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Supplements: Why They REALLY Matter.

September 6, 2024

“I eat healthy. So why should I take supplements?” 

That’s a good question, and one I get a lot.
Here’s the thing: You shouldn’t need to take supplements.

But the reality is this: Modern farming practices, food processing, and even environmental factors have stripped many foods of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients, making it nearly impossible to get everything your body needs from diet alone. 

And this can be true even if you’re among the healthiest of eaters. 

That’s why vitamin and mineral supplements aren’t just a nice option—they’re a crucial tool for maintaining and optimizing your overall health.

Yes, they’re often labeled as “unnecessary” by big health agencies. But I’m going to show you why the right supplements are essential for preventing deficiencies and ensuring your body functions at its full potential. 

Worth It or Worthless? Why Supplements Are So Confusing

To be sure, there are lots of conflicting reports about the benefits, effectiveness, and even safety of vitamin and mineral supplements. 

Unlike drugs, which are designed to have specific, targeted effects, these nutrients are natural substances your body already uses.  What’s more, one nutrient can influence many functions in your body.

Because of this, the effects of specific vitamin and mineral supplementation can be harder to isolate and measure, leading to varying study results. This is one reason there’s so much contradictory information about them in the media.

But I’m going to help you cut through that noise and get a better understanding of why supplements are more important now than ever. Before we dive into that, though, let’s take a quick step back and look at what vitamins and minerals actually do for you (it might be way more than you think).

You Can’t Overhype Vitamins and Minerals 

Most folks know “vitamins and minerals are good for you,” but they often don’t realize how crucial they really are. These compounds are key players in countless chemical reactions in your body—literally millions a day. (And that’s low-balling it.) 

They’re involved in everything: from helping you process the oxygen you breathe, to fighting off viruses, to turning food into energy.

To kick-start these reactions, your body relies on enzymes. Think of enzymes as tiny machines that speed up these reactions, helping your body break down food, build tissues, and carry out many other essential processes efficiently.

Every enzyme has a “helper”—called a cofactor or coenzyme—that assists in its function. This is where vitamins and minerals come in: They’re the helpers. 

For instance, vitamin B12 acts as a coenzyme in the process of making red blood cells. So without enough vitamin B12, your body can’t produce healthy red blood cells, which can lead to fatigue and other health issues.

This is why consuming optimal levels of vitamins and minerals is so important. Which brings us to a very important question…

Are Hidden Deficiencies Sabotaging Your Health?

In the Western world, deficiencies in calories and “macronutrients”—carbohydrates, fat, and protein—are rare. That’s because getting enough food isn’t a problem for most Americans. (This isn’t to dismiss the fact that many people face food insecurity.)

But here’s the real issue: Approximately 99% of the American population is deficient in at least some essential vitamins and minerals, particularly trace minerals. Trace minerals, although needed in very small amounts (that’s why they’re called “trace”), play crucial roles in many bodily functions.

When we talk about deficiencies, it’s important to distinguish between a “frank deficiency” and what’s known as a “subclinical deficiency.” 

Frank Deficiency vs Subclinical Deficiency

A frank deficiency leads to obvious illness, like vitamin C deficiency causing scurvy or low vitamin D levels resulting in rickets. These are the kinds of deficiencies that most people think about.

However, a subclinical deficiency is trickier to identify. It means you’re not getting enough of a nutrient to meet your body’s optimal needs, but the deficiency isn’t severe enough to cause immediate, obvious symptoms. 

Yet, over time, these hidden deficiencies can lead to serious health issues beneath the surface.

For example, you might have weaker bones, increasing your risk of osteoporosis. Or you could develop atherosclerosis—where fatty deposits, including cholesterol, build up and harden in your arteries—leading to cardiovascular disease.

On the outside, you may appear fine, but internally, your body is rusting and breaking down. Understanding and addressing these hidden deficiencies is crucial for maintaining your health and preventing long-term damage.

What “Optimal Levels” Really Mean

Now that we’ve distinguished between frank and subclinical deficiencies, let’s talk about what it means to achieve “optimal levels” of nutrients. 

Optimal levels refer to the amount of nutrients you need to achieve the best possible health outcomes, including improved physical performance, cognitive function, disease prevention, and overall well-being.

Consider this example: To avoid a frank deficiency that could lead to scurvy, you’d only need about 7-10 milligrams (mg) of vitamin C per day. But to fully saturate your body’s tissues and provide optimal antioxidant protection, you might need around 1,000 mg (two doses of 500 mg) of vitamin C per day or more.

Similarly, preventing rickets requires only 600 IU/day of vitamin D. But to achieve the best health benefits, you may need about 5,000 IU/day of vitamin D.

How Much Is Enough?

Based on my experience, there’s a 10- to 100-fold difference between an intake that prevents frank deficiency and one that promotes optimal health.

The Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) or Adequate Intakes (AIs) set by health agencies are, in fact, designed to prevent frank deficiencies. 

So, while these recommendations can help most healthy individuals get the minimum amount of each nutrient needed to avoid obvious deficiency symptoms and disease, they don’t account for individual variability or specific health conditions—and they’re often far below what your body needs to thrive. 

Why Are So Many of Us Deficient in Minerals?

How could so many people be mineral deficient when overeating is so common in the United States? Let’s take a look at some of the top contributors. 

► Reason #1: Overconsumption of Highly Refined Foods

The foods we eat today are highly refined, stripping away many essential minerals during processing. In fact, our food is about 30% less nutritious than it was in 1940. To get the same level of minerals as someone did 80 years ago, you’d need to eat 30% more food.

And if you go back even further, to what our ancestors ate tens of thousands of years ago? You might need to eat two to three times as much food today to match their mineral intake.

This drop in nutrient density is a huge reason why we’re seeing so many deficiencies today. It’s a classic case of being “overfed but undernourished.” And it’s likely one of the biggest contributors to chronic disease and premature death.

Consider this: The average American consumes about 134 pounds of sugar per year, plus loads of other refined foods like doughnuts, cakes, cookies, ice cream, potato chips, candy, and soda.

How Refined Foods Drain Your Nutrient Reserves

Eating too many of these highly refined foods does more than just load you up with empty calories. Not only have they been stripped of minerals, they also require minerals to metabolize their calories. This results in a net loss in your body’s mineral levels.

On top of that, these foods cause inflammation, which makes your body work harder. More minerals are used up by enzymes trying to combat this stress, leaving fewer available for other vital functions.

Too much sugar also raises your insulin levels, which can cause you to lose calcium and magnesium through urine. Over time, this can lead to insulin resistance—where your cells basically become “numb” to insulin. And when that happens, your body struggles to absorb important minerals like magnesium and potassium.

So, the more refined foods you eat, the more depleted your body becomes of these crucial micronutrients. 

The Ripple Effect on Your Health

All these deficiencies? They make it harder to lose weight—and a lot easier to gain it. 

When your body’s low on essential nutrients, it craves more food, trying to get what it needs. But no amount of processed junk will satisfy that craving because it’s lacking in those nutrients. 

So, even if you’re overeating, you’re still starving your body of the building blocks it needs.

On the flip side, eating real, nutrient-rich food helps you feel more satisfied and reduces the urge to overeat. Getting enough vitamins and minerals improves how your body burns calories, regulates your appetite, lowers inflammation, boosts detoxification, aids digestion, balances stress hormones, and helps your cells respond better to insulin (which you definitely want!).

► Reason #2: Soil Erosion, Fertilizers, Pesticides, Herbicides, and Insecticides

Ideally, you’d consume a diet rich in whole, unprocessed foods packed with natural nutrients and polyphenols. But here’s the catch: even before our food hits the processing stage, a lot of it’s already missing key nutrients, thanks to industrial farming practices.

Harmful farming methods,  such as intensive tillage and the overuse of herbicides and pesticides, destroy the soil microbiome. This is the vital ecosystem that helps plants pull nutrients from the soil. When that’s disrupted, the soil itself gets depleted.

And it’s a domino effect: Plants pull fewer nutrients from the soil, and then animals that eat those plants get fewer nutrients, too. Consider this: between 1940 and 1999, the amount of magnesium in vegetables dropped by 24%, in fruit by 17%, in meat by 15%, and in cheese by 26%.

The Cost of Modern Agriculture on Your Plate

Add to all this the widespread use of synthetic fertilizers, which are designed to boost crop yields by adding nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium to the soil. 

However, this focus on just a few nutrients can lead to an imbalance, causing a decline in other essential minerals like magnesium, zinc, iron, and iodine in the crops. 

As a result, the fruits, veggies, and animal products you’re eating today just don’t have the same nutrient punch they did a few decades ago.

If you’re not eating foods that are grown regeneratively or organically, chances are you’ll need to supplement to fill in the gaps.

Even if you eat a completely perfect and wild diet, modern life throws a wrench in the works. The stress and toxins we’re exposed to daily don’t just wear you down—they deplete your body’s nutrients, raising your nutritional demands and making it even tougher to get everything you need from food alone.

► Reason #3: Heavy Metals 

Heavy metals like lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury, and aluminum (although aluminum is technically a toxin, rather than a heavy metal) have made their way into our food supply, thanks to industrial pollution. Once they’re in your system, they compete with essential minerals for absorption and enzyme binding, effectively pushing out the good stuff your body needs to function properly.

One of the best defenses against heavy metal toxicity? A diet rich in essential minerals.

For example, selenium is a potent detoxifier that can help neutralize some of mercury’s harmful effects. So if you eat a lot of fish, like tuna, a diet rich in selenium can help you counteract some of the mercury intake from the seafood. (However, it’s important to remember that while selenium offers protection, it doesn’t eliminate the risks entirely; you still want to be mindful about your intake and avoid fish with high mercury levels.) 

The Missing Link to Thriving Health

Whole, real food is crucial—no doubt about it. That’s the first place everyone should start. 

But as you’ve learned, modern agricultural practices, long transport times, and depleted soils have stripped away much of the nutrients our food used to have. 

So you have to be very intentional about getting all the vitamins and minerals your body needs. 

If you’re looking for more guidance on how to do that, check out this free article where I share my recommendations for the optimal intake levels of all 30 essential vitamins and minerals: How to Optimize Your Vitamin and Mineral Intake.

And if you’re ready to enhance your nutrition plan with high-quality supplements, visit my store at DrHyman.com.

There you’ll find an expertly curated selection of supplements, hand-picked by me and vetted for safety, purity, and effectiveness. Because I firmly believe: When it comes to your health and well-being, nothing less than the best will do.