Natural Alternatives To Supplements

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Due to modern agricultural practices today’s food not only has a fraction of the nutrient content that it did a few generations ago but it is also not as tasty. So along with many people not getting the micro nutrients their body’s need they are also consuming food with  additives to improve the flavor of the food – refined sugar, artificial flavors, salt, flavor enhancers etc.

This is why taking supplements is a really good idea if you are concerned about your health, or are trying to excel in sports or at the gym. But supplements can be costly and many supplements are made with cheap synthetic ingredients that don’t absorb well, not to mention some supplements contain artificial additives that can actually damage your health!

Furthermore vitamins and minerals work as a team, in order to absorb iron you need vitamin C in order to absorb vitamin C well it needs to be in a complete form (not ascorbic acid) and with the bioflavinoids that normally accompanies vitamin C in vitamin C rich plant sources.

In short vitamins and minerals are absorbed by the body much better when they are consumed via natural plant sources in your food.

Alternatives To Multivitamin Pills

Rather than taking pills try these alternatives.

Fruit and vegetable juices – I mentioned earlier that today’s produce has a fraction of it’s nutritional content than what it did a generation ago, well what if you could consume the vitamin and mineral content of a large amount of vegetables all at once.

You can, purchase a good juicer and you can juice a whole bunch of vegetables and drink it to absorb the nutrients – I normally juice half a head of celery, a head of broccoli, thumb sized piece of ginger or turmeric and half a kilo of carrots. There is no way I could eat (or would want to) that amount of vegetables all in one go, on top of that the vegetables are raw so no nutrients are not destroyed while cooking.

Superfoods – Things like spirulina, chia seeds and chlorella are very nutrient dense and because they are natural your body will absorb them well. I normally like to add some chia seed jelly (made by soaking chia seeds in water for an hour) with spirulina to my green smoothies.

Grow your own food – By using natural fertilizers, crop rotation to avoid pesticides or use natural pesticides and non GMO seeds you can have nutritious and delicious food at your convenience. Also you can eat your vegetables on the day of harvest, the fresher they are the more nutrients they will contain. If you are unable to have your own vegetable garden then consider shopping at a farmers market.

Pre Workouts

Pre workouts are popular among gym enthusiasts, especially weight lifters. They give you extra strength and energy which helps to keep you motivated.

However many pre workouts contain artificial flavors, colors and other ingredients that are detrimental to your health. Also many of them have proprietary blends and they can be expensive.

What does that mean? A proprietary blend is when a supplement has a bunch of ingredients on their label but they do not have to tell you the amount of each ingredient that they use so what normally happens is you get lots of the cheaper less effective ingredients and not much of the expensive and effective ingredients. As a result many pre workouts are mostly caffeine!

Here are some alternatives;

Coffee – Since most pre workouts are just loaded with caffeine any way, you may as well just have a strong coffee to get you energized before the gym.

Guarana – Also very high in caffeine, take some guarana pills or mix guarana powder into fruit juice if you don’t like coffee.

Cacao Powder – This is a strong stimulant and quite nutritious, it gives you more of a gradual ‘high’ compared to caffeine. It does not pick you up then drop you.

Make your own – If you are not interested in the above alternatives then you can make your own pre workout, that way you know exactly what goes into it and you will save a lot of money as well!

Protein Powders

If you consume a typical western diet and your are not a vegan or vegetarian than chances are you are already getting enough or even excess protein in your diet. Many protein powders have nasty additives that are not good for your health.

So post workout you could just consume a healthy meal with lean protein and you should be meeting your body’s requirements. However protein shakes can be quite convenient and they are a good way to add more nutrition to your smoothie.

Here are the protein powders I recommend;

Sprouted brown rice protein – Excellent for vegans and vegetarians, it is easy to find organic varieties of this type of protein powder.

Pea protein – Another healthy alternative for vegans and vegetarians.

Hemp seed powder – Hemp is very rich in essential fatty acids, in fact it has an ideal ratio of omega 3 to omega 6 fatty acids. It is  nutritious high quality and easily digestible protein that is also ideal for vegans and vegetarians.

Healthy whey powders – Look for organic whey protein or at least brands that have few additives and say things like ‘grass fed’ on the packaging. Natural news store has good brands to choose from.

 

Jackson
Enthusiastic about living a healthy lifestyle and keen to share with others what I know.
Feel free to check out my blog; http://www.howtolivehealthy.org/