Healthiest Foods. Their mission is to provide unbiased scientific information on nutrient-rich foods. You can go to the website directly or click on each food item mentioned above to read more on their nutritional values.

My prescription for multi-vitamins is still sitting in my purse; I probably would get round to buying them at some point just so I can utter an appeasing "yes" in 4 weeks' time.