Plog Number 194
Fruits and Veggies in a Capsule
Hello Ploggers, how are you. I think I had mentioned that I am now a FNIP a Functional Nutrition Informed Professional. I took 19 hours of continuing education to keep my medical license going. This one was one of the most thorough and useful ones I have ever👏 taken. I have always felt that🍉 food is💊 medicine. I live it in real life and I preach it to my patients. For me it is a way of life.
I have heard my fair share of diet fads and supplements. Somebody comes up with them on a frequent basis. I have a problem with these supplements for Fruits and Veggies. The commercials always show all these healthy 🌽veggies and stress how people don’t get enough of them on a daily basis. That part is absolutely true. We do not get enough fruit and veggies in our SAD American diet. SAD stands for Standard American Diet. The diet is low in fiber, high amounts of processed foods, refined🍰 carbohydrates and added sugars, refined fats, high fat🍦 dairy products and red🍔meats. That sounds about right, doesn’t it? We need to do better.
We can and should eat better but I am not sure about the way to do that. I have my doubts about the use of supplements in order to improve things. I frequently see a commercial where they grind up fresh broccoli and other healthy foods and pour them into capsules that equal the fiber of a serving of broccoli. The veggie pills are green and the fruit ones are red. Even fiber pills are available in brown. What they don’t tell you is that the pills have fillers and additives and are not regulated by anybody including the FDA. The sheer volume of fiber needs cant possibly fit into a capsule. So the promises made in the commercial are in no way guaranteed. Having a quick easy alternative to eating healthy is a nice thought but mostly a fallacy. I believe that there is no substitute for healthy eating. My patients were all excited about taking the beet extract or the 🍒 cherry extract. Why not eat beets or 🍒cherries? They are readily available and delicious. The health and wellness business is full of scams and quick fixes. Doing what our Moms told us to do is the best way to live a healthy life. Eat your veggies and An🍏 Apple a Day…” are more than just platitudes. They are words to live by.
Many of us live in a food dessert. The only places to get food is either corner stores or Save a Lots. Fresh produce is a blessing that eludes many Americans. People often prefer convenience meals over preparing fresh foods. I advocate for a mix of both methods. Most of us are very busy. Get your meals however you can. But you must do some kitchen time. No one escapes washing, shopping, sauteeing 🔪and whipping up a balanced🍴 meal. This is especially true if you are lucky enough to have children. They will pattern themselves after you, whether they admit it now or not. RECLAIM!
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