by Jon Dainty Sr.

Created on: March 27, 2008   Last Updated: July 30, 2010

There are hundreds of diet products on grocery store shelves. Some of them you have tried, thinking that they sounded reasonably sane or "Judy at the office did well on it," but you still have questions about how useful they are.  You will find some important guidance below.

For thousands of years, humans have been eating meat, fruits and plant matter, and grains. Our bodies are well suited to this type of diet. Unfortunately, because of social pressures, religion, or the occasional "wild hare" of an idea, our modern diet is not always good for us to eat.

There are people still walking around who will swear to you that a beef steak will kill you. Others are certain that their soup diet gives them a match made in heaven. Some declare they will eat nothing that once had a face, and they give up eggs, dairy, seafood, and common sense.

I fully support people's right to determine what they will and will not eat. I may even help them to do it, changing my dinner menu when they visit my home. I will not, however, go quietly into that good darkness when people about whom I care face avoidable nutritional deficiencies.

Did It Smile at You?

Those things that make us think of house pets have been our food for a long time. In the case of cows, we have a pretty good deal going, since meat is one of the foods that supplies essential nutrients either not found in plants or found at levels too low to be helpful to humans. Giving up meat, as vegetarians are wont to do, can complicate your life if you care to avoid potential nutrient shortages in your diet.

Most of us are familiar with the concept of vitamins and their usefulness in the human diet. Are enough of them present in the vegetarian or vegan diet, without supplementation, to keep you healthy? In a word: no.

Normally, adults should consume about 5,000 IU (International Units) of vitamin A each day. Ideally, that compound should come from cod liver oil, liver, butter, egg yolks, cream, or whole milk. "Cereals and skim milk, even when fortified with the nutrient, are not good sources." (Robert C. Atkins, 1998, p. 47)

How about vitamin D? By now, most of us know that, in order to maintain healthy calcium ingestion, we need to get more vitamin D than anyone ever told us before about 2007. Nutritionists and doctors now call for an increase from the old standard of about 400 mg (milligrams) each day to as much as 1,000 mg per day. How do you do this?

Unless your doctor tells you to avoid the sunshine, you should go out

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>